Look to the Rainbow (19 page)

     Margaret must have called on her way over because she was there almost immediately. Evan opened the door and gave her a kiss on the cheek, which she accepted but dismissed the gesture with a shrug past him into the foyer. Under her arm she carried a large leather bound book. “Evan, you need to shave, you’re looking scruffy,” was all the greeting she gave him. She seemed pleased to see Ross and when she saw Casey she smiled ever so slightly and asked after her parents. Casey responded that they were busy campaigning, but well.

     “Where is Mary Katherine? Did you leave her upstairs alone?”

     “Of course not. Molly is with her. I’m on my way back upstairs.” He looked over his shoulder as he followed her up the stairs and rolled his eyes. Ross and Casey both laughed.

     “Darling!” Margaret swept into the room and Mary Katherine sat up a little straighter.

     “Mother, you remember Ross’s wife, Molly.”

    “Of course.” She never held Molly in high affection either, as she knew she had been Evan’s friend long before. She sat beside her daughter and handed her the book. “I brought something to cheer up you up a bit.”

    
Cheer you up,
Evan thought as if Mary Katherine was simply sad about something and not violently ill from chemo. “It’s your high school scrapbook!” She opened it up and Evan restrained from saying anything, but he assumed that the book was filled with photographs of Harry and he was right. Mary Katherine let her mother turn three or four pages, of dance photos and pressed corsages. She looked up at Evan, standing in the doorway and couldn’t bear the look on his face right now. She closed the book and handed it back.

     “Not right now, Mother. Evan, I need you.” He was at her side in seconds, lifting her up and carrying her to be sick yet again.

     “It’s been a tough day,” Molly said.

     “She’s thrown up a couple of times then?” Margaret clearly was uninformed about the effects of chemotherapy.

     “Pretty much all day. The longest she’s gone without being sick is a little over an hour.”

     Margaret said, “Then why isn’t Evan doing anything to help her?”

     That remark made Molly angry, but she answered as nicely as she could, “He is. He is doing everything he can to help her. He’s been a tower of strength and support. This hasn’t been easy for either one of them.”

     Margaret settled herself on the sofa. “Evan has always been in love with Mary Katherine. In some ways I feel sorry for him because she has never been in love with him.”

     “Why would you say that?” Molly wished that the woman would just leave.

     Margaret said, “There was someone else that she lost. He could never have replaced her one true love. She settled, of course, but at least for someone who loved her. She
likes
him, I suppose, but love…” She shook her head.

     Molly was angry enough to say something truly rude, but instead she said, “I think you are wrong.”

     “Hmmm, I think I know my own daughter. Do you think they will be out anytime soon?”

     “Maybe not,” Molly said.

      “I need to go to garden club. We’re voting on yard of the month.”

      “We can’t have you miss that, I’ll tell them you left and you can check in in a day or so.”

     She was certain her sarcasm was lost on Margaret, who agreed, that yes, that might best, hefted the scrapbook and left without telling Molly goodbye.

     Mary Katherine opened her eyes and looked up at Evan. He had fallen asleep holding her in the bathroom. “Evan,” she said softly. “I’m okay for now.”

     He opened his eyes and looked down at her. “I know. I’m just hoping if we stay in here long enough your mother will leave.”

      He helped her stand up and she was able to walk back this time. It was getting dark outside, which meant that with any luck they were over halfway done. There was no sign of Molly or Margaret. He fluffed up her pillow and she lay down again. “Stay with me,” she said.

     “I’m right here.”

      She closed her eyes and he hoped the worst of this one was over. She was pale and had dark circles under her eyes.
Just get us through two more times, Lord,
he prayed. He had hopes that given the biopsy report being inconclusive that the preventative treatment would make sure that there was no cancer anywhere else. He wasn’t sure what either of them would do if the final report was bad news. He lay back against the pillows and hated that tears fell yet again, but he seemed unable to stop them.

      Ross came in. “Everything okay?”

     “Just resting. Did my mother in law leave or is she lurking downstairs somewhere?”

      “She left, after she made Molly angry.”

     “I’m sorry.”

     Ross said, “For what? Nothing for you to apologize for.”

     “She’s quite something, isn’t she?”

     “And she’s gone. Why don’t you go downstairs and have some dinner? She’s sleeping pretty soundly and I am qualified in case of an emergency.”

      He started to protest, but then he remembered that Ross and Molly had come without being asked to help him. “Okay, just for a little bit.”

       He stood and looked down at Mary Katherine. Ross said, “You’ll get through this Evan.” Evan nodded and went downstairs where Molly and Casey were sitting down to dinner. He joined them at the kitchen table without saying anything and served his plate without even knowing what he was putting on it. It never ceased to amaze him how tired
he
was during chemo. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how exhausted his wife must be.

     Casey and Molly were talking, but he wasn’t keeping up with the conversation. Casey stood and brought him a glass of iced tea, sweet, with lemon, the way his mother had always served it. It was a drink which was only available ‘in season’ in Newport, but Lily had always made sure it was on hand for Evan and the others had learned to like it as well.

     “Thank you darlin’,” Evan said as she handed it to him. She squeezed his shoulder as she sat back down and thought how Evan’s slight southern accent, inherited from his mother, came out when he was tired.

     “What did Margaret say that made you angry Red?”

      She smiled at the use of his nickname for her . “I told Ross not to mention that, but since you asked, I really don’t like the implication that somehow Mary Katherine settled when she married you.”

     He knew that in some ways, Mary Katherine had ‘settled,’ but he didn’t say that. He was a little surprised that even Margaret had said something along those lines to Molly. “She has a way of saying what she thinks.”

     “I’m sure she thinks Ross married beneath himself too, after all
my
dad didn’t have as high a rank as yours.”

     “If she ever says that I will tell her a few of my opinions of her. I can never figure out how Mary Katherine turned out so well with parents like hers.”

     Casey said, “How could anyone be disappointed in you as a son in law?”

     “She has her reasons for what she thinks, Case. I’m just not at liberty to share them with you.” He leaned wearily on the table. He wasn’t just tired from today, he had been having trouble sleeping ever since her diagnosis. Trying to keep things going at work, check up on Kel and take care of his wife was pushing him to exhaustion. Mary Katherine has suggested he pass on his five to ten mile run each day, but that was one thing he wouldn’t change, no matter how tired he was. Running was his only stress relief right now, the only time he could clear his mind of all the things he was worried about. He had never stopped training as he had when he was preparing for the Olympics, he probably never would. He had gotten up an hour earlier to run before they left for the hospital this morning. Casey had come by every morning since the first round, and stayed with Mary Katherine while Evan ran. Mary Katherine had insisted that wasn’t necessary, but he had insisted it was. Besides, he told her, Casey made better coffee than either of them.

     “Go on to bed, Evan,” Molly said.

     Evan rose from the table and went back up the stairs without saying anything else. Ross was sitting by the bed, helping Mary Katherine sit up to sip some water. She handed him the glass and sank back on the pillows. She moved slowly across the bed to meet him and once again he wrapped her in his arms. It seemed like the only thing he could do right now that made any difference at all.

Chapter Sixteen

     Tara looked at the newspapers spread out on a table in the
Newsworthy
conference room. She and Kel were on the front page of each one, from
USA Today
to
The National Enquirer
, large photos of their time in New York, even pictures of him kissing her in Central Park. The headlines were all similar, questioning whether or not Kel had engineered a relationship with her to deflect his single status.

     “What is this?” Bobby asked.

     “Sensationalism?” Tara asked.

     “Very funny, you know what I mean. Why is every newspaper in the country speculating on a possible proposal from Kel- and for all the wrong reasons?”

     “I have no idea. Neither of us has tipped them off.”

     “You didn’t? You kissed him in Central Park. And I thought we were clear on the direction we were going in regard to his lack of a wife.”

     “I talked to Evan and Mary Katherine. And Molly and Lily for that matter. None of them encouraged me to write that story.”

     “Evan hardly knew Alise, I’m not sure Mary Katherine knew her at all. As for Molly and Kim, they were always jealous of Alise. And I’m sure Lily loved her. She always acted like she did.”

     “I can’t think of any reason for your sister and Molly to be jealous of anyone,” Tara said. “And Evan may not have known Alise well, but he does know Ross and Kel well, so I feel certain he knows what he’s talking about. I want to talk to John.”

     “Don’t waste your time. John
hated
Alise. Almost as much as she hated him. Talk to
Kel
. That’s who you should be talking to. Figure out a way to get the story written by Monday. We need to put out this fire. They’ll be home this weekend.”

     “I’m aware of that Bobby. I talk to Kel almost every day.”

     “Yes, well maybe you shouldn’t. I hired you to cover his campaign, not to date him.” He stormed out of the room. Ouch, she thought. If Bobby was this angry, she wondered what her father was thinking right now.

     Being at home, Kel thought, was supposed to be relaxing, but in some ways this weekend was turning out to be as stressful, if not more, than being on the road. He had been besieged by reporters the last three days asking questions about Tara. At an informal town meeting style debate with the other two contenders, every question he was asked was about her, most of them implied that the relationship was staged and one asked outright if he intended to marry her before or after the election. Ever since he had walked into George and Lily’s house he had been in debates with Bobby over the coverage of his romance, listened to Tara rant about an over aggressive photographer who had even followed her into the restroom at the
Newsworthy
offices, and had been cornered by Janet to pin down wedding details. His head was pounding but it had nothing to do with his insulin levels.