Page 19 of Fragile Love (Fragile 3)
. It took a minute for Cayden to instruct them where to move so the photo would come out better than a simple hospital snapshot; he could see that Andrew’s parents were impressed with his photo skills. I guess being around Katharina has taught me a few things, after all. He smiled to himself as he counted down from three, taking a couple of photos.
“Hey, Lillian,” Andrew said, looking at her with a sudden beaming grin on his face, “remember how you and Amelia and I used to do that stupid pose?”
Lillian’s eyes lit up. “Oh, my gosh. I totally forgot about that. Cayden, take another one!”
“What pose?” Frances asked.
“Just some stupid thing we used to do,” Andrew answered.
“Can we stay in the photo?”
“Yeah, you and Dad stay in! Just do something dumb.”
Cayden counted down, and at the last second Andrew and Lillian burst into ridiculous faces that were so contorted they barely looked like themselves. The photo made them look even worse, and even though Cayden didn’t understand it he knew it meant a lot to Lillian. She and Andrew were bringing up inside jokes to each other, and his parents clearly didn’t understand any of it. Tanner shrugged at Cayden, who handed the phone back to Frances.
“I’m guessing you’re the adult in some situations,” she joked, and scrolled through the photos he had taken. “Oh, they look so terrible in these!”
“They’re having fun, Frances,” droned Tanner.
“The good ones are here.” Cayden pressed a thumbnail on her camera roll, which was full of accidental pocket photos.
“These are much better. I think I’ll get this one developed.”
“Get them both developed,” Tanner said. “Make sure everyone looks good and not just you.”
Frances stuck her tongue out at her husband and turned to Cayden. “Thank you. It’s the first family shot we’ve had in...” She paused to think, but the pain on her mind was apparent. “Well, it’s been a long time.”
“No problem. I’m glad I was able to be here with all of you.”
“We’ll see you when we come back from Europe, right?”
He nodded. “Of course.”
Tanner took a step forward and shook Cayden’s hand. “Thank you for helping take care of our boy.”
“I’m glad to be able to help.” He flashed his best smile and didn’t think about Andrew staying with Lillian for such a long time.
A couple of nurses walked in with a wheelchair. As they started to brief Lillian on some appointments they had made, Cayden went out to the car and pulled it to the front of the hospital. As it turned out, Cayden had been correct in his strategy of getting Andrew situated in the car with no problem; once he was in, Cayden looked at Lillian, whose face held a tint of red. He winked, and Lillian had to turn away to hide her blush.
They all said their last goodbyes. Andrew’s parents stood on the curb and waved as Cayden drove away. Lillian immediately began going through Andrew’s list of appointments and materials the doctor had given her. For the next half hour Cayden zoned out, focusing on the road. There was a little period of silence until Lillian turned the radio, elated to find an ‘80s rock station.
He glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Andrew slumped against the side of the car, a pleased smile on his tired face as he watched Lillian put on a show to the music. Cayden had seen her happy before, but never like this. The stressed-out Lil he was all too familiar with seemed to be completely missing, replaced by this happy-go-lucky, youthful spirit.
You made the right decision, he told himself, cranking up the volume, and knew he meant it as much about being with Lillian as he did about accepting her request to help with Andrew’s recovery.
Cayden pulled the car into Lillian’s driveway and helped Andrew get out. Using his crutches took a bit of practice, but he made his way into the house smoothly. As soon as the door opened Lillian’s cats swarmed them, and she had to pick them up to get them away from Andrew’s crutches.
“I guess they missed you,” Andrew noted as he focused his eyes on the floor, making sure each step was solid.
“It appears so,” she replied, rubbing her face against the attention-starved cats. “You were taken good care of by your cat babysitter, weren’t you? Weren’t you?”
Cayden stepped around Lillian to get to Andrew. “We’ll let her have her moment with her babies,” he said. “Let’s get you settled in the other room.”
“Well,” Andrew said as they walked slowly down the hallway, “normally when I visit a place, I’m pretty confident that I won’t be high maintenance. This is going to take some getting used to.”
For both of us, Cayden thought. “Don’t worry about it. Between Lil and me, you’ll be up and running in no time. No pun intended.”
Andrew fist-bumped Cayden and gently set himself on the bed. “As long as there are no tripping hazards, I think everything will be okay. And the shower is a walk-in, so that’s good.”
