Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“I’ll get them,” Dayton says, leaving the kitchen.
“I’m going to be okay, honey. Just calm down,” Dad tells Mom, taking her hand, and seeing the contrast in their complexion, I stop to take a breath.
I’ve heard people described as turning gray when they’re sick, but seeing it happen to my dad, I know whatever is going on inside him isn’t good.
“You better be.” Mom leans into him.
“I’m sorry, Dad.” I lean into his other side and wrap my arms around him.
“This isn’t your fault.” He kisses my head, and tears fill my eyes.
He’s wrong. My news was the catalyst for whatever is happening with him right now.
It feels like forever before Dayton walks back in with three EMTs, but mere minutes after they arrive, Dad is on a stretcher being wheeled out of the house, with Mom clinging to his side.
“We’ll meet you at the hospital,” I say as we follow them down the front steps to the open back doors of the ambulance.
“Okay, honey.” Mom barely spares me a glance as she climbs into the back with Dad.
With my heart in my throat, I watch the doors close and feel Dayton wrap his arm around my waist.
“Let’s go grab whatever your mom might need, baby.” He turns me toward the house as the ambulance takes off with the lights on top of it flashing.
I leave him in the foyer when we get inside and run upstairs to my parents’ bedroom, grabbing Mom’s purse along with a sweatshirt for her out of her closet, since all she had on is a tank top and shorts when she left. When I get back to the kitchen a minute later, I find Dayton talking quietly to Jacob, who hasn’t moved from his spot at the island.
“Ready, baby?” Dayton asks a moment later, and I nod at him, then focus on my brother again.
“You’re coming to the hospital, right?”
“Yeah.” Jacob gathers himself enough to follow Dayton and me outside to the SUV.
No one says a word on the way to the hospital, but that doesn’t mean I don’t spend the whole ride praying to whoever will listen.
CHAPTER 16
Francisca
Curled up in the reclining hospital chair next to my dad’s bed, I study the steady beat of his heart on one of the many monitors he’s hooked up to.
It’s been a little over seventy-two hours since he was rushed in for open-heart surgery after suffering a major heart attack—a heart attack the doctors said would have killed him if Mom hadn’t been insistent on calling an ambulance and getting him help as soon as she did.
The first forty-eight hours after his surgery were touch and go, but he’s improved a lot over the last twenty-four hours, giving us all some relief and a much-needed dose of hope.
Taking my eyes off the monitor, I look over at my dad and breathe through the ache in my chest. Since I was a little girl, he’s always seemed untouchable, so seeing him so fragile while realizing that he’s just a normal man who is susceptible to the same ailments as everyone else has been a hard pill to swallow.
Hearing the door open, I watch my mom come around the side of the curtain and force a smile for her. She looks as exhausted as I feel. Then again, none of us have gotten much sleep the last few days, even with the two of us taking turns staying here with Dad ever since he was moved out of the ICU.
“How’s he doing?” Mom asks quietly, walking around the side of the bed and picking up Dad’s hand.
“Good. He woke up for a while early this morning, and the nurse was in about an hour ago and said that everything looked great,” I tell her carefully, sitting up. “Did you get some sleep?”
“A little.”
“Where’s Jacob?” I ask, and she gives me a forced smile.
“I told him to stay behind and get some more sleep.”
“That’s good.” It’s a toss-up who I’m more worried about—my dad, who is obviously recovering from major surgery, or my brother, who has turned into a zombie since Dad was put in the hospital. I’m just hoping Jacob snaps out of it when he sees that Dad is going to be okay.
“Where is Dayton?”
“I made him leave about two hours ago,” I tell her, and she frowns. “He has a big case he’s working on, and he’s put off a few meetings to be here with me. I told him that I would be okay for a few hours without him.”
“And he believed you?” I smile at that, obviously. Dayton has been a permanent fixture, and he’s made it clear to not only me but my family that he’s not going anywhere. Even when we haven’t been here at the hospital, he’s been at my side—or I’ve been at his—since during the few breaks we got, the two of us have slept at his place in his bed together.