Ashley's Hope by Amelia C. Adams

Author:Amelia C. Adams [Adams, Amelia C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-07-05T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

“Aunt Vi?” Ashley plopped what felt like an entire armload of papers on the couch and continued into the kitchen, but Vi wasn’t in there, either. That was really strange—at this time of day, she was either watching a game show with a sandwich or she was in the kitchen making a sandwich. “Vi?”

“In here,” came a weak reply, and Ashley headed for the bedroom.

Vi lay in bed, still in her pajamas. Ashley had been gone for several hours—how long had her aunt been lying there, needing help? “Are you all right? Do you need me to call Dr. Stone? Why didn’t you call my cell?”

“Your cell didn’t pick up, I decided not to bother Misty today, and no, I don’t need the doctor. I just need a little help to get to the bathroom.”

“Of course.” Ashley slid her arm under her aunt’s shoulders and leveraged her upright. Vi let out a groan.

“Did I do that wrong? Did I hurt you?”

“Honey, it’s going to hurt no matter what, and there’s nothing you can do about that. Now let’s get a move on here—my bladder’s not as young as it used to be.”

Vi insisted that she didn’t need help once she was in the bathroom, but Ashley stayed right outside the door just in case. She couldn’t help the waves of guilt that washed over her. She should have checked on Vi before she ever left that morning. She should have made some breakfast and gotten Vi situated and done a million other things differently. There was no reason for Vi to be left alone like that.

“I’m perfectly all right, and you can stop chastising yourself,” Vi said a moment later when she opened the bathroom door.

“How do you know what I’m doing out here?” Ashley retorted.

“Because I know you better than you know yourself, and you’re beating yourself up wondering how you could have done things differently. Point of fact—I have quite a number of emergency contacts programmed into my phone, and I know how to use it. I knew you’d be home soon, so I chose to wait. It’s not like I’d fallen and I couldn’t get up.”

Ashley chuckled. She and Aunt Vi had laughed and laughed over those commercials years ago, but now they weren’t funny. Now they smacked of more truth than either of them probably wanted to admit.

“Now that I’m up and moving around, I’ll be fine,” Vi said. “It’s just that some days, the transition from lying down to getting up is harder than others. And you need to tell me what happened in town today.”

Ashley helped Vi into the kitchen and poured them each some coffee, then relayed the good news. “The city’s going to send out an inspector or someone like that to check things out, but they said pretty much everything Josh said about the lane and the limited number of customers, so I think we’re in good shape. I’ve brought home a ton of paperwork, which will probably take the rest of my life to fill out, and we should be open for business by the time I’m eighty.

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