Girl in the Shadows (Shadows 2)

"Mrs. Westington, are you going to do everything you can to keep yourself sick and in this place? I need you to get well and get home. Echo needs you. Even Trevor needs you. Why can't you just be a cooperative patient for just a short while, long enough for the doctor to get you stabilized and on your way home? What sort of an example are you setting for Echo? You'll only make all this harder on everyone." I lectured,

I held my breath. Was she going to fly off the bed at me, tell me to mind my own business, tell me to get out of her house? She nodded slowly and leaned back on her pillow.

"Well, now. I see you're no longer the little girl full of self-pity who first arrived on my doorstep. Where did you get all this?"

"I got it from you," I said. "So don't make it a wasted gift."

She laughed. "So you're telling me you and Trevor have things under control?"

"We do." I said firmly. "Echo's fine, too."

"I see. Where is that daughter of mine? I half expected her to be standing here at the bedside with a pen and paper for me to write out my last will and testament when I opened my eyes this morning,"

"Give her time," I said, and she laughed again.

"I'm afraid she's going to be in for a shock. I called my attorney, Randy Wright, yesterday and he's overhauling my papers. Most everything I have is in Echo's name and a trust has been established with a trustee. There's something in there for Trevor, of course, and a little something for you."

"Me?"

"Just in case. Everyone needs a little boost" "What about Rhona?"

"What about her? You heard her and that Skeeter threatened me with lawsuits and the like. I thought I'd better start taking defensive actions as soon as I could. and I wasn't going to let a little thing like this hospital stay prevent it."

"Doctor Battie will be upset you're doing all this."

"Oh, it's nothing. A lawyer does the work. I read it and sin it. For now. however. I think it would be best if we kept this to ourselves," she said.

We heard a knock and I turned to see Trevor.

"How we loin' today?" he asked.

"How does it look like we're doing? I'm still chained to this bed, aren't I? I'm still here. Where have you been? Like I have to ask." she added. "Delivering cases of wine. I imagine."

"You imagine correctly," he said. "And your grapes are still the most cherished in the valley."

"They're not my grapes. My grapes died years ago on the vine, along with a lot of other things," she said. 'How's my house?"

He glanced at me.

"Don't wait to see what she told me and didn't tell me! Is it still in one piece?"

"Everything's just fine. Mrs. Westington," Trevor said. She looked from him to me and back to him.

"Look at the two of you, with faces that could be billboards advertising terrible liars."

Trevor laughed and Echo, even though she didn't follow most of what had been said, laughed as well. Before we could talk about it anymore, there was another knock on Mrs. Westington's door and my jaw unhinged at the sight of Tyler Monahan. He had a bouquet of red roses in his hand. Echo's face lit up like a neon sign. Even Trevor, who I knew distrusted him from the start. smiled.

"I hope I'm not interrupting," Tyler said. "I just wanted to stop by and see how you were doing, Mrs. Westington."

"Interrupting? What could you be interrupting? Nothing's doing here. I'm practically in solitary confinement. In the soup as they say. I really should say dishwater,"

"These are for you," he said. approaching. "To cheer up the room."

"Thank you. Tyler. Lord knows, this room could use a ton of roses to cheer it up. Trevor, please take those dead weeds out of the vase on the windowsill and put these in, would you?"

"Right," Trevor said, and went to work on it.

Tyler glanced at me and then back at Mrs. Westington. "So how are you doing? How long will you be in here?"