CHAPTER 165

“I imagine so. Hell, I would too.”

An unwieldy pause lingered.

Finally, he said, “Can you tell me the rest of it?”

“When we were at the end of the divorce proceedings, my mother returned. I moved into her new place, which ended up being a good thing because not four months later she was diagnosed with uterine cancer.”

“Jesus. Are you serious?”

Sky nodded. “Sounds like a soap opera, doesn’t it? Of course, my mom had let her health insurance lapse while she was in seclusion, so all the payments to the hospital and doctors came out of her pocket. India actually cleaned up her act for a while and helped me care for Mom. My grandma, my mom’s mother, Elizabeth, came to help.”

A warm feeing unfurled in his chest. “Eliza was named after her, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah. She was a remarkable woman. It fascinated me she was part Cheyenne since my mother had never mentioned that part of our background. Grandma mixed up herb ointments for my mother that actually worked. When I asked her about them, she ga