a blood pressure cuff?”
“I had to ask.” I started to get up, then squatted back down. “You’re not going to chastise me for calling your doctor?”
“I’ve learned that you do what you want, and you did it because you care about me.” He took a breath. “You want to go get a blood pressure cuff, don’t you?”
“But I don’t want to leave you alone.”
“I was alone when I came home from the hospital,” he said. “Go get the blood pressure cuff if it makes you feel better. I’ll be okay.”
I hadn’t even thought to check if he’d had any help after his release. Now I felt terrible.
“What’s got you upset?” he asked with a frown.
“Don’t you have any family around?”
He took a moment before he said, “None worth speakin’ of, but I’m fine. I’ve got Max. I’ve got friends. I’m good. Someone would have stayed if I’d asked, but I didn’t. All of that’s to say if I was okay then, I’m totally fine now. Now go get some money out of my wallet and pick up that blood pressure cuff. I’m gonna go back to sleep.”
“I don’t have a car.”
“Take mine. The keys are in my pocket.”
I headed to his room and grabbed his keys and his cell phone, which I’d retrieved from his jeans before throwing them in the washer. I left his wallet. I didn’t feel right taking his money. Besides, I figured Hank could use a blood pressure cuff, so I’d keep it for him.
There was a floor-length mirror in the bedroom, and I caught a glimpse of my reflection. With my jeans in the washing machine, I was wearing jogger pants that barely fit, paired with a sweater that definitely didn’t match. I considered running by Hank’s for a change of clothes or putting on my Max’s Tavern T-shirt, but right now I felt I had no right to wear it. So I searched Marco’s drawers until I found a well-worn University of Tennessee long-sleeved T-shirt. It was too big for me, and I had to roll up the sleeves, but the ensemble looked better than what I’d had on before. Besides, I was running to the Dollar General in Drum. I could have worn a gunnysack and been fine.
I set Marco’s cell phone and the cordless landline receiver on the coffee table next to the sofa and made sure his crutches were within reach in case he needed to get up. Before I headed out the door, I refilled his glass of water and set it down next to the phone.
There were only a few keys on his key fob, and I was lucky enough to pick the one that locked the front door on the first try. I got in the Explorer and headed back into Drum.
Dollar General was packed on a Saturday afternoon. I searched the shelves in the small health section for a blood pressure cuff, but when I couldn’t find one, I tracked down an employee.
“We don’t carry nothin’ like that, hon,” she said, clearly frazzled. “Yer gonna have to head down to Ewing.”
Ewing. That would be an hour-and-a-half round trip. “Do you have a pay phone?”
“Outside.”
Pay phones were a whole new world to me. I considered running over to the tavern to use the phone there, but I figured Max and I needed as much space from each other as possible. So I dug a quarter out of my wallet, inserted it into the slot, then called Ginger.
“Hello?” she asked, sounding leery.
“Ginger, it’s Carly. Did you mean it when you offered to help with Marco?”
“Sure,” she said, but I heard the hesitation in her voice.
“You don’t have to do anything, but I need to head to Ewing to pick up something at Walgreens. I’m going to call him as soon as I get cell phone coverage there, but if I can’t reach him, can I call you and have Junior or someone go check on him?” I’d briefly considered calling Max, but I wasn’t sure he’d talk to me, and for all I knew, he was sleeping off his hangover. Or drinking again. Wyatt was out. He’d been far too jealous that morning.
She gasped. “Oh, my word. Is Marco okay?”
“The doctor thinks he just overdid it, but I can’t help worrying about him.”
“Of course. I’ll be here. Just call, and I’ll have Junior run up there to check.”
“Thanks.”
I drove Marco’s Explorer to Ewing, wondering if I should have made a quick trip to Hank’s to pick up his car.