Mom Over Miami Part 26

"No." For months now the man had demanded she listen-but to herself, not to him. Listening to him right now, she decided on the spot, could not lead to anything good.

"There's been a little dustup at work."

"That had better not be a weak cleaning joke."

"I wish."

Her heart thudded hard in her ears. "Why?"

"Let's just say the animals in our little metaphorical zoo here started eating each other alive."

"So?" She forced a very unconvincing laugh. "What's a few teeth marks between friends?"

"Hannah, you're not making this easier."

"Okay, how about I make it real easy? Mindless office bickering is not your problem, Bartlett. Your biggest problem today is whether you can pick me up and carry me over the threshold for the start of our second honeymoon."

"I don't think so, Hannah."

She didn't want to ask, but ask or not, the man would eventually have to tell her. "We're not going, are we?"

"We're going."

She fell back against the wall and exhaled.

"Just not right now."

"What?"

"We will go, Hannah. But not today."

What could she say? She'd looked forward to this trip for so long. She needed this getaway so badly. "Payt, please, don't do this. Can't you find a way to-"

"Kaye quit."

And that was that. No way could Dr. Briggs keep the office going with Payt and and his nurse pract.i.tioner gone. his nurse pract.i.tioner gone.

"No trip. No Miami. No flying away from it all."

"Not for good, just for now."

"B-but I had my heart set on now now. I was counting on now."

"And I am counting on you."

Counting on her. The man she loved was counting on her. Her stomach clenched. He couldn't have used a more deeply connected or dreaded phrase unless he'd added something about all the sick little children and their harried, desperate parents counting on her, too.

"When I bought the ticket, I made sure the travel agent understood this kind of thing might happen," he went on.

"That Kaye might up and quit without warning hours before our flight?"

"That as a doctor I might have to cancel at the eleventh hour. It will cost a little more, but we can change our travel plans."

"Don't even start with me about the cost, just tell me what you want me to do."

"Just go down to the travel agent-you need to go there to handle it all in person so there are no slipups with the flight or the hotel reservations. Can you do that?"

"I can."

"Will you?"

"What choice do I have?"

"Great. I gotta run."

She gripped the receiver, willing herself to place it gently back in its cradle.

You have to make time for yourself. The things you need to be a good wife and mother and friend don't come measured out in hours and minutes. They come from the well of your spirit. If you let that go dry by always giving and never tending to yourself, you have nothing left to give.

Sappy seventies sentiment or not, Hannah found herself gravitating to Lauren's words of wisdom and wondering...

Hannah walked slowly into the living room.

"One of our wayward cla.s.s moms calling to get directions?" Lauren asked.

"Hardly."

"Too bad, because I have to run."

Startled from her musing, Hannah blinked and discovered her eyes damp with the threat of tears. "You, too?"

"Don't peg me for a deserter just yet. Stilton has a piano lesson, then Tae Kwon Do. In fact, he has a cla.s.s or homework or we have church or something almost every day of the week."

"Wow."

"Tell me about it. I haven't had a full afternoon free since that kid had his first Tumble Tots cla.s.s at three."

"Six years?"

"And only nine more to go. Sometimes I think we over-schedule him, but then I don't know what we'd cut out and still feel we'd given him every advantage to get into a top-rated college."

"College?" She was supposed to be laying the groundwork for college already?

"But so I won't leave you in the lurch." She waggled one stuffed finished frog in the air by the feet to keep popcorn from spilling out. "Suppose we divvy up the duties?"

"I..." Hannah looked around in a daze, not sure how she felt, what she thought or what she needed to do. "I don't have anything big enough to put half the popcorn in."

"That's easy-you put it into the frogs."

"You've lost me."

"We've got them all turned and ready, you pour the popcorn in, then set them open, seam-up, in a box for me to finish. You stuff, I st.i.tch." She made a broad sewing motion, her pinched thumb and forefinger holding an imaginary needle.

"Right. That's probably for the best, anyway. The way I feel right now, I really shouldn't be handling sharp objects."

"You going to be okay?"

"I think I can manage to fill up a few frogs." Why not? She had all the time in the world, now.

"Okay, just have your aunt bring them to school when she picks up Sam this afternoon, okay?"

"Sure." She didn't have the energy to explain that she'd be available to do the car pool today after all.

"And have a great trip."

"Actually, I-"

R-r-r-r-ring!

First thing tomorrow she was going to discontinue phone service. And e-mail. And her cell phone. And disable her doorbell and...

And it would have been so much more practical to just run away from it all.

R-r-r-r-ring!

"I'll let myself out." Lauren already had the front door open wide.

For a split second Hannah thought of making a break for it. Just go. Get out. Fly away. But just as quickly the door fell shut and the phone demanded her attention again.

R-r-r-r- "Bartlett Frog Farm, where dreams go to croak."

"Hannah?"

"Payt?" She swallowed hard. Her pulse did a little jig. "It was all a big joke, right? A prank? Something to shake the cobwebs off the old wife before the vacation starts?"

"Sorry, no."

"Oh. What do you need, then?" Too bad he never stopped and asked her what she needed anymore. No one did. Just what they needed from her.

"Well, since your aunt is here to take care of the kids. And since you've got to get out of the house to deal with the travel agent, I had a thought."

Wait a minute. He talked like a man with a plan. A whole new plan. A plan to make up for the lousy change of plans he'd dropped on her earlier. "Yes?"

"Well, there's no reason now why you can't pop in and clean the office tonight after all."

"And there it is, ladies and gents."

"What? Hannah, what are you talking about?"

It.

The line.

The final push.

The point of no return.

The last straw.

Hannah clucked her tongue. She'd made up her mind just that fast, and she saw no purpose in launching into any further explanation. She just told her husband not to expect her in the office today, and if he had any questions, well, he'd get his answers when he got home.

She hung up the phone and picked up a pen.

CHAPTER 19

Subject: Change of plans To: DocPayt

Dear Payt, I won't be taking the tickets back to the travel agent.

Call you from Miami.

Love, Hannah "What was I thinking?" she asked the lady crowding the armrest and most of the so-called legroom somewhere over Tennessee.

"I really shouldn't do this," she said to the too-polite-to-tell-her-it-wasn't-his-problem man behind the ticket counter when she changed planes in Atlanta.

"The reservation may be for five days, but I'll have to go back before that, I think," she warned the effervescent clerk in the relaxed elegance of the marble lobby of the five-star hotel in Miami.

In the room, she took in the calming atmosphere, the fresh smell, the bed made by somebody else and towels that would appear clean and fluffed daily without her having to lift a laundry basket. She threw open the curtains to enjoy the endless starlit sky and view of dazzling light reflected through the blue of the pool six stories down. That's when she turned to the bellman, pressed a generous tip into his hand and whispered, "Tell housekeeping to keep the supply of towels coming. I'm going to be here a while."

She had done it.

Her.

The woman who had spun her wheels in a tidy rut for her whole lifetime hoping somehow to please others had finally taken a stand and taken flight.

And to a place where it was far too warm to think about Christmas pageants.

A place sans an office and therefore devoid of office politics-and messy break rooms that needed her attention.