One More Dance Roxanne Rustand (best non fiction books of all time TXT) 📖

hardwood floors, her wide-stanced gait sending them both into laughter.

“She is the light of my life,” Kate murmured as she and Jared stood. “Maybe that pregnancy was a surprise, but I wouldn’t give up one moment with her for all the gold in Fort Knox.”

They fell silent for a moment, as they always did at moments like this, and she wondered what he was thinking. If he had regrets. If he longed for the freedom most of his law school buddies still enjoyed...without all the emotional baggage she and Jared still carried.

Collin’s death had changed her forever, leaving her a far different person than the one he’d married in such a white-hot fever less than two years ago. Did he regret that now?

Jared wrapped his arms around her and pulled her backward against his chest to nuzzle her neck. “We’re going to make it, you and me.”

She closed her eyes and savored his warmth, the beloved feeling of his strong arms around her. “I hope so.”

“That book we read said that losing a child is like the worst kind of ‘trial by fire’—that it can end a marriage. I think it made us stronger.” He kissed her cheek. “If we’ve gotten through this year, we can get through anything.”

A brief image of his mother flashed through her thoughts. The subtle implication of blame Sylvia had laid at Kate’s feet on that first day in the hospital. Her cool distance at the tiny, private funeral, when Kate had needed solace more than any time in her entire life.

“Even my mother,” he whispered, as if reading her thoughts, and she could feel him smile.

“Even her.” She turned in his arms and lifted her chin to accept his kiss. “I want to end up in rocking chairs together at some nursing home when we’re over a hundred. I love you, Jared, and I always will.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

PRESENT DAY

When Kate reached the hospital, she hurried to the emergency department doors, nodded at the nurses standing inside, and headed straight for the elevators.

She’d been silently praying the entire trip back into town, steeling herself for what might lie ahead. Poor Casey, there all alone...

And Jared—what about Jared? Why had she listened to the nurses who had encouraged her to leave for a while?

Upstairs, she strode straight to the ICU but stopped there, her hands braced on the door.

Through the windows, she could see the area was quiet. Several nurses were charting on the computers at the desk. Did that mean...

“Mom!” Casey came out of the waiting room to the left and launched herself into Kate’s arms. “Where have you been?”

“I’ve been here since your dad was admitted. I only ran home and out to the clinic because the nurses said he was stable. Your dad...is he...”

Casey pulled Kate over to a chair and sat down, and Kate followed suit. “The nurses came out just a few minutes ago and said he’d stabilized, but we can’t go in for another hour. He was in res...” She thought for a second. “Respiratory distress. Something to do with his medications and a coma.”

Kate breathed a deep sigh and felt her tense muscles go weak with relief. “Thank goodness he’s doing better.”

“But if he’s in a coma, will he wake up?” Casey’s voice lifted in alarm. “Will he be okay?”

Kate gently took Casey’s cold, shaking hands within her own. “He has a number of injuries. The most troubling right now is some swelling of his brain. That’s why they dropped him into a coma with barbiturates—to help reduce the pressure. It won’t be for long.”

“I—I feel so bad.” Casey swallowed hard, her head bowed. Strands of long blond hair had escaped her ponytail and trailed over their joined hands like molten gold. “I should’ve been here. M-maybe I never should’ve moved away.”

“Oh, sweetheart. Of course you should have—this is the time to spread your wings. You wanted so badly to go to school in Fort Collins, right?”

When she didn’t answer, Kate freed a hand and reached over to gently cup her cheek. “I miss you terribly, of course. And so does your dad. But it wouldn’t be right to hold you back.”

Casey’s head dropped lower. “Y-you didn’t go so far away.”

“Are you homesick? Has it been difficult for you?” That last phone call played through Kate’s memory. The tension in Casey’s voice. The hesitance. “If there’s anything at all that you need to talk about, this is a perfect time. We only want you to be happy.”

“I—” The elevator dinged softly, and Casey fell silent as footsteps came slowly down the hall.

Kate looked around, realizing now that the old man was gone. Her heart caught. Had his wife died? Or had she been moved to the cardiac floor instead? Or perhaps he’d just taken a short break, as well.

But it wasn’t his deeply lined face that appeared at the door. It was Sylvia, looking ashen and weak. She was accompanied by a nurse, who had her elbow crooked firmly under Sylvia’s arm to steady her.

The nurse frowned at Kate and shook her head. “Mrs. Mathers has been discharged, against medical advice, and she refused a wheelchair to come up here. We tried, believe me. But—”

“I am perfectly fine. I’m going to sit right here, and I’ll be far better off than I was downstairs on that blasted gurney.” Sylvia’s eyes flashed fire as she disengaged her arm and eased into a waiting room chair. “So just let me be.”

The nurse gave Kate a helpless look. “We wanted to keep her a while longer, or at least arrange for transport home so she could rest. But she said she’s staying at a hotel and refused to go there. Said she has to be up here for her son.”

“I’ll keep an eye on her. If we need any assistance, I’ll call downstairs.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Sylvia snapped. “If I get tired, I can nap here, or I can take my own car.”

Kate met the nurse’s eyes and gave a slight shrug. “We’ll