to fall in love, boy. Love isn’t about the physical. It’s about having a connection with someone that you don’t have with anyone else. It’s about someone touchin’ something inside you that you didn’t even know was there. I recognized Gertrude the moment I saw her, and Gertrude recognized me.”
Was that what Val felt when he looked at Reba? Was it recognition that made him feel so naked and vulnerable? Before he could come up with an answer, the screen door opened and Devlin stepped out. She wasn’t holding a glass of iced tea. She was holding her cellphone.
“It’s Holden,” she said with a worried expression on her face. “I guess Miss Gertie had a heart attack and had to be rushed to the hospital.”
Val didn’t know who stood up quicker, him or Lucas.
“Don’t just stand there, Marvin,” Lucas said. “I need to get to my woman.”
Chapter Seventeen
There had been times when Reba had thought how much easier life would be if she didn’t have to deal with her ornery aunt. But when she got the call from Mike saying he’d found her aunt collapsed in the lobby and she was being rushed to the county hospital, the most crippling fear had hit Reba. And now, as she looked at Aunt Gertie lying in the hospital bed with all kinds of IVs and heart monitors attached to her frail body, she was still petrified at just the mere thought of losing her beloved aunt forever.
Reba sat close to her bed and held tight to Aunt Gertie’s hand, hoping to physically anchor her to this earth. “Please don’t go, Aunt Gertie. I know we fuss at each other, but that’s what family does. I love you. I love you a lot. So don’t even think about leaving me to run the boardinghouse all by my lonesome.” Her aunt’s eyes remained closed and her usually fast-moving lips were still. Reba rested her forehead on their linked hands and prayed. “Dear Lord, please don’t take her yet. I might’ve wished a couple times that I didn’t have the extra burden, but I never—”
The click of boot heels had her cutting off. She lifted her head to see Valentine walking into the room. He glanced at Aunt Gertie and then those compassionate topaz eyes settled on her. She didn’t even think. She just rose to her feet and walked straight into his arms. They enfolded her like a strong, secure blanket as she buried her face in his warm neck and silently wept.
He didn’t say anything, and Reba didn’t need him to. At the moment, all she needed was his strength, and he gave it to her. He held her tight as if he was never going to let go and soothingly rubbed her back. She could’ve stood in his arms forever if not for the sudden commotion in the hallway.
“I don’t care about some stupid hospital rule that only two people can be in a room at a time. I want to see Gertrude, and I’m gonna see her now!” Lucas Diamond came shuffling into the room, followed by two annoyed nurses, who looked like they were about to bodily pull him right back out again. Before they could, Aunt Gertie sat straight up in bed and glared at Lucas with squinty eyes.
“Don’t you dare come chargin’ in my room messin’ things up, you son of Satan!”
Lucas’s tense face relaxed and a smile played with his lips as he shuffled over to the bed. “I should’ve known that you were too ornery to leave this world in peace, you mean old hag.”
“Old? Who you callin’ old, you decrepit geezer?”
“You’re a lot older than me, you ancient biddy.”
“I’m not so ancient that I can’t remember what a randy rodeo rascal once told me. ‘Age don’t matter.’”
“It don’t! And to prove it, you better get well and get your withered bag of bones out of this bed.”
“All in good time.” She jerked the sheet all the way to her chin and glared at Lucas. “Now get out of here, you dilapidated Double Diamond devil, and stop gawkin’ at me in my nightie.”
A smile bloomed on Lucas’s face. “I’ve seen you in far less, you wrinkled old jezebel.” He turned and shuffled right back out the door.
Reba was too stunned to say anything. She had thought Lucas and her aunt’s love affair was over. But it was obvious they still cared about each other. Aunt Gertie stared at the door long after Lucas had disappeared. “The