Matthew's Choice. Patricia Bradley
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tell him that. You don’t know for sure. Allie bit the words back. The nurse meant well, but what if Mariah didn’t make it?
Back in the waiting area, Allie called Sarah and gave her an update on Mariah. “The regular visiting time is at three. I’ll bring him back to the shelter after that, unless something comes up. If it does, I’ll call you.”
Noah glanced up at her after she’d disconnected. “Do I have to go back?”
“You don’t like it there?”
He shrugged. “Miss Sarah’s nice. And Logan’s okay. Lucas is a pain....”
“But?”
He shrank back into the chair and lifted his thin shoulder in a timid gesture. “Have you ever stayed in a place like the shelter before?”
Noah glanced toward the exit sign. She cupped his chin and turned his face back to her. “Where was it, Noah?”
He licked his lips. “In another state. Before we came to Cedar Grove. Mom was...sick, and this woman came and took me to this house.”
“What happened?” She forced out the question, not sure she wanted to hear the answer.
“I ran away.”
* * *
AFTER THE DOOR closed behind Allie, Matt pressed his fingers against his eyelids, then slid his hands to the side of his head and massaged his temples. If New Year’s Day was any indication of how the rest of his year would be...he didn’t want to go there.
“Matthew...” Jessica stood at the sliding door with her back to him. She turned to face him. “I think we need to talk.”
He rose and went to her, taking her hands. “You’re right.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about your sister? I mean, I realize you may not be all that proud, her being on drugs and all, but you could’ve told me. Did you think it would change the way I feel about you?”
He wanted to say he didn’t know why he never mentioned Mariah to Jessica, but he did know. Just like he knew why he never mentioned anything else about his past, and it had nothing to do with Jessica. “I know you better than that. It’s like I said before. Mariah and I have grown so far apart, it’s almost like she wasn’t there. I didn’t even know about the kid.” He rubbed the locked muscles in the back of his neck.
“But family is important. I think you should go.”
Matt stiffened. Jessica didn’t have a clue what she was asking him to do. He wasn’t ready to go back to Cedar Grove, where everyone remembered him as the kid from Beaker Street. The kid who had said he’d own his own company by the time he turned thirty. Well, he was thirty and still working for someone else. It didn’t matter that he pulled in six figures a year—he wasn’t his own boss, and that’s what everyone would remember.
His cell phone rang, and he glanced at the caller ID.
“It’s Clint.” Allie was calling in the big guns. “I’m not going,” he said when he answered.
“Did you know her heart stopped? And she’s in a coma.”
Clint’s blunt words startled Matt. He sank onto the couch. “I...had no idea. How about the boy? Has he been found?”
“Yes, he was at the hospital. Do you want me to go with you? You know, so you won’t have to face this by yourself.”
Or to make sure Matt went. “No. You have responsibilities here.”
“You’re going then?”
Matt sucked in a breath of air through his nose and exhaled. A memory of Mariah standing between him and their drunken father surfaced. Mariah taking the beating. He closed his eyes. “Yes, I’m going.”
“I’ll text you Allie’s number so you can let her know,” Clint said.
“Is she worse?” Jessica asked after he hung up.
“She’s in a coma.”
Jessica crossed the room and sat beside him, squeezing his hand. “I’m going with you.”
“No!”
Jessica flinched.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bite your head off, but I don’t know how long I’ll be there.” No way was Jessica going to Cedar Grove. He could just see her in his mother’s tiny frame house. No amount of paint or chrome and fancy furniture would transform it into something other than the four-room, white-clapboard dump that it was. And even though it wouldn’t matter one way or the other to Jessica, he wasn’t quite ready to show her how he’d grown up. “Not this time. There’s the boy to consider, and I don’t even know if Mariah will make it.”
“Oh, Matthew.” She put her arms around him. “That’s all the more reason for me to go.”
He stilled. Jessica could be quite stubborn when she wanted to be. “Maybe next time.”
“But—”
A plaintive meow interrupted her. Matt had forgotten the kitten.
Jessica glanced toward his bedroom. “Where did you get that kitten? And what are you going to do with it?”
Good question. Jessica certainly couldn’t take it, because of her allergies, not even for the two days until the animal shelter opened. “Maybe Clint will take it.”
She tilted her head to the side. “Tell me about you and Allie. You two seem very close.”
“We grew up together, went to the same college.” His hometown wasn’t the only thing Matt wasn’t ready to tell Jessica about. “Sweetheart, I have a lot to do, and I need you to leave so I can do it. I’ll call you tonight after I see Mariah.”
She patted his cheek. “I could help you. You know, clear the table, put the dishes in the dishwasher...”
“Thanks, but you would be a distraction.”
“You mean, like this?” Jessica slipped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his.
He leaned into the kiss...until the kitten intruded again with another insistent meow. He eased his lips away from hers and he turned her to face the door. “Yes, like that.”
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