While My Sister Sleeps by Barbara Delinsky

she meant to tell me, but we were together last year when the news reported autopsy results on a guy who died during the Olympic marathon trials. He had an enlarged heart. It was totally tragic. I mean, he was only twenty-eight. Robin was saying how scary it was, because she has the same thing.”
    That was news to Molly. It would be news to her parents. But Robin told Kathryn everything. If she had known something like that and hidden it from her mother for the sake of glory, it would be awful!
    “Is that the problem?” Jenny asked.
    “Uh …uh …”
    “Is she all
right?
”
    Oh, yes
, her mother would have wanted her to say. But it was a lie, possibly compounded now by Robin's lie. Angry at her sister, and at her mother, who
reveled
in the glory of parenting a world-class runner, Molly blurted out, “Actually, she's not. She hasn't regained consciousness.”
    “Omigod! Is she at Dickenson-May?”
    “Yes.”
    “In the ICU?”
    Starting to worry, Molly backpedaled. “Yeah, but will you kind of… not tell people, Jenny? We don't know where this is headed.”

OLLY KEPT AN EYE OUT FOR CHRIS. THE MINUTE he returned to Snow Hill, she was in his office. “Did you hear anything last year about Robin having an enlarged heart?”
    He shook his head. “Who says she did?”
    “Jenny Fiske. She implied Robin knew there was a problem and ignored it.”
    “You told her Robin had a heart problem?” he asked.
    Molly grew defensive. “I had to. And anyway, it's ridiculous keeping this to ourselves when there are friends who really care.”
    “Mom will be pissed.”
    She threw a hand up. “Oh, well, what else is new? I can never say the right thing when it comes to Mom. Lately it's Nick.” She had met Nick Dukette two years earlier on the sidelines of one of Robin's races. Nick had been there as a newspaper reporter, Molly as a fan, but they started talking and hadn't stopped. Since then, he had briefly dated Robin, and though ithadn't worked out, Molly and he remained friends. Kathryn had nothing good to say about the man. “She's been after me for even meeting him for coffee. But I knew him first. So just because Robin breaks up with him,
I
have to stop being his friend? He is
not
an evil man.”
    “He's media.”
    “He was media when he was dating Robin, and Mom wasn't against him then. Wouldn't Robin have spilled more inside information than I have, or is it just that Mom thinks I'm stupidly naïve? What did I do to make her distrust me? By the way, Dad agrees with us about the EEG. If anyone can convince Mom to have it done, it's him.”
    “Y'think?”
    “Definitely. She may be the leader, but he's smart. He doesn't have to raise his voice, and she listens.”
    “Ex
act
ly,” Chris said with uncharacteristic feeling. “He's a
quiet
force.”
    Molly was feeling sensitive enough about her mother to take his sudden show of passion personally. “And I'm not? Is that what you're saying? I'm
sorry
, but I can't
not
express my feelings.”
    “Maybe the problem is how you do it. Maybe you should lower the volume.”
    “But that's not me. You inherited quietness from Dad. I didn't.”
    “Could you be married to a guy like him?”
    Molly wasn't thinking of marriage just then, but since he had asked, she answered. “In a minute. I'm like Mom. I need someone to calm me.”
    “Wouldn't you find it boring? Dad comes home from work and doesn't say much.”
    “But he's always there.” She had a sudden thought. “Do youthink Mom and Dad knew about the enlarged heart and kept it secret?”
    Chris snorted. “Go ask.”
    Molly considered that for all of two seconds before saying, “I will.” She wanted to be at the hospital anyway.
    “SO Molly will box everything up and take care of the move,” Kathryn told Robin. “It's perfect that you two share a place. Molly's a great backup person for when you're away. And even now, she'll keep your friends up on what's happening until we get rid of this stupid tube—”