Waking Up to Love Read Free

The waiting rooms were packed with patients from all walks of life: businessmen, construction workers, housewives, college students. Ramona passed a waiting room that was one Indian short of a Village People concert.
    She came to a door with the numbers 4-1-8 etched on a small gold plaque. This was it. Debra McInney was in here. Did Ramona really want to do this? Sure, she loved Debra like a mother, but if she pushed the door open, she’d have to see Scott, too. Was it really worth all the awkwardness?
    An image flashed through her mind: She was six, and Debra McInney was putting a Flintstones bandage on her cut knee. She loved Debra so much.
    Ramona pushed open the door. At first, all she saw was the small, frail woman attached to so many tubes and machines. No matter how many times she’d visited Debra, she never got used to seeing Debra look so weak. Then Ramona saw the two McInney brothers waiting by her side. Rob looked the same as always: blond, skinny, a little doofy. He had the telltale forehead crinkles of someone who had spent the last few months worrying about his sick mother, and his struggling business, and his seven-year-old son. Clearly Rob was tired all the way down to his bones, but trying not to show it.
    Jeffrey sat on his father’s lap. He was asleep, but judging from the ice cream smudges on his cheeks, he must’ve just fallen asleep. Lucky kid.
    And of course, there was Scott. Normally, his face was the first thing Ramona noticed when she entered a room. His was the face she had grown up with. She could always read those expressive gray eyes, that half-smirking grin. Scott McInney was a park ranger for BLM and he looked the part, all six feet, two inches of him. His wide frame was edged with muscles, but he didn’t have the body of someone who spent hours at the gym; his imposing figure came courtesy of a job that had him laying pipe, digging fences, and carrying heavy loads of dirt and rock. He looked strong, and he looked completely comfortable in his own skin.
    Scott waved at Ramona, and she forgot how a simple wave from Scott McInney could make her heart shimmy in her chest.
    Debra struggled to move her head to the side. Her eyes were still half shut and her mouth was scrunched up in a grimace. The instant she saw Ramona, though, her eyes lit up and the corners of her mouth curled upward. “Why, hello,” she said.
    Ramona half waved awkwardly. “Hello,” she said. “You look great.” She didn’t entirely mean that. Debra’s color was still off and she’d lost a lot of weight during the coma. However, she was moving, and she was smiling.
    “Doesn’t she?” Scott said. He placed his hand on his mother’s.
    “So how are you feeling?” Ramona asked.
    Scott answered for her. “Her vitals are up,” he said, “and the doctor is coming back to—”
    “Scott!” Debra snapped. She gave him one of her patented McInney warning glances, the kind that basically said, “Don’t test me!!” with two exclamation marks.
    “Mom?” Scott asked.
    “I can speak for myself, son,” she said. Her expression instantly softened. It reminded Ramona of the Debra she’d known before the accident, the Debra she’d known all her life. This was a woman who was never afraid to take charge. She was quick to scold, but she never did it out of anger.
    “It’s nice to see that you haven’t changed, Mrs. McInney,” Ramona said.
    “Same to you,” she said. “Now come closer so I can get a better look at my favorite daughter-in-law.”
    Uh-oh.
    Ramona gulped. She realized with a sudden rush of horror that Debra thought she was her twin sister Nessa.
    Double uh-oh.
    Ramona realized with a second gulp that Debra thought her son was still married. She exchanged glances with Scott, hoping he could see the look of icy fear etched across her face. She was close to Debra McInney, but she didn’t feel right delivering such personal news to her.
    Should she correct her? Should she at least say that she was