Read Online Home in Carolina by Sherryl Woods - Free Book Online Page B

then added wryly, “I thought it would be good exercise. At my age you’ll try anything to keep your parts working.” She patted her hip. “I guess this one was already shot.”
    Helen smiled at the image of her mother taking any kind of dance class, much less one involving countrymusic. She’d always claimed to hate all those love-gone-wrong songs. She said she’d lived it, and it wasn’t worth glorifying. She’d also always had two left feet, or so she’d said. It appeared she might have been right.
    “So, what happened?”
    “Tripped over my own feet, if you must know,” Flo said, her expression chagrined at the admission of clumsiness. “Down I went. Took two other people with me.”
    “Were they hurt, too?”
    “Nope. They both had a few extra pounds on them. They bounced,” she joked, then coughed so hard, Helen handed her a cup of water. When she’d taken a sip, Flo regarded Helen intently. “Did they tell you?”
    “Tell me what?”
    “I can’t go back to my apartment.”
    She didn’t sound as dismayed by that as Helen had expected. Still, Helen sought to reassure her. “The nurse mentioned you’d need some rehab, then maybe some help at home. Don’t worry about that. We’ll work it out, Mom. The nurse has already suggested a couple of places, and I’ll talk to the social worker and get some more recommendations. I’ll make sure you’re set up someplace really nice.”
    Flo was shaking her head before the words were out of Helen’s mouth. “I’m not going into a nursing home,” she said flatly. “That’ll be the beginning of the end, and you know it.”
    “I didn’t say anything about a nursing home,” Helen argued. “I’m sure there are some great rehabilitation centers around, places dedicated to getting you back on your feet and back home. The minute they say it’s okay for you to be back in your condo, I’ll arrange for someone to come in and help you.”
    Her mother’s jaw set. “No.”
    “Well, what then?” Helen asked, trying to hang on to her patience. “You can’t go directly back to your place. There’s no way you can manage on your own right now. The doctors won’t allow it, anyway.”
    Her mother’s gaze locked with hers. “I want to come home with you.”
    Helen regarded Flo with alarm. That was out of the question. They’d kill each other in a week. Besides, she was barely coping with a husband, a toddler and a nanny in the house. Adding her mother to the mix simply couldn’t happen, not when she was finally getting back some real balance between family and career. Just the thought of it made her palms sweat.
    And yet, if this was what Flo really wanted, did she have a choice?
    “Wouldn’t you be happier right here? You have friends here,” Helen said, a desperate note in her voice. “I’m sure they’re all anxious to have you back on your feet.”
    “I have friends here, but I have family in Serenity,” her mother declared, her gaze not wavering, her tone stubborn.
    Her argument mirrored so closely what Jeanette had said that it gave Helen pause. “Why?” she asked, bewildered by the sudden change in attitude from the time when Flo had been eager to leave Serenity.
    “I want to spend some time with my granddaughter,” Flo said, her expression wistful. “She’s growing up so fast, and I’m missing it.”
    “That doesn’t solve the problem of rehab, Mom. Maybe once you’re back on your feet, you could come for a visit.”
    Her mother shook her head. “I want to come home permanently.” She frowned at Helen. “Oh, don’t look at me as if I’ve invited myself to stay with you forever. As soon as I’m back on my feet, I’ll get my own place.”
    Helen was still bewildered by her mother’s determination. “I thought you loved your apartment here,” she said. Helen had spent a fortune buying and furnishing the place for her mother, trying to make her golden years easier than the early years of her life had been. Helen had spared