“At least she sounds cheerful. What about your sister?”
Page could only laugh. “She's very special. They both are. I didn't see them at all for the first few years after I came out here, and then my father died, and I felt sorry for my mother, so I invited her out. That was a mistake. She and Brad fought like cats and dogs every day, subtly of course, it's all very passive aggressive, but it gives me a stomachache to be around it. And of course she thought I had no idea how to bring up Allie.”
“At least she can't complain about that now,” he said encouragingly.
“No, but she won't approve of the doctor. David, my brother-in-law, will probably have heard that he's a quack and about to be sued for malpractice. The hospital will be all wrong. Not to mention the really important stuff, like how bad the hairdresser is at I. Magnin.”
“They can't be that bad.”
“They're worse.” But behind the humor he sensed that there was more. Page was too grown up, and too at ease with herself to dislike them as much as she did, if there weren't more to it. But it was also obvious that she didn't want to share it with him, and he didn't press her. She was entitled to her secrets.
He went back to Chloe eventually, and she to Allyson, and Page finally came to Chloe's room at five o'clock, and sat down and chatted with her. Chloe was still in a fair amount of pain, and her extensive casts and pins and contraptions looked pretty miserable, but she was handling it well, and she was happy to be alive. She was very worried about Allie. Trygve had told her pretty honestly that she still might die. She wasn't out of the woods yet. Jamie was there that afternoon too, and asked for news of Allyson as soon as he saw her mother.
“How is she?” Chloe asked the moment Page came into the room.
“The same. How about you? Driving the nurses wild, flirting with the residents, ordering pizzas all night long? The usual stuff?” Page grinned and Chloe laughed at the description.
“That and more,” Trygve teased, and Chloe laughed. She was a real teenager and it did their hearts good to see it.
“Good.” Page only wished that Allyson were doing the same things. But surely so did the Chapmans about Phillip. She could only imagine how they must feel only two weeks after the accident, and her heart ached whenever she thought of them. However awful things were with Allyson, there was still hope. But there was no hope for the Chapmans.
Jamie said that he had seen them a few days before and Mrs. Chapman was still in pretty bad shape. Mr. Chapman had told him he was suing the paper for the article that seemed to blame Phillip. Jamie mentioned too that a reporter had come to see him again, to ask him what it was like to be the only one who'd escaped unscathed. But for the most part, the press interest finally seemed to have faded.
They left Chloe at six o'clock, when the pizza Trygve had ordered for her arrived. Jamie stayed to share it with her, and Trygve drove Page back to his place.
“Do you want to stay for dinner?” he asked hopefully.
“I'd love to, but I should probably go home in case Brad shows up. He probably won't, but if he does, Andy will be upset to miss him.” Trygve didn't press, and despite Andy and Bjorn's protests, Page took Andy home, but Brad never came home until the next morning. And then, in spite of all Page's promises to herself, there was the usual explosion.
“What was all that bullshit the other night about wanting to stay here, and not being sure of what you wanted? Who are you kidding with that shit?” She was livid. She was tired of living like this, while he pursued his own life with another woman.
“I'm sorry. I should have called. I don't know what happened … I just didn't.” He did know what had happened, of course, but he couldn't tell Page. He had gone away overnight with Stephanie and there was no way he could call her from their hotel room. Stephanie hadn't left him for a single minute, and she had been furious on Sunday morning when he had insisted on driving back. But not as furious as Page had been when he walked in at noon, having never called her. She and Andy had been just about to leave for the airport. “Look, I'm sorry,” he said helplessly, feeling like a moron. He was ricocheting between two worlds and two women, and not handling either very well.
“Why don't you just ask me if Allie is still alive,” Page said cruelly. It wasn't like her to be so unkind, but she had really had it with him.
“Oh my God … is she? … oh Page …” His eyes filled instantly with tears as Page watched him coldly.
“No, she didn't die. But she could have, and where would I have called you, Brad? As usual, you never even called us.”