10
“Amaya.” The woman at the desk—Marjorie? I was pretty sure that was her name—greeted me with a sweet, broad smile. And then her eyes slid over to the man beside me.
“And this is …?”
“A guest of mine. Kristo,” I replied, glancing over at him. I could leave the husband explanation for later. “How’s Jolene doing today?”
“She’s good.” Marjorie nodded. “She missed you while you were away, though.”
“Yeah, I missed her too,” I replied with a broad smile. No matter how much I knew this was costing me, how much I was aware of the strain on the meager budget we already had, I loved Jolene too much to let that overtake me when I was thinking about spending time with her.
“You ready to head up?” she asked, and I nodded again.
“I’m ready to go when you are,” I replied. I glanced over at Kristo. “You?”
“Sure.” He nodded, and I wondered how this was going to go down. I had taken one guy to meet Jolene before, and I had been sure he’d been the one, that I had been in love with him, but then I had seen the way he looked at her, and I knew he wouldn’t be able to handle life with her.
Kristo followed me and Marjorie up the stairs, and I glanced at my watch. It was still early, and Jolene had always been a late riser. Would she even be up? Well, if she wasn’t, then I was going to wake her with the biggest news in the world.
I hesitated for a moment outside her door, glancing over to Kristo after Marjorie retreated back down to the desk.
“Would you mind waiting outside for a minute?” I asked. “I don’t want to overwhelm her so soon.”
“Whatever you want.” He held his hands up and leaned up against the wall next to the door as I opened it and walked in.
“Amaya!” Jolene exclaimed when I walked into the room. She was taking her first handful of pills of the day and knocked them back with a swig of water as I came over to give her a hug.
“Hey, sister,” I greeted her. “It’s good to see you. Feels like I’ve been away forever.”
“Oh, really?” she teased as I pulled back. “I didn’t even notice you were gone.”
“Oh, that’s enough out of you.” I swatted her lightly on the arm and bit my lip as I took a seat opposite her. How was I supposed to tell her what had happened? It was still so crazy to me, still so fresh, that my head hurt trying to wrap it around the truth of what had gone down. And now I had to come out and tell her about it too?
“How was the trip?” she asked cheerfully, wheeling herself over to the window and pulling up the blinds. “Damn, it’s a beautiful day out there.”
“It was fine.” I nodded carefully. I didn’t want to give too much away. But then, I would have to tell her sometime.
“I actually have something I need to tell you,” I admitted. I wished I had given more thought to how I was going to phrase this on the way over. As it was, my brain was rushing, trying to find a way to explain what the fuck had happened these last couple of days. He was standing outside the door, could probably hear us, and part of me just wanted to yank him inside and show her the rings on our fingers and hope she put the pieces together from there.
But before I could say another word, she leaned forward and grabbed my hand, yanking it on to her lap.
“Is this what I think it is?” she demanded, pointing to the silver band on my finger. I winced. It wasn’t exactly how I’d hoped it would go down.
“Actually, yeah, it is.” I nodded nervously. “I, uh, that was what I wanted to tell you. I got married when I was in Vegas.”
“You have got to be kidding me.” Her eyes widened as she raised them to meet mine again. “You got married? To who?”
“He’s actually here with me if you want to meet him?” I offered, my voice higher than normal, and she threw her hands in the air as though she couldn’t believe I had thought to hold back.
“Bring him in,” she ordered at once. “Holy shit, Amaya.”
“Langauge,” I scolded her, and she rolled her eyes. She might have felt older than thirteen, but as long as I was the one taking care of her, that didn’t mean she got to drop curses like they were common knowledge.
“Kristo?” I called, and a moment later, he appeared in the doorway. Jolene wheeled herself over there to greet him, looking him up and down.
“Well, give me a hug,” she ordered playfully. “You’re my brother-in-law now. Better start acting like family.”
“As reserved as your sister, I see,” he joked, but he leaned down to hug her at once. I looked closely for any flicker of disgust or disapproval, but I couldn’t find it. So that was a good start. So many people, when confronted with someone in Jolene’s condition, just had no idea how to react to it, but he was cool and calm in the face of it.