Read Online A Second Chance by Bernadette Marie - Free Book Online Page B

you go.”
    “ I have to get everything
ready for conferences next week.”
    “ Then this will work out
great,” she said just as his cell phone rang.
    “ Hey, Ed. Good morning.”
Carlos stacked the papers he’d scattered on the table and put them
into his commuter bag. “How’s everyone this morning?” He watched
Kathy fill her coffee mug. “Good. I think it’s good for you to be
there. Do you need a ride home from school today?” He stood and
walked to the sink to dump out his own mug. “Okay, I’ll call you
all tonight. I love you,” he said and slid the phone into his shirt
pocket.
    “ Everything okay?” Kathy
asked as she buttered a bagel.
    “ Yep. He says everyone is
doing great. Madeline is feeling good and they’re glad they’re
staying with her.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and laid a
kiss on her neck. “You know, if you don’t spend all night at my
sister’s house, we could get to bed early tonight.”
    She squirmed beneath his lips and
laughed. “Mr. Keller…”
    “ Yes?”
    She turned into his arms and pressed a
soft, warm, and inviting kiss to his lips. “I promise I won’t stay
too long.”
    “ I’m going to hold you to
that.”
    Kathy glanced at her watch. “Oh, I’m
going to be late.” She kissed him again. “I love you.”
    “ I love you too,” he said as
she pushed past him, grabbed her bag, and headed out the back
door.
    He turned off the coffeepot and threw
the newspaper into the recycle bin.
    His phone rang again and he pulled it
from his pocket. The ID was from Christian’s school.
    “ Hello,” he said quickly.
He’d never gotten a call from Christian’s school. He hoped he
wasn’t sick or hurt.
    “ Dad?”
    “ Chris, what’s wrong?” He
pulled his bag over his shoulder and headed toward the back
door.
    “ Did you talk to Ed this
morning?”
    “ Yeah. He called when he got
to school.”
    “ Okay. So you know?” Carlos
heard his son’s voice calm.
    Carlos clenched his teeth and felt the
heat rise under his collar. “Well, why don’t you tell me what I
should know.”
    “ That Mom is really
sick.”
    Carlos was reaching for the car door,
but he stopped. “Your mom is sick?”
    “ Yeah, I thought you said he
told you.”
    “ How sick, Chris?” He threw
his bag into the passenger seat with a huff as he climbed into his
car and began backing out of the driveway.
    “ She’s been throwing up for
the past four days. She’s lost like ten pounds, Dad.”
    He shook his head. Damnit! What good
was it to have Eduardo lying to him when he was supposed to be
there to help?
    Carlos looked down the road, checking
for traffic. He turned sharply onto the street, narrowly evading
the mailbox and the six-foot ditch on the side of the road. He
swerved back and sucked in a breath. He needed to get a grip or
he’d get himself killed, and then where would his children
be?
    “ She’s taking her medicine,
right?”
    “ Yeah, that’s what’s making
her sick.” He sounded so young and frightened. “Dad, she’s really,
really sick.”
    He came to an abrupt stop at the stop
sign at the end of the street. “Okay. You get to class. I’ll check
on her.” Turning left would have taken him to work, but instead he
turned right and headed toward Madeline.
    He had the foresight to call Curtis
and ask what he should do.
    “ Antinausea medicine will
help and so will ginger. You can get both of them at the drugstore
or grocery store.”
    Carlos headed toward the drugstore
just around the corner from Madeline’s house. “And what do I do to
make her eat?”
    “ If she can start keeping
things down, she’ll eat. But you’d better keep an eye on her too.
Anorexia is very common when patients can’t keep food
down.”
    “ So they fixed her just so
everything else would kill her?” He gripped the steering wheel as
if bending it into a different shape would cure Madeline. “It seems
like cutting off half of her should have been enough.”
    “ Carlos, it