Page 5 of Promise You Forever
Maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part. But the fact remains, the Eli I fell in love with wouldn’t up and leave in the wake of bad news without telling the person she’s supposed to care about the most.
It takes all my willpower to not pepper her with questions. I had the advantage of paying her living expenses under the guise of a scholarship, but she’s been out of school for a year. Once that scholarship money dried up, so did my lifeline to her. I’ll tell her eventually; I’ll come clean to everything, but for now she just needs support.
I know that she and Jo were close. I also know that Jo was keeping a big secret from Eli. She thought she had time to tell her.
My chest clenches as the image of Jo’s prone body flashes into my mind. The way her eyes were just open and vacant, looking up at the gray September sky. She’d only been gone a little while when I found her body.
I dropped down beside her and held her hand until first responders showed up. Janey rushed over from the clinic and arrived as soon as they were putting the gurney with her body into the ambulance. She ran straight to me, her finger on my therapist’s contact in case I needed an emergency appointment. The fact of the matter is that I don’t have time to break down. Now, more than ever, I have to pick up all the slack around the ranch.
Paul was having a good morning up until then. He’d been lucid and upbeat, but understandably he spiraled after seeing his wife of over fifty years driven away in a body bag. His nurse gave him some medication to sedate him. He was still sleeping when I left to come get Eli.
Now I have to figure out how to tell Eli that not only has her grandmother passed away, but her grandfather has dementia. This conversation has to happen sooner rather than later, too. I don’t want her to be blindsided by him having an episode.
“Eli?” I say her name quietly in case she’s fallen asleep.
Her wary eyes meet mine in the mirror. “Yes?”
“I need to talk to you about Paul.”
In the space of seconds, she goes from uncertainty to rapt attention. “I’m listening.”
“Did Jo say anything about what’s been going on with him?”
“No, but Janey mentioned something about him earlier, when she called to tell me about Grams.”
Fuck.
The last thing I want to do is hit her with the severity of his condition within twelve hours of losing her grandma. Especially when she finds out that I moved into the main house about a year ago to help with him at night. I know her parents are aware of everything and had hoped they would have at least hinted at everything to her.
“Just tell me, Luke.” Her fingertips graze my arm as she pulls herself forward.
“Do you remember Paul forgetting things that summer you were out here? Forgetting meetings and getting confused about things around the ranch?”
She’s quiet while she thinks back, searching her memory. Amber looks between us with a furrowed brow.
“I guess.” She tightens her grip on the back of my seat, and her scent surrounds me. Strawberry and rose. “I remember him getting confused about the dates for a cattle sale, right?”
“Yeah.” My knuckles turn white as I work up the nerve to tell her.
“You’re freaking me out.” Her breath ghosts across the exposed skin of my neck.
“Agreed. Just spit it out,” Amber reaches out and pulls Eli’s hand off the seat, clutching it to lend support.
“He has dementia.”
She immediately falls back into the relative darkness of the backseat before I can read her expression in the reflection. A broken sob tears from her chest. Amber releases her seatbelt and crawls into the back with her.
I try not to focus on the words that Amber says to soothe her, so they have some semblance of privacy. It doesn’t work. I feel every broken-hearted sob like a blade to my chest. Charlie whimpers at Eli’s distress.
“How bad is it?” she asks once she gains control of the tears.
“Some days are alright, but many are hard. He has a full-time day nurse, and I’ve moved into the main house to help at night.”
“Why didn’t Grams tell me?”
“I don’t know.” My eyes meet hers again, and I hope she can see how sorry I am. I wish I could give her a definitive answer for why they didn’t tell her. My best guess is that Jo didn’t want her to worry, or she wasn’t ready to face the reality herself. We didn’treally discuss anything about Eli, aside from a casual question if I walked into the room when they were on the phone.
“Who is with him now since you’re here?”