John roaming my body danced inside my memory. I squinted at the unknown number on the screen and hesitated to answer it, but when I recognized the area code was the same as John’s, I accepted the call.
“Hi, Sloane, this is Kelly Black, John’s mother.” Poof, and there went my dirty thoughts. “I hope it was okay that I got your number from Daniel. I feel that John wants to keep you all to himself.” She chuckled self-consciously. “I was wondering if you would like to meet up for lunch sometime today. It was really nice having you at the house the other day. Oliver and I appreciated the change in pace,” she rambled.
“I would love that, Mrs. Black. When and where?”
“Oh, dear, please call me Kelly. How about Zach’s at noon?”
“That sounds great. I’ll see you there.”
I sent a quick text to Dell asking him if he could drive me into town and tossed my phone aside. A crinkle of paper interrupted my effort to get comfortable. It was a note from John to say he would be out for most of the day and that if I needed anything to call him. I laughed out loud when I saw he had added, “And give me back my dog.” After a few moments, I convinced myself to get up and get going.
I sat in the front window of Zach’s a few minutes early while Adam busied himself around the table to make everything perfect. A red Ford pulled up, and I saw Kelly dab at her eyes as she stepped out onto the curb. She took an obvious deep breath before she entered the restaurant. As soon as she spotted me, a genuine smile raced across her lips and lit up her dull eyes. I stood and was wrapped in a bear hug, which instantly warmed me.
“Sorry,” she sniffed, “I’m a hugger.”
“Me too.” I laughed and pointed to the chair for her to sit.
“I can’t thank you enough for meeting me today. I just needed a moment of normalcy. You seemed so kind and at ease with us, and by that, I mean our family situation. I wish I could get through to my daughter the way you do.”
“That’s only because I’ve been around cases like Ellie’s my whole life. My mother is a neurosurgeon and brought me into that world, so I can really understand what you must be going through.”
We paused to order, made small talk over lunch, but to my surprise, she brought back up the difficulty she had been having with Ellie.
“Oliver and I hate to rely so much on John, as we want him to have his life, but we just can’t seem to move forward without him. Ellie is so difficult.” She pulled out a tissue to blot her eyes. I reached out and covered her hand with mine.
“Kelly, at the risk of overstepping, may I offer you some help?”
“I’d love some,” she whispered, teary-eyed.
“At Ellie’s hospital, there is a brain-injury support group that is there for families like yours to show you that you’re not alone.” I raised my hand to stop her when I felt her need to protest. “Honestly, Kelly, you would get a lot from it, make friends who understand what you’re going through and can be a shoulder to lean on.”
“I don’t know, Sloane. That’s really out of my comfort zone. We’re just not good at letting people in.”
“You don’t have to go alone. I could go with you.” I could see the idea was rolling around in her head, and to my shock, she asked when the next meeting was.
“I already checked, and there is one this afternoon at three.”
“Okay, if you’ll go with me. Thank you, Sloane.”
We killed time by checking out some of Kelly’s favorite stores. I found an amazing shoe place that carried my favorite boots and a Papillon outlet that just happened to be five minutes from Zack’s. There were a lot of hidden gems in the town that I missed the first time around. I was in love and could have spent all day there, but we needed to head in a different direction.
I threaded my arm through hers, and we walked into the support group where there was a horseshoe-shaped arrangement of chairs with a small podium in front. Eleven women and three men all sat, some talking together in small groups, and some who looked totally zoned out. Kelly took a long, shaky breath and patted my hand as we