“I agree with David. It certainly won’t make anything worse.”

“It would take a lot out of her to travel,” Paul said.

“I’d be there to make sure she was comfortable,” Hope said. She could ask Jenny to keep Ethan for a couple of days while they were away. Ethan was familiar enough with her and Alex by now that he’d be okay staying with them.

“That’s a lot to ask. You have Ethan…”

Paul looked so sad that Hope’s heart went out to him. If she could somehow make this easier on him, she’d do it in a minute. “He’d be fine with Jenny and Alex for a couple of days, if they’d be willing.”

“They would,” Paul said.

She could almost see him trying to figure out how he could be off the island and away from the business for even a few days.

“How soon are we talking?”

“I think it should be done as soon as possible,” David said.

“Okay,” Paul said, resigned. “You can set it up?”

“I’ll take care of everything.”

“We would’ve been so lost without your help, David.”

“I only wish I could do more to slow the progression.”

“Nothing short of a miracle could do that,” Paul said.

“One thing I’m sure of,” David said, “is the care you and Alex have given her and keeping her at home all this time has given her a much better quality of life than she would’ve had otherwise. You should be very proud of yourselves.”

Paul nodded in acknowledgment of the compliment, but he didn’t look proud. He looked defeated.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

By the time he got his mother and Hope home and settled, Paul was ready to give up on the day. But that wasn’t an option when there was work to be done. There was always work to be done. He changed into work clothes and then sat on his bed to put on socks. A wave of despair overtook him, threatening to suck him under.

“We’ve tried so hard, Pop,” he whispered. “We tried to do what you would’ve done and kept Mom home with us. But it’s so hard.”

Before he got sick with cancer, George Martinez had been a strong, capable man who never let anything get him down. He worked hard, loved hard, played hard and had very high expectations for both of his sons. Disappointing their father had never been high on their to-do list.

His father’s voice was always in Paul’s head, guiding every decision he made in business and in life. George Martinez was the yardstick by which Paul measured himself as a man, and today he found himself sorely lacking. They were going to the mainland to have his mother evaluated by a dementia expert who would—again—recommend she be placed in an in-patient residential home for her own good—and theirs.