Page 52 of Dear Henry, Love Edith
Henry sputtered on his coffee. “I’m sorry, what now?”
“They took him off the ventilator earlier in the day. Then I guess when Steve finally cleared up from all the pain medicine and sedation he’d been on and discovered his mom knew he was here in the hospital, he panicked and tried signing himself out against medical advice.”
“Why would he panic?”
“Because apparently our boy Steve has a gambling addiction, and he recently sold a family heirloom to help dig himself out of a hole, thinking nobody would notice. Well, guess what, his mother noticed. And she’s been trying to track him down ever since. Which is why he tracked me down.”
Henry shook his head. “Because you have the heirloom?”
Now it was Edith’s turn to sputter on her coffee. “No. Goodness, no. What would I want with a three-pound necklace inspired by the Atlantic puffin? Besides, I don’t need a family heirloom. Before Brian died, he made sure I would be taken care of financially after he was gone. Which apparently Steve knew. Turns out, that’s all he’s ever been after. My money.”
“He certainly had a funny way of going about it if that’s all he was after.”
“Steve has a funny way of going about a lot of things. Which is probably why he thought tying a bunch of bedsheets together and wrapping them around the toilet so he could climb out the window was a great escape plan when they refused to let him leave against medical advice without a ride.”
“Please tell me you’re joking.”
“Believe me, after receiving phone calls all night from three nurses, two doctors, and one very irate engineer who informed me he was going to have to recaulk the toilet and spend the best years of his life sealing every window shut in the hospital now, I wish I was joking.”
“Why did they call you?”
“Because they couldn’t get ahold of his mother, and they still had my number listed as one of his emergency contacts. And I guess trying to climb out of a second-story window counts as an emergency in some hospitals. Go figure.”
“So you drove to the hospital?”
“I did. I didn’t know what I was going to do with him once I got there but turns out I didn’t have to do anything. They hadn’t been able to reach his mom because she was already on her way from Pittsburgh. She showed up approximately ten minutes before I did, read him the riot act, then dragged Steve out of the hospital by his ear. Literally. In fact several nurses made a point of letting me know his mother hadliterallydragged him out of the hospital by his ear. They seemed to take great pleasure in that.”
“Kind of wish I’d seen it myself.”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure Peter, the engineer, won’t mind reenacting it again. He actually plays the role of my former mother-in-law remarkably well.”
“Wow. You had quite the night. All I did was sleep.” Henry nudged the sack of scones across the table. “But hey, no matter how it happened, Steve’s out of the picture. That deserves an extra scone for celebration, don’t you think?”
She broke off another chunk of scone, adding it to the pile of crumbs she hadn’t eaten from her first scone. “Exactly. Steve’s out of the picture.”
But she didn’t look ready to celebrate. If anything, she looked ready to cry. Why...?Wait.Henry sank back in his seat. With Steve out of the picture, what excuse did she have to stay with him? None. Not with Steve gone and Kat’s house fixed.
Now Henry wanted to cry.
He stared at his coffee, searching for something to say. Something that wouldn’t reveal his rising panic. The sort of panic that made tying bedsheets around a toilet and climbing out of a second-story window sound reasonable. “Are you sure Steve’s gone?”
“I’m sure,” Edith said in a quiet but brisk tone that warned him not to press. She ran her thumb along the edge of her coffee cup. “His mom called and left me a message. He won’t be a problem anymore. At least not for me. I have a feeling Steve’s always going to be a problem for someone.” Her lips lifted in a half smile.
Henry’s lips couldn’t even manage a quarter of the distance. “Well, no one says you need to leave right away. Youlook exhausted. Why don’t you get some sleep? We can talk about, you know, other stuff later. Much later. Just don’t—” He clamped his mouth shut before he saidgo. What was his problem? Kat’s house was only three blocks over. It wasn’t like Edith was moving to the other side of the country.
No, that wasn’t coming until the end of summer. When she moved to the other side of the world.
It was all Henry could do to squeeze air past his throat, especially when she said, “It won’t take me long to pack. I might as well head over to Kat’s soon as I finish. No point in staying here any longer.”
“What about—?” Henry ran a palm over his mouth. “Dinner?” Surely that sounded less desperate thanus. “There’s no reason we can’t still eat dinner. Together. Tonight.” And the rest of the summer, maybe their lives.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Edith said.
“Why not? We both need to eat.”
“I’m not talking about dinner.” Edith set her coffee on the island, finally meeting his gaze. “Steve’s gone. There’s no need to keep pretending, so let’s just stop pretending.Henry.”
He inhaled a slow breath. She knew. Of course she knew. She wasn’t an idiot. He was the idiot. He blew out his breath. “Look, I know it was stupid. Me, pretending to be myself. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
