Read Online Moonlight on Butternut Lake by Mary McNear - Free Book Online

right now.”
    â€œWell, their dinner will have to wait then. Besides, I think they’d agree with me that this is more important.”
    â€œOh, for God’s sake,” he said, slumping in his wheelchair.
    It was quiet in the room then, each of them waiting for the other to capitulate, though only one of them, Mila felt sure, was waiting with a pounding heart and sweaty palms.
    Finally she stood up. “I’ll call your brother,” she said.
    He sighed disgustedly. “They’re in the bedside table drawer,” he said, not looking at her.
    â€œThank you,” Mila said crisply, and she stood up, walked over to the bedside table, and opened the drawer. Then she took out the prescription bottles one at a time, read the labels carefully, and, opening their lids, spilled the contents out onto her palm and counted them before returning them to their bottles. When she was done, she felt relieved. Not only had it not been necessary to call Walker and Allie for reinforcements, but Reid was only a couple days ahead, at most, on his different pain medications. He’d probably been gradually upping his dosage, she saw, but it wasn’t too late, hopefully, for her to get him back on track before it became a real problem.
    â€œReid, when did you last take all of these?” she asked.
    He shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t take them on a schedule, really. I just sort of take them when I feel like I need them.”
    Mila’s eyes widened, and she felt a lecture coming on, but she stopped herself before she could give it. Instead, she said only, “Well, that stops tonight, all right? From now on, you’ll be on a schedule. And if you feel like you need a higher or a lower dosage, then, obviously, that’s something you need to discuss with your doctor.”
    Another sigh from him. “Look, this has been great, really,” he said sarcastically. “It’s been so much fun spending this time with you. But I need you to leave now, okay? I mean, like, right now.”
    â€œOkay,” she said, and she tried for a smile, but she couldn’t quite pull it off. So she gathered the prescription bottles together, backed out the door, and closed it behind her. Then she went to the kitchen, where she opened one of the cupboards, cleared asmall space, and put the medications inside of it. That would do for tonight. Tomorrow, she’d speak to Lonnie about finding a permanent place for them. After she’d put them away, she went back to her room, and sank down gratefully onto the bed. There, she told herself. That wasn’t so bad, was it? But if that were the case, then why was she shaking all over?

CHAPTER 4
    A t midnight that night, Mila, who was sitting at the desk in the guest room, put down her pencil and closed her nursing exam study guide. Her back was starting to ache from sitting in the same position for so long, and she clasped her arms behind her to stretch her cramped muscles. She was tired, dead tired, as the bus driver had said, and she knew she should go to bed. Her responsibilities were over for the night. She’d taken Reid his dinner on a tray at seven o’clock, as instructed, and she’d come back to collect it at eight o’clock. It was completely untouched. But she couldn’t fault him for not eating it. She’d had the same dinner—lasagna, salad, and garlic bread—alone at the kitchen table, and while it had looked good, and tasted even better, she hadn’t been able to eat it either, and she’d ended up scraping most of it into the kitchen garbage can.
    After she’d loaded the dinner dishes into the dishwasher and wiped down the kitchen counters, she’d locked the cabin’s doors and set the alarm, which Lonnie had shown her how to do. Then she’d showered and changed into her nightgown. It had only been nine o’clock by then, and she’d known she wouldn’t beable to sleep