Grabbing an umbrella, she headed toward the garden center and stayed busy until closing taking care of paperwork and organizing files for her mom’s return.
Right after close, Doug Carlson popped into her office, the college kid she had met that first day back. She had become fond of him over the past few weeks. He was earnest, if a bit distracted by his own grow operation.
“Your mom is really coming back soon?” he asked.
“That’s the plan. It might take her a few weeks to ease up to full speed, but you all seem to have things under control and I know everyone will help her.”
“I’m happy to work as many shifts as you need until she’s back to her old self. Even overtime, if I have to.”
“Thanks, Doug. I appreciate that and I know my mom will, too. I’ll be sure to let her know when she’s working up the schedule over the next few weeks.”
“She’s a nice lady, your mom.”
“Yeah. I’m pretty lucky in the mom department.”
“Too bad about her MS, you know, but she doesn’t seem to let it get her down.”
She stared at him, certain somehow that she must have heard wrong. He did tend to mumble his words, as if he didn’t remember how to talk without a bong nearby.
“Sorry. Her what?”
He blinked at her. “You know. Her multiple sclerosis. My mom has it and they go to the same clinic. Dr. Hall. He’s a great guy.”
“I didn’t know your mom has multiple sclerosis.” She felt as if she had entered some alternate universe. None of this was making sense to her.
“Yeah. She’s had it most of my life. Over the past few years, it’s gotten worse. That’s why I left school and came home, only a few classes away from becoming a pharmacy tech. I might go back someday but she needs me right now. She can’t drive on her own now because she can’t see too well, so I take her to appointments. I do the shopping, pick up her meds. That kind of thing.”
All this time, she had thought he was just a pot-smoking college dropout living at home and working part-time while he tried to figure things out. Now she felt terrible for making assumptions, for not digging deeper.
Of course, he was still completely wrong about Juliet.
“I’m sorry about your mom but you must be mistaken about Juliet. Maybe she was taking a friend or something.”
Doug looked doubtful. “It was about a month ago or so, during Dr. Hall’s MS clinic. She was in one of the rooms, in a hospital gown. I was pushing my mom’s wheelchair down the hall when a nurse slid open the door to one of the rooms and I happened to look in. I wasn’t snooping on purpose—it was a total accident. I don’t think she saw me, though.”
“If it was just a fleeting look, you were probably mistaken.”
Her shock and denial must have finally filtered through to Doug. His eyes widened and he suddenly looked horrified. “Oh man. You didn’t know. I shouldn’t have said anything. Juliet will kill me. I just figured, you’re her kid. You would know about her MS. Forget I even opened my big mouth. Who knows? I could be totally wrong.”
Could it be possible? Could Juliet have kept something as significant as a serious medical diagnosis from Olivia?
She had broken her hip and Olivia hadn’t found out for hours. This was vastly different, though.
“Just forget I said anything, okay?” he repeated.
She forced a smile for Doug. “Don’t worry about it. It’s all good. Thanks for everything today.”
He waved and shuffled out of her mom’s office, leaving Olivia alone with shock waves still rippling through her.
She wanted to think it was a terrible mistake, an unfortunate case of mistaken identity. But the longer she sat there, the less that theory made sense. Doug might not be the most reliable witness but he wasn’t stupid. Yeah, he was probably stoned a lot on his free time, but not when he was driving his mother to a doctor’s appointment. Surely he would recognize his own boss.
Why else would her mother be there? Maybe the doctor saw people for a multitude of things. Headaches, maybe.
Except he said it was an MS clinic. Why would Juliet be there for something else during an MS clinic?
Was it true? Did her mom have multiple sclerosis? If she did, how long had she known? And why would she keep something like that from Olivia?