Unfinished Business An Angela Panther Novel (A Chick-lit Paranormal book) (The Angela Panther Series) (19 page)

“That’s why I flew. I value my life."

Dad smiled at Helen in the kitchen, and then turned to me. “You’ll take care of her, won’t you?”

Oh God. “Of course I will, Dad.” I squeezed his arm and leaned my head onto his shoulder, trying hard not to cry.

He leaned his head onto mine. “I’m glad you’re here, babe.”

“Me, too, Dad. Me, too.”

###

L
ater that night I sat with Helen in the garden room. Concern for my father hung in the air like dense fog, but neither of us could, or would, verbalize it. If we did, it would become real. Instead we talked about the kids, Jake’s job and how I was doing without my mother. I didn’t say anything about Ma being a ghost and hanging out in the kitchen, nor did I mention my newfound special gift. Helen is a strong Catholic and in the past has told me she doesn’t believe in the ability to communicate with the dead. Boy does she have a shock coming or what?

We chatted for quite some time and then she finally gathered the strength to talk about Dad.

“John called. He said Jake called him and strongly suggested he come, but I told him to wait and I’d call him in a few days.”

“He doesn’t look good. I can’t believe how much he’s changed in such a short time.”

“I know. I just wish I could get him to eat more. Maybe he’d be able to keep some weight on, but I just can’t get him to.”

“Well, Dad’s always been stubborn and he’s going to do what he wants, no matter what anyone says. He’s always been that way.”

“Maybe. He’s just so frail now. I’m really worried.”

“Yeah, me too.”

After we all went up to bed I called Jake. “He doesn’t look good. He’s barely talking because he can’t breathe and his cough is worse than ever, if you can imagine that.”

“We’re leaving in the morning.”

“No, it’s okay. Let me see how tomorrow goes. I don’t want to stress him out and I don’t want to deal with Emily being whiny if I don’t have to.”

“Okay. And don’t worry about coming home soon. I cancelled my trips for the rest of the month.”

“You didn’t have to do that. I’ll probably be home in a few days anyway. There’s some stuff going on with Emily and I feel like I need to be there.” I hadn't had the chance to tell Jake about Emily and the drug party issue, so I explained everything, leaving out how Ma accidentally threw a few things. My mother haunting a fifteen-year-old girl wouldn’t go over well with my husband.

“Seriously, someone is going to kill themselves doing that.”

“I know and since Taylor is being so nasty to Emily, I’m worried she might end up doing something stupid.”

“Maybe I need to have a little talk with Taylor’s father?”

“And what are you going to say? My wife’s dead mother heard your daughter picking on my daughter because she won’t do drugs at a pill party?”

“Point taken.”

“Ma said she’d keep watch and let me know if something happens. I think, for now, that’s all we can do.”

“Yup and I gotta admit, having a ghost keeping tabs on my kid is pretty cool.” He paused. “I never thought I’d actually say something like that.”

I laughed. “Yeah, me neither.”

We talked more about my dad. After we hung up, I lay in bed and stared at the picture of the Amish girl on the bedroom wall. It's a beautiful picture in the daytime, but at night it always creeped me out. Her eyes were all black and they seemed to stare right at me. I heard my dad cough in his room and I waited without breathing until the hacking stopped. “A year Dad,” I whispered. “You promised me a year.”

###

T
he next morning I was up at the crack of dawn. I didn’t sleep well, tossing and turning and half listening for movement and sounds from down the hall. It was dark under Dad and Helen’s door, so I tiptoed downstairs to the kitchen to make coffee. While the coffee brewed I sat at the table and texted Mel.

“Dad doesn’t look good. This sucks.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too.”

Just then Dad walked into the kitchen. “Morning, sunshine.” He sat at his regular spot at the table. “Would you mind making me a cup of coffee?”

I smiled at him. Even though he was ill and old and fragile and not the strong man I knew as a child, when he looked at me, I still saw the man who taught me to ride a bike...the man who told me stories and read me poems...the man who kept me safe when I was scared...the man who walked on water. “Absolutely. Which creamer flavor? Chocolate or raspberry?”

“Both and a little milk too, if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind at all, Dad.” I got up and made him his coffee.

“Okay, thank you.”

I set his coffee in front of him and sat back down. “How are you feeling?”

“Oh, I think I’ll make it another day.”

“Well, I sure hope so,” was all I could think to say.

“I had a dream about my Grandpa Guy last night.”

I felt the hair on my arms stand up. Since Ma died, whenever someone said they dreamed about someone who’s dead, I was inclined to believe it wasn’t a dream, but an actual visit. “What’d you dream?”

“I dreamed I was standing on an old country road and then my grandfather walked up. I told him I didn’t think I could make it through this and he said I’d be okay and that everyone would be okay, too.”

My father never believed in ghosts. We’d talked about it many times, after family members died or when we’d talk about his mother who died when he was young, but I’m almost certain this was really his grandfather giving him a message. “Dad, do you think that was really your grandfather talking to you or just a dream?”

“I think it was Grandpa Guy.”

Well, that’s not at all what I thought he’d say and I wasn’t sure how to respond. I didn’t want to think he’d changed his opinion about death because he knew was going to die, but I knew a lot of people did that. I was afraid if I acknowledged that out loud, it would make it real and I didn’t want it to be, not yet. Probably not ever. Thankfully Helen came into the kitchen just then and we focused our attention on her.

###

I
spent the next few days just talking with my dad and Helen, walking their dogs and reading. Jake and I decided to give me this time with Dad and Helen and not bring the kids up. I was glad. Every time I came to their house without my kids, I felt like I’d regressed back to being a teenager living with her parents, but I actually appreciated the family time and the quiet comfort of the house, unlike how boring it seemed as a teenager. I missed my family, but there was something nurturing about being away and not being the responsible parent, and I needed the break from reality.

Sadly, the break didn’t last and since Dad didn’t seem to be any worse, I decided it was time to go home. Jake would be able to reschedule his trips, and I felt better seeing Dad and knowing he wasn’t as close to the end as I thought. Saying that to myself made me uncomfortable so I knocked on the wood of the bed frame for luck.

I packed up my stuff and sat with my dad on the sun porch waiting for Paul to arrive to take me to the airport. He walked in. “Hi Pop. Ang, you ready?”

“Yup.”

Dad smiled at Paul. “Thanks for taking your sister to the airport. Helen’s not feeling all that great today.”

The truth was Helen felt fine. She just told him that because she didn’t want him to think she wasn’t taking me because of him. She wasn’t comfortable leaving him alone for too long anymore and I could see why. If something were to happen to him when she took me to the airport neither of us would be able to live with ourselves. It sounded selfish, but I didn’t care. No one would want that kind of guilt on their shoulders.

“No problem, Pop. I figured I can slow down at the airport exit and she can hop out. She’s got plenty of time until her flight, and with the size of her butt, she could use the exercise.”

And here we go. My brother could find a way to throw a cheap shot at me in any situation.

Dad however, knew how to turn it around. “You look good, babe. You were getting too thin there for a while.”

Dad went through puberty during the Marilyn Monroe era, when a woman had curves and men appreciated them. That look had stayed his favorite though out the years. Women who looked like Twiggy weren’t his type. He always said a woman should have a little meat on her bones, so when Dad said I looked good, I knew he meant it as a compliment, but I also knew it was time to watch my diet.

“Dad, coming from you, that’s a compliment, and Paul, bite me. In case you didn’t know, my mother died a few months ago, so maybe I’ve been enjoying a little more comfort food than I should, but I deserve it.”

That shut him up. Well played, Angela. Well played.

I hugged my dad extra tight and told him I loved him. Helen came out, dishtowel in hand, dogs close by her side, and we hugged tightly, too. Things had shifted in some way and we both knew it.  “Call us when you get home, okay?” I nodded but didn’t speak. I was afraid I’d cry. I think we both realized this was likely the last time I’d see Dad. With that thought, I walked back over to him and gave him another hug. “I love you, Dad.”

“I love you too, sweetheart. Thanks for coming.”

“Wish I could come out more. I’ll call you when I get home,” I walked out the door. I glanced back and saw Helen wipe her eye with the dishtowel.

“Wow, Dad is so thin," I said in Paul's car.

“Yeah, he’s lost some weight, but he seems to be doing okay.”

My brother. No one can enter that state of denial better. “Paul, he’s really not doing well. John needs to come out and see him. Have you talked to him?”

“I talked to him yesterday. He said he’s going to try to come out in the next few weeks.”

I watched out the back window as we pulled away from the house. In the past Dad would be in the driveway waving us off, but not anymore. Yes, things had changed. “Well, I hope he does, for his sake as well as Dad’s.”

We drove to the airport, passing the time with idle chatter, something my brother did instead of any real kind of connecting. Superficiality at its best. He’s not one to share his feelings, and over the years I’ve learned sharing mine ends up biting me in the butt, so I stopped trying. We’ll never be close, but something is better than nothing.

“W
hat’s going on with Emily?” I asked Jake when he picked me up at Hartsfield.

He shrugged. “Nothing, really. She hasn’t asked to see Taylor. Hasn’t done much of anything except whine and complain. She did ask to go to the pool with some girl, Heather something or other, I think, but that’s about it.”

“You mean Hailey? Did you let her?”

“Yeah, Hailey yes, I let her go. I got tired of her roaming around the house looking like the world was about to end.”

I laughed at that. “She’s fifteen, honey, when she’s bored, her world
is
about to end, at least to her.”

“That’s not the way I think.”

“That’s because you’re not a girl.”

“Amen to that. I’d hate to be a woman. Way too many emotions to deal with.”

“I don’t have too many emotions.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“You’re interested in getting lucky tonight, right?”

“You’re practically emotional-less. And you’re hot.”

“Well said, Jake.”

“So she went to the pool with Heather.”

“Hailey.”

“Heather. Hailey. Whatever.”

“And she’s not a woman, she’s a girl.”

“Fine. Our girl stopped whining and went to the pool.”

“Well, at least she got out and did something.”

“Has Fran said anything about those parties or about Taylor and what’s going on?”

“No, but she wasn’t at Dad’s as far as I could tell. When I see her next I’ll ask her about it.”

“Let me know when you do. It’s kind of cool having our own ghostly spy.” He paused and then shook his head. “I cannot believe I actually just said that. Holy hell.”

I laughed and thought,
if you only knew what she can do babe, you’d really be saying holy hell
, but I didn’t dare say it out loud. When it came to my dead mother haunting a fifteen-year-old girl, what Jake didn’t know won’t hurt me or get me in deep poop.

Jake laughed, too. “Let’s just make a pact right here and right now that we never let any of this slip at any parties or get togethers with friends, okay? I’d like to keep this quiet for as long as possible.”

“You’d like to keep it quiet? I think I’ve got a little more invested in that thought than you, hon, but the truth is I’m not sure that’s going to be possible given the fact that ghosts seem to be freaking everywhere I go.”

“There is that.”

“You’re so helpful.”

“And hot.”

“That, too.”

###

G
racie greeted me at the garage door as if I’d been gone for years, licking my face and nuzzling her forehead into mine. Then she ran to the backdoor to be let out because that’s what she does every time anyone came home. She’s been trained to be let out when we return and didn’t know that wasn’t necessary if someone was already home. I loved dogs. They’re so much simpler than humans. Josh jumped off the couch and gave me a big hug. “Hi Mama, I missed you.”

I loved him and squeezed him extra hard for being so affectionate. “I missed you too, little man.”

Emily peeked her head over the couch. “Oh, hey.”

The excitement I felt from her was overwhelming.  I’ve read that one day she and I will be best friends, but I cannot for the life of me, see that happening. I’ve also read that’s what other mothers say, too but I guess I’ll believe it when I see it.

I bent over the couch and gave her a hug. She responded limply, probably because it took too much effort to care enough. “Hey sweetie. Feeling better?”

She stretched and yawned because we all know how taxing it can be to be a teenager lying on the couch staring mindlessly at some horribly scripted TV show where parents are idiots and children rule. “Yep.” She turned back to the TV.

Well, all righty then. So much for the welcome home party, huh?

“I’ll bring your stuff upstairs. There’s some leftover Chinese in the ’fridge,” Jake said.

“Thanks, honey. Do you want me to make you a plate, too?”