"Well, it sounds like you could use some help from your Mama. I'll come down tonight or in the morning, depending on flights. I can't wait to see you, honey. I'll get a hotel room and then when we get you moved into your new place, I will stay with you." Mama smiled through the phone at her daughter, and Cami could hear it.
"Thank you, Mama, I can't wait to see you." She grinned and they hung up. She looked over at Emma and whispered, "Your grandma is coming little girl. Everything will be alright when she gets here." Then she looked back at Roman and took his hand in hers. "Everything is going to be alright."
Janine came into the room a short while later and Cami hugged her. They had grown closer during their time at the hospital and by that point, considered each other friends. Cami didn't to say anything derogatory about Denise, and Janine was more concerned about Roman's well-being than talking about his wife. They were anxious to see Roman when the doctors let him wake up.
"He's got more color today!" Janine noticed that when she walked in the room. It was true; he had been recovering well while he rested, and it encouraged the ladies and the medical team that was helping him.
Cami looked at Janine with excitement and told her about Cicely.
"My mama is going to come down and help me with Emma while we get Roman through this recovery. She's going to help me move, too." Cami smiled in relief and happiness.
Janine grinned. "Well, I want to meet her while she's here, so let's be sure and have dinner one night during her visit."
Cami nodded. Then she looked at Janine and asked a question that had been weighing on her heart since she had met Denise. Roman’s wife had left the hospital the first day and had not been seen since.
"Who will be taking care of Roman while he recovers at home? I know you can go and help him, but I think it would be unbelievably awkward for me to be there helping. I would only be there to do that, but I think Denise wouldn't like it." Cami sighed sadly.
Janine raised an eyebrow and said, "I could try to send her out of town with her mother. I seriously doubt that she would be of any help to Roman at all. Short of that, though, I think we're going to have to hope for the best with her."
Cami frowned. "That's what I thought."
Neither of them could think of a way around it, and they both knew that they'd have to trust Denise to help take care of Roman as he healed.
The medical staff woke him up that afternoon and at first he was disoriented, but after some time and some explanations, he understood what happened and where he was.
When the medical staff had left him in the early part of the evening, he was finally able to talk with Janine and Cami. He looked at them both and offered them a tired smile.
"Thank you both for being here. It means the world to me.” He squeezed Cami's hand.
Then he lowered his brows and asked quietly, "Where is Denise?"
Janine narrowed her eyes a bit. "Denise came the first day you were here." she answered. "She hasn't been back since, but she did find out about Emma and Cami."
Roman closed his eyes and groaned. "Oh no. What happened?" he asked, not sure he wanted to know.
Cami pressed her lips together, wondering how much to tell him. "Well, she came in and saw Emma and I here and wanted to know who we were, so I told her. I said I was a friend of yours, and told her that Emma is your daughter. She was really upset, of course, and she wanted to talk with me in private, so we did. She told me she had an affair and wanted to know if you were leaving her. I said I didn't know. She seems really worried about it. She left and we haven't heard from her since."
Roman turned his head and looked at the wall. His expression was stoic. He didn't expect much of Denise, but he would have expected her to at least be present at the hospital for him during such a traumatic experience.
The knowledge that she had practically deserted him, especially after having an ongoing affair, cut at him and dismay clenched at his heart. He wondered what they had left for each other in their marriage. Cami, seeing his distress, smiled and said lightly, "My mother is coming to visit. so she'll be here to help with the baby and the move. It'll free me up to help you if you need it."
He closed his eyes a moment and then turned to look at her with a smile of thanks. Her warm brown eyes were a comfort to him; reassuring him that he was not alone and that he had support from her. He knew Janine would be there for him as well; she was always there for him.
"I would love to meet her," he said quietly, looking at Cami. "I'll be home for a while, but we can work out a visit."
Cami nodded and held fast to his hand. She was relieved beyond measure to see him recovering physically, but she could see that he was struggling internally, and it made her feel bad for him and wish that there was something; anything, that she could do to ease his frustration.
Mama was able to fly into town that night, and Cami picked her up at the airport and drove her to the hotel where she was still staying. Cicely was delighted to see them both, and spent the evening cuddling with her granddaughter.
When Roman awoke the next day, he felt much better. The last thing he had remembered before going under the water was seeing his boat sink, and the memory made him nauseous. He tried to keep it out of his head as he focused on healing and getting out of the hospital. It bothered him that he had so much to do and less time to do it in because of the boat wreck.
A short time after he finished his breakfast from his hospital bed, his cell phone rang and he saw that it was Allen.
"Hello?" he said, glad to hear from anyone in the outside world, and especially from his star employee.
"Hey sailor, how are you holding up?" Allen asked lightly, but still with an air of concern.
"Oh, I'm cruising along," Roman half-joked back to him.
"Janine has been keeping me up on everything. It's been pretty bad for you the last few days. It's good to have you at least talking again." Allen's smile could be heard through the phone line. "I'd come in and see you, but the nurses are only letting family in right now."
Roman laughed a little. "No problem; I'm not sure I'm up to visitors anyway, but it would be good to get out of here and get back to my life again. What's been going on at the office?" he asked with interest.
Allen spoke proudly, but without boasting. "Well, I've been talking to Senator Johnson and he is really interested in the boat, but your wife just won't quit bothering him and Carmen, and it's sort of driving an awkward wedge into our sale to them.
“They don't like her, and they feel that if they buy the boat, they might be putting themselves too close to her through you. As if they might be expected to have you both out on the yacht with them and be friends with her. They don't want that."
Roman sighed heavily and covered his eyes with his hand. "I was worried that she might do something like that. She's so set on being socially admirable. She's the very definition of a social climber. Denise is dead-set on being friends with them so everyone else will be impressed with who she is and who she hangs out with, but she isn't actually interested in being friends with them for their own sake or for their own merit."
Allen tried to be nice, Roman could hear it, but it was tricky to do. "Well, she needs to back off the Senator, or he's going to go buy a yacht somewhere else."
Roman nodded. "I understand. I almost don't even blame him." He rubbed his forefinger over his chin thoughtfully and said, "Allen, do you know what it is in particular that they don't like?"
"They think she's exactly what she is; a social climber who has no real depth in her own self or any interest in anyone else for any good reason." He coughed lightly. "They really like you and me, and Edward just loves Captain Heatherwick. They just don't want to be around her at all. They feel that if they buy the yacht from you, then they may be obligated to be with her for social events and neither of them wants that."
It had been weighing on Roman's mind, and he decided to discuss it at least a little, with Allen. "I'm not sure I'm going to stay with her, Allen."
Allen didn't sound surprised at all. "Really, Roman? Why not?"
Roman looked out of the window at the small part of the city that he could see from his hospital room. "Well, for a lot of reasons; we're really not that much in love anymore, she had an affair and I caught her in it red-handed, and she says she wants to fix our marriage and work on it with me, but I just haven't seen any commitment from her toward that end at all.
“Granted, I've been laid up in a hospital bed, but you'd think that she could at least come by and see me."
Again, Allen did not sound surprised. "She hasn't been there to see you?"
Roman shook his head. "No, she hasn't. She came once the day that I was admitted and that was it."
"Oh yes... the day she found out about Cami."
Roman was startled. "How do you know about Cami?"
"Janine. She told me about Cami and little Emma the day that they first came to see you. To be honest, I was really glad to hear it. I've thought for a long time that you need someone good and positive in your life, and I think you got a shot at it, Roman; I think you have a real shot at happiness with those two, but I understand that you are married and committed to Denise.