Thankfully, the new headache medicine worked. An hour later, music was playing on the radio as Brenna listened for weather updates.
She had decided to go all out for Julie's shower, Adena or no Adena. Pulling the heavy silverware box from the sideboard, she opened it up and surveyed the extent of the tarnish. Really not too bad. She took the box into the kitchen and in a short time had the silver gleaming, thanks to the new liquid silver polish. It must have been terrible to sit and polish all these pieces years ago. After returning the silver to its box, she looked outside. No rain yet.
After lunch, Brenna curled up in her rocker in front of the fire and worked on finishing Julie's baby afghan. She had to admit it was a pretty pattern, the mint green shells interlocking. As her hook dove in and out of the design, her mind wandered. It eventually came to Adam. How could it not?
This was one problem her mind had not resolved during the night. How could it, she thought wryly. All she had dreamed about was Helena. Adam. Her heart still loved him, but some part of her balked at the volunteer work he loved. Feeling like a blubbering idiot, she wept over her handiwork, blinking tears out of the way to see her stitches better. Good Lord, she was behaving like Helena, sitting and crying over her needlework. She sniffed and wiped the tears away. Enough. She would not repeat Helena's past in this house. This was supposed to be a happy house. Still, her mind wound round and round her relationship with Adam, coming to no conclusion.
Finally, Brenna shoved the afghan back in the basket and went to look out the window. The weatherman was now reporting that the storm would hold off until tonight. She should go see Helena. The rest home was unprotected from the wind. She wondered if it had been hit harder than her house.
After pulling her raincoat on over her sweater and jeans, she put on her hiking boots, picked up Olivia and told Zoe to stay put.
The air was fresh and calm as she deposited the cat in the Blazer, then went down the driveway and picked up the debris. She still had to drive over a fair amount of small branches before she reached the highway and was thankful she had traded in the Miata. Road crews had cleared the larger branches and they were piled here and there on the sides of the road.
Pulling into the rest home's lot, Brenna noticed they had taken in the hanging baskets and the chairs. The lawn looked like everyone else's, with branches strewn everywhere. The clay tiles on the roof had weathered this storm well.
No one was at the desk as she came in so she made straight for Helena's room. Brenna stopped at the door to see if she was sleeping, but Helena saw her from her bed and waved her in.
IV tubing hung from a pole at Helena's bedside, dripping fluid and antibiotics into her thin arm.
"What's this?" Brenna asked her, worried.
"Oh, just a touch of pneumonia. Sit down and tell me how you are."
Brenna opened her coat and deposited the tiger cat on Helena's lap.
"Olivia!" The cat turned round and round as usual and settled down. Helena stroked her with a thin hand. Too thin, Brenna thought.
"Thank you so much for bringing her to visit." Helena leaned her head back against her pillow.
Brenna had folded Helena's new shawl into her purse and now pulled it out to lay it across Helena's legs. "Here's the shawl I brought you from Portland."
"It's beautiful, dear. Thank you." Helena ran her hand over the soft folds. "How is Adam doing?"
"Just fine. We went to the fire dinner last night. He's a good friend." Even as Brenna spoke the words, she knew they weren't honest. Her feelings for him had not been limited to friendship...but they might need to be in the future.
Helena looked at her searchingly. "I had hoped you would be seeing each other." She smiled. "The older I get, the less tactful I seem to be."
"I just don't know how compatible we are. Every time his pager goes off, I feel sick. It stirs up old memories of nursing."
"I can see where you would need some time to recover from your past. That's only normal. Life can strike devastating blows. But what keeps coming to me is how much Margaret would've liked you."
Those words pierced through to Brenna's heart. She shook her head. "Sometimes the problems are too great. Mere feelings can't always overcome them."
Helena interrupted her. "The smallest measure of love is important. Don't cast it aside so easily."
"But I can't live with his lifestyle. I came to the beach to get away from medicine and here I am, up to my ears in it because of him."
"When I was trying to decide whether to marry Martin, my mother said something to me I have never forgotten. The question is not 'can I live with him' but rather 'can I live without him'." Helena smiled. "I often thought of that when I was exasperated with Martin for one reason or another. It clarified many things." She was becoming short of breath.
"Helena, I should let you rest. Do you want me to put your shawl away?"
"Oh no, dear. It feels nice and warm on my legs. Thank you so much."
Brenna smiled, tucked Olivia back into her coat, and kissed Helena on the forehead. "Get better. We'll be back soon."