Page 12 of A Doctor for Daisy

“Thank you. I owe you. I’m sorry I’m putting this on you.”

“You’re not,” she said. “I know you. You’re not going to let me do much more than pick out your clothes right now.”

Heather laughed. “That and making sure I don’t take too many pain pills.”

“I’ve got a whiteboard set up for you to keep track.”

“God, you’re going to make someone a special significant other someday. And a great mom.”

“Thank you,” she said softly. Not that she had any plans of being a mom soon, but it’d be nice to have a significant other. “But I’ll just be happy to get a good date or two at some point. Like you, I’m in a dry spell.”

She moved around the room and gathered Heather’s gray cotton shorts in her hand, a navy T-shirt and a change of undergarments for her too.

“I feel like an old person with that chair in there,” Heather said, moving to the doorway of the bathroom and seeing the senior chair in the shower.

“Look,” she said, pointing. “It has holes in the bottom so the water drains out and you aren’t sitting in the soap and water that cleaned your whooha out.”

Heather giggled. “Only you would say that.”

She reached in and turned the water on. “Do you want me to stay in your bedroom in case you need help or call your mom in?”

“I think I’ll be fine. I’m going to sit on the lid of the toilet to get undressed and then I can get into the shower from there by holding onto the wall and hopping. I mean if you are in here I’m going to hop anyway.”

“True. I’m probably stronger than your mother and I won’t look at your privates and judge you either.”

Heather laughed again. Louder this time. “God. I needed this. My mother is liable to comment on my bare-down-there look and wonder why it is.”

One of those girl talks they’d had one night when they’d had a couple of glasses of wine.

“Let me get you a towel within reach. You can put it on the toilet lid too when you get out.” Her clothes were on the counter that Heather could reach too. “I’m going to go into the kitchen and start cooking.”

“I’d ask you to keep my mother out, but I’m sure that isn’t going to happen and I shouldn’t put it on you. Not when you are feeding my family and all.”

“I’ll try if I can,” she said.

“I should go check on Heather,” Jill said five minutes later.

Daisy was in the kitchen with potatoes and pasta in boiling water in separate pots. She’d had a lot of the prep work done for the two salads before everyone arrived.

“She’ll be fine,” she said. “Remember, she’s moving slower, but she’ll call out if she needs help. You know that.”

“I’m not so sure,” Jill said. “Heather never asks for help.”

“Because she’s good on her own,” Noah, one of Heather’s brothers said.

“Yeah,” Gavin said, the other brother. “Mom, you’re only going to piss Heather off and she needs rest. Daisy has this covered, right?”

She was thankful that Heather’s brothers were in their sister’s corner and trying to help out.

Right now the brothers were in the living room eating some fruit, cheese and meats she’d put out.

It’s not like she entertained much and she shouldn’t think of this as the same, but she wanted to prove to Heather’s parents that she was on top of things so that her best friend could stay in the comfort of her own home.

“I have it covered,” she told everyone in the room. “I really do. Heather is like my sister. I’d never let anything happen to her.” She knew she shouldn’t add this part, but maybe it’d help. “If you think Heather isn’t being honest with you about how she is feeling, please, text or call me. I’ll tell you the truth.”

Which she wouldn’t if it went against Heather, but she was pulling out all the stops right now and if that meant a little fib, then oh, well.

“I appreciate that,” Jill said.

---