She was going to be cautious and thought of every possible way she could be careful to the point she felt like she was in some kind of spy movie. Ridiculous, but she did want to protect Scotty, and she was aware that Cal said his father might have people watching Theresa Jean. Or watching Becky Lee for that matter, if he’d looked into Theresa Jean’s family.
Becky Lee borrowed Bella’s car, saying that hers was having problems. She felt terrible about having to lie to her friend. She’d practically snuck over to Bella’s to get the car, with surreptitious looks over her shoulder to make sure she wasn’t being followed.
Her heart raced as she sped along the back roads to Baton Rouge in the early morning hours and found the med center where Theresa Jean was being treated. There was no way around it, she was going to have to ask for her room number. Hopefully, that wouldn’t be a problem. She couldn’t just wander the hospital peeking in rooms.
She asked for the room number at the hospitality desk, but then went to a different floor and wandered around a bit. That’s what someone would do in a covert operation, right? She took the stairs back to her sister’s floor and walked past her room. A nurse was inside, so she just kept walking.
After she saw the nurse leave, she slipped into her sister’s room. The beeping of the machine broke the eerie quiet of the somber room. The room was dark and it took a bit for her eyes to adjust. She wanted to throw open the blinds but didn’t want anyone to know she’d been here.
As her eyes adjusted, she stared at her sister, pale and unmoving, hooked up to so many wires. “Ah, Theresa Jean, how did we get to this point?” Becky Lee took her sister’s hand. “I’ve missed you. We shouldn’t have let it go on this long without seeing each other. I’m so sorry about your husband. The accident. Everything.”
Sorrow seared her, tearing her insides. Guilt over the lost years. Pain at seeing her sister so still in the hospital bed. She choked back tears.
She stared at her sister, willing her to give some sign that she was hearing her. “It’s time to wake up now. Scotty is with Cal and me. He’s safe and doing okay. But he misses you a lot. Can you wake up so I can bring you to him?”
Becky Lee squeezed Theresa Jean’s hand. “Please wake up.” Hot tears roll down her cheeks. She wanted to hurl a pillow at the darn beeping machines. She wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all. But she just stood by her sister’s side, willing her strength.
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “I hear you go by TJ now. It kind of suits your personality. I’m going to have a hard time adjusting to calling you that, though. I’ll work on it. Cal has a job in Comfort Crossing. I’ve been helping him with Scotty. Scotty doesn’t know I’m his aunt yet. Cal thinks it’s safer that way. We’re even pretending we’re a couple so I have a logical reason for seeing so much of Scotty.”
Still no sign of waking up.
“Cal is really great with Scotty. I can tell he really cares about him. He’s always afraid he’s making a mistake though.”
Becky Lee smothered a sob. “I promise I’ll keep him safe for you. I will. I swear. But Theresa Jean—I mean TJ—come back to us. We need you. Scotty needs you.”
She stared at Theresa Jean’s face wondering if possibly there was the slightest wrinkling of her forehead. Was her sister hearing what she said?
Becky Lee startled at a noise behind her and spun around to see a nurse standing in the doorway.
“I was just leaving.” Becky Lee squeezed Theresa Jean’s hand one more time.
“Are you family?”
“Uh, no. Just a friend.”
The nurse came over to check on Theresa Jean and Becky Lee took that as an opportunity to slip away. She would rather that no one had seen her, but she hoped the general comment of just being a friend would cover her visit.
She slipped down the stairs and out the back entrance. She found the car where she’d parked it under a tree for shade to help keep it cool. She climbed into the car, rested her forehead against the steering wheel, and finally allowed the tears to fall freely. The tears turned into ugly sobbing until she was finally spent.
Becky Lee grabbed a tissue from her purse and wiped the tears away. She straightened her shoulders, put on her sunglasses, turned the ignition, and put the car into reverse. Time to take the long way back to Comfort Crossing. She looked around the parking lot, not seeing anyone but a couple with a young child.
Relief washed through her. It looked like she safely made it to see her sister without being spotted by anyone suspicious looking. Now, if only her words registered somewhere in Theresa Jean’s brain and her sister started to wake up.