“Would a friendly shoulder be in order?” he asked, searching her face for the source of her agony.
“A shoulder would be nice,” she said, a catch in her voice.
He held out his arms, and she stepped into them as if she’d never stopped doing it.
“I met her. I met my mother,” she said, her body trembling.
He cradled her gently. “What’s she like?”
“She’s been in a wheelchair for years. She’s so frail and alone, so in need of care and attention,” she whispered.
He glanced down at her. “Is that your nursing assessment?” he asked.
“Yeah, partly.” She gave him the faintest of smiles. “But, Mason, she’s had such a hard life, so many things have gone wrong for her, things she couldn’t control. I can’t imagine how it would feel to give up a child…to fear the future. All these years my mother loved me enough to offer me a better life, to put me first.”
“But you’ve found her now. You can make a difference.”
Her arms tightened around him. “Yes, and I’ve got plans for Mom—I want her to come live with me. There’s so much I can do for her if I bring her to Durham. She needs an aggressive physiotherapy program, and I can organize and oversee that better if she lives there. And on top of that, I have a sister…finally, and she needs me. I have a sister. It doesn’t seem possible.”
Surprised and pleased for her, Mason was glad he’d been here when she’d found her family. “Lisa, that’s wonderful. You’ve waited so long to find your mother, and now a sister. How different your life will be from here on.”
“Yeah, it is wonderful, and strange at the same time.”
They stood there in the hallway holding each other the way they used to, and Mason was acutely aware of how right it felt to him.
She must have felt it, too, because the old Lisa reasserted herself. Suddenly she pulled out of his arms. Tucking long strands of her blond hair behind her ears, she fixed him with an anxious look.
“My sister’s name is Anne Marie Lewis. She’s five years older than me. It’s so strange…to be needed, to be the one who can truly change someone’s future. All my life my parents pampered me and loved me while my own family was left to struggle with so much less. If only I’d known… I’ve got to find Anne Marie. She’s in trouble.”
Mason recognized that look of exhaustion in Lisa’s eyes. He’d seen it many times when he’d arrive at her apartment after her evening shift in Emergency. Lisa was feeling stressed, and who wouldn’t be after what she’d been through?
“Why don’t we get you checked in and something to eat first, and then you can tell me about your mother and your sister.”
AN HOUR LATER, Lisa followed Mason down the hotel corridor without paying much attention to her surroundings. On the drive here from the nursing home, all she could think about were her mother’s parting words.
How could Anne Marie have ended up in jail? Her mother hadn’t said any more, and Lisa had been too shocked to ask. Afraid she couldn’t cope with the situation, she’d practically run from the room.
Yet those few minutes with her mother had changed her life forever.
She had finally met the woman who gave birth to her. The one person who could tell her who she was, where she came from. Although she’d been nervous about meeting her mother, her fears had all been washed away in those first moments with Carolyn Lewis.
Instead of a woman with a dark secret as she’d feared, her mother was a woman who’d had the strength to survive in the face of difficulties that would have discouraged and demoralized a lesser person.
And now after years of wondering, Lisa would have a chance to learn all about her family. In the meantime, her mother and her sister needed her, and she’d be there for them.
She’d never had to take charge of a family situation before. But her family was desperate for help, and she was the only one who could provide it.
These feelings were as foreign as the world she found herself in—her mother unable to care for herself, her sister in jail.
As they arrived at the room Mason had booked for her, he opened the door, then put her suitcase down inside. He gave her a quick, assessing glance.
She couldn’t meet his eyes because she couldn’t let him in on what she was planning. If she did, he’d be determined to give her advice, make his opinions known. But tonight she could only deal with her own feelings. Now that she’d found her family, one thing was clear. She would help them, whatever it took.
“What’s running through your head?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” she responded, feeling guilty for ignoring Mason since they’d left the nursing home. She’d spent her time in the car staring out the window, her heart in turmoil.
She hadn’t told Mason very much about her visit with Carolyn. He hadn’t pushed her for more, al though she knew the cop in him wanted to ask.
“Look at me.”
Lisa was vaguely aware of the old attraction stirring between them as their eyes met. The rise and fall of his chest as he held her gaze told her he felt it, too.
“I’m going to order dinner for us. Fried chicken, Caesar salad and baked potato for you.”
She was grateful, not only that he remembered her favorite meal, but that he was willing to assume responsibility for her comfort.
Yet she dared not say that to him. Doing so would bring back old memories of better times.
She couldn’t let herself think of what might have been. Finding her mother had already filled her with regret. All the moments they’d missed, moments of being together, sharing their lives. “That’s so kind of you.”
“What are friends for?” He grinned the familiar grin she remembered so well.
“You should have a hot bath, something to eat and go to bed before you fall asleep standing up.”
“Sounds heavenly, but I have to make a call first.”
“Why?”
“There’s something I haven’t told you about my sister… She’s in jail,” Lisa said, sitting down on the edge of the bed, her energy suddenly spent and her mind weary with everything she’d seen and heard in the past hours.
“What has she been charged with?”
“I have no idea. Sorry for springing this on you, but so much has changed.”
He knelt down in front of Lisa, taking her hands in his warm grip, his smile uneasy. His touch brought forward long-buried memories of other times he’d knelt like this, his eyes filled with desire.
Resisting the urge to follow the memories, her body tensed.
“Which jail?” he asked, his voice calm and reassuring.
Oh, how she needed his calm approach! “I have no idea.”
“But you’d like to see her while you’re here.”
“Yes, as soon as possible.”
“You’ll have to wait until tomorrow at the earliest.”
She nodded. “I’ll feel much better once I’ve talked to her,” she murmured.
“Maybe. Maybe not. But I’ll make some inquiries first thing in the morning…try to determine where she is and if you can visit her,” he said, his doubtful tone raising her determination.
He clearly didn’t understand her feeling of urgency, but