Wild Card (North Ridge #1)

“And that’s my choice. Because there’s nothing to worry about.”

His brow furrows and that intense Nelson look comes through. “You have stage one lung cancer. It’s not nothing. You have to go in for surgery to have part of your lung removed and that’s if you’re lucky.”

“I’m fine.” She’s practically grinding her teeth.

“Vernalee.”

“Henry,” she challenges, calling him by his full name.

“No fighting at the dinner table. That’s always been the rule, and since Jeanine isn’t here to enforce it, I am,” Dick says from the kitchen, plopping ice cubes in our drinks.

“Where is Jeanine anyway?” I ask.

“Still at the house on Maple Street,” Hank says. “Del lives with her now. She was living with an ex, engaged and all that, but they broke up so she’s back home with her ma. Jeanine’s arthritis is pretty bad so Del helps a lot. And she’s still running the Bear Trap. Actually, she owns it now.”

While I’m here I should probably go to the bar and say hello. Del’s always been one of my favorite people here. I’m just a bit scared of running into the whole town while I’m there. From the day I turned nineteen, the legal drinking age, I practically lived there.

Dick walks past me, handing me my drink before gesturing to the table. “Sit down, Rachel, make yourself at home. After all, this will be your home for a little bit. Or at least Vernalee’s.”

Normally I wouldn’t think much of that since I’ve heard North Ridge will always be my home, but there’s something about the room and how the air in it changes that makes my skin prickle.

“What do you mean?” I ask carefully.

Dick sits down and then looks at me in surprise, as if he’s not quite sure he said something. “What?”

“What you just said…about it being my mother’s home…”

Dick chews on his lip for a moment, his eyes going blank, but Hank and my mother, well they could be sending telepathic telegrams for all I know.

“Rachel, honey, sit down,” my mother says, patting the seat next to her. She doesn’t normally call me honey, so I know something is wrong.

I feel like standing right where I am, staring down at them, but honestly, I’m tired. I take a seat and prepare myself for the next crazy awful thing in my day.

But she doesn’t say anything. Her eyes fill with shame, deeper than I’ve ever seen on her, almost as deep as the day I left, and she looks away.

Hank sighs as he watches her. There’s such an alarming tenderness in his gaze that something in me warms. His eyes aren’t golden, like his son’s, but there is so much of him in Shane. The kind of sincerity that you can’t fake.

He looks at me. “Your mother is in a tough situation. She’s going to move out of her apartment in a few days and move in here. With our last worker gone, the worker’s cottage is completely empty right now.”

I look at everyone. “I don’t understand. What tough situation?”

My first thought, the one that grips my heart, is that my father is out of jail somehow and she’s here in hiding.

“She hasn’t worked for a year,” Hank says. “She lost her job at the library.”

“And who else would hire me?” She lifts up her hands as if in offering.

“Plenty would have loved to help you out, Vernalee,” he scolds her. “But you were too damn stubborn.”

“No need for fighting,” Dick says calmly as he sips his whisky.

“Anyway,” Hank continues, “it’s too late now. You have to concentrate on getting healthy, getting better. You’ve been treating yourself like garbage and you know it. Drinking, smoking, barely eating. Some days I came by and you wouldn’t even get out of bed.”

God. With every word Hank speaks, my heart sinks lower and lower. I know we’re not close, but I still should have been there for her. Our phone calls had been so brief, so shallow.

“Henry, please,” she says softly, folding her frail hands in front of her, the age spots starting to leap off her skin. She looks so ashamed.

I don’t know what it is about being a daughter, but I find it nearly impossible to shut my heart off from her. It doesn’t matter that years ago, when I needed her most, when I trusted her with my deepest, most shameful secrets, she turned her back on me. Didn’t believe me. It doesn’t matter that she left me feeling like I had no one else in the world, no one but Shane. Because seeing her in pain, seeing how alone she is, how bad she’s actually gotten…it’s breaking me inside. A daughter can’t just shut out her mother’s pain like a switch, even if she wishes she could.

“Your daughter needs the truth and you know it. She’s always deserved better. Rachel was the one who always had to suffer,” he says.

I look at him sharply, and when he nods, I know he knows far more than I ever wanted him to.

“It’s just temporary,” my mother finally says in a small voice. She looks at me. “It’s for the best. I’m being evicted, Rachel.”

“What?”

“I tried to hide it from you for as long as I could, but…”

“Evicted?” I put my hands out, nearly knocking over the whisky glass. “Mom. Come on. This is an easy problem to fix. I have money.”

“No, Rachel—”

“I have a good job!”

“You just bought yourself a condo that costs far more than even your good job can afford.”

How does she know that? “That’s the price of real estate in Toronto. I can manage my mortgage, no problem.”

“But are you saving?” Hank asks. I jerk my chin back, wondering why it’s his business. He goes on with a shrug, “If you’re not saving, you’re not doing well. And you definitely can’t afford to pay for your mother’s rent. Not when I have a perfectly nice house for her here. You remember the worker’s cottage, don’t you? Three bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen. It’s not new and can use some repairs but it’s got everything she needs and everything you need while you stay here.”

“I’m not staying here.”

“Rachel,” my mother warns. “You really want to stay in a hotel?”

“Why on God’s green earth would this Raven girl stay in a hotel?” Dick says as he shakes his head. “We’re like her second family. You’re staying here, sweetheart.”

I don’t have the heart to tell Dick that there’s nothing wrong with this wonderful place, just one of the men who inhabits it.

“I’m sorry,” my mother says. “I was going to tell you…”

“When? When someone showed up at your door and physically kicked you out?” I’m trying hard not to be angry because I know how stubborn she can be, but God.

“Our plan was to tell you tonight,” Hank says. “I just wanted you to know your mother is in good hands. In fact, things couldn’t be better. When you go back to Toronto, we’ll be taking care of her.”

“Oh, come on,” she says, taking a sip of wine. “You know I can take care of myself.”

But taking care of yourself apparently means not eating or working. Just drinking and smoking until you die, I think to myself. I know before my father went to jail that he at least had the foresight to have money in a savings account, but there’s no way it would have been enough to keep her afloat for more than a year.