“Did you talk to the whole gang already?” I asked.
“No, I called you girls first.”
“Thank you, Mick. Okay, we’ll tell everyone else,” Tess said.
We spread the news efficiently, so by the time we jumped on the train to head to Mom’s, we’d already informed the rest of the family.
Despite Mick’s assurances that they didn’t need food, we bought some delicious pralines. Whenever Mom was on edge, they always helped calm her.
The second we entered their apartment, it became clear the pralines weren’t going to cut it. Mom’s eyesight wasn’t just blurry—she couldn’t even move around the house by herself.
“Holy shit,” Tess exclaimed.
“Mick, have you been taking a page out of Mom’s book? Where you don’t tell us the extent of the situation at hand so we don’t worry?” I threw my hands up in the air. We needed to know everything in order to figure out what to do. Mom was going to need round-the-clock care for a few days at least.
Mick looked between the two of us hopelessly. Tess glared at me. Shit, poor Mick didn’t need my venting.
“Sorry,” I said. He was just doing his best, after all.
Tess and I sat with Mom in her room while Mick heated up lunch for everyone.
“How are you feeling?” Tess asked her.
“Very pissed. I was supposed to be on my feet by now, not bumping into my own damn walls.”
“Just give it some time, Mom. What did the doctor say?” Tess asked.
“They have me on some pills, antibiotics I guess, and a ton of eye drops, and we’re supposed to go in for checkups every third day. They said it should pass in about two weeks.”
“See, it’s not even that long,” I added, trying to appease her. It didn’t really work though. Her mood further darkened during lunch, when she needed help with every spoonful.
It was mid-August now, and school was starting in two weeks, so Mom had plenty of work to do before term began. Tess and I had assumed that watching Mom would mean visiting her after work, shopping for her, and so on, but it was obviously going to be more involved.
After we finished eating, while Mick helped Mom back to bed, Tess and I went into the room they’d converted into a reading room. It was cozy and comfy, with leather armchairs, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and an enviable bar. The perfect getaway for a drink and a good book.
Tess and I sat opposite each other, calling Cole, Hunter, and Ryker for a conference.
“We can take shifts spending time with her,” Hunter suggested.
“Yeah. We’re flexible, working for ourselves and all that,” Cole answered.
“I can schedule my face-to-face meetings all in the morning and stay with Mom in the afternoon,” Ryker said immediately, but I knew that wasn’t really smart. The fund he worked at on Wall Street wasn’t going to appreciate him working remotely.
“Mom needs a lot of distraction,” Cole said. “I vote we reveal all the shit we did that we kept from her.”
Ryker laughed. “We want her to get better, not give her a heart attack, bro. Though we probably can select a few harmless events.”
“Boys, why don’t we keep things as they are? Mom is convinced we were on our best behavior when we moved to New York. Let’s not mess with that. Anyway, Tess and I should take turns sleeping here,” I said.
“Yeah, I think Mom will feel better with one of us here at night,” Tess added.
“Wait, Josie says she can also spend the night there.” I could hear my cousin-in-law’s voice in the background as Hunter spoke.
“And Heather says that she’s flexible on the days she doesn’t have interviews,” Ryker added. Heather was a journalist, and when she wasn’t doing field work, she usually worked from home. Her daughter Avery was seven years old and in school until midafternoon, so I knew Heather could stop by before lunch only. It warmed me all over that Josie and Heather wanted to help. My cousin and my brother had found good women. I was happy for them.
“Does everyone have their calendars on hand?” I asked.
After a chorus of “yes” and “wait a second,” we all had the app open. The call took well over an hour, but we had a schedule at the end of it. Heather and Josie were going to take morning shifts, Hunter and Cole the afternoon ones, and we all convinced Ryker that there was no need for him to take time off.