Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 95421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
“What? I thought I was her primary medical delegate?”
“Not according to the system. But I can double check the paperwork, if you’d like.”
Naomi shook her head. “No, it’s fine. It doesn’t matter. Can I come see Frannie now, even though it’s not visiting hours?”
“Yes. Visitors are permitted past regular hours in emergency situations.”
“I’ll be right there.”
***
One minute I’m answering my door and feeling like king of the world, and the next I’m driving Naomi back home after twenty hours at the hospital. Frannie hadn’t woken up after her seizure. She’d slipped into a coma, and the doctors weren’t optimistic about the outcome.
Naomi stared out the window the entire drive to Frannie’s apartment. When I parked and turned off the engine, she looked around and blinked, appearing almost startled. “Oh my God. I don’t even know how we got here. Did I fall asleep during the drive?”
“Your eyes were open, but you were definitely somewhere else.”
She looked straight ahead for a long time. “I have to tell the kids. Do I let them see her like that?”
I raked a hand through my hair. “I don’t know.”
Tears streamed down her face. “It’s going to scare them so badly, but I feel like I need to give them some warning. When they saw her last week, she was doing so well.”
I tasted salt in my throat and shut my eyes. “Fuck. I’m so sorry.”
“I wish she’d never done the transplant. She could’ve gone into remission without it, like she did last time. I wish I’d never encouraged her to do this.”
This was all my fault. All my fucking fault. I needed to tell Naomi what I’d done, that without my stupid need to make things right, her sister wouldn’t be in this predicament. But now was not the time. Telling her wouldn’t help anyone but me. I might get it off my chest, but it would only complicate things for her by adding a new layer of emotional stress. “It’s not your fault. All you ever did was support your sister’s decisions.”
Naomi had held it together the whole time at the hospital, but suddenly she broke. Her shoulders shook, and then the noise came. I unbuckled her seatbelt and pulled her over the center console, holding her in my arms as she cried.
“I can’t lose her. The kids can’t lose their mother.”
Silent tears streamed down my face. I couldn’t even console her by saying everything would be alright. It most likely wouldn’t be. Because of me. Instead, I stroked her hair and held her tight. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
After a long time, she wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand and sniffled. “I have to go in and talk to the kids before it gets too late.”
“Do you want me to go with you?”
Naomi smiled sadly. “No. But thank you. Frannie’s sister-in-law is still here. We’re going to talk to them together.”
I nodded. I had the strongest urge to tell her I loved her as I watched her walk from the car to the door. But it wasn’t because I thought she needed to hear it. It was because I had a sinking feeling I might never get the chance to tell her.
Chapter 36
* * *
DAWSON
A week later, Frannie’s health had miraculously started to improve. She wasn’t out of the woods yet, but she’d been released from the ICU into a stepdown unit. I hadn’t seen much of Naomi because Frannie’s sister-in-law had been keeping an eye on the kids when she went to the hospital. On the two days she’d come into the office, I’d made myself scarce. And tonight was the second night in a row I’d gone from the office to a bar down the block from my apartment instead of going home and getting the sleep I desperately needed.
The same bartender was on tonight as last night. I took the same stool, and he walked over and flung a hand towel over his shoulder. “Vodka soda?”
I nodded. “Good memory.”
He grabbed a glass from beneath the bar and plucked a bottle of Tito’s from the rack on the wall. “You don’t look like most of my other patrons.”
I felt my brows draw together and looked around. Two other guys were seated around the bar—one was probably in his sixties with a bulbous nose and eyes glued to a horse race on TV, and the other I thought was a bit older and I was pretty sure he might’ve been here last night. Might’ve been wearing those same clothes, too.
“Older crowd?”
He picked up the spray nozzle and topped off my glass with seltzer, gesturing with his chin to the guy watching TV. “Jack over there asked me if he could sign over his Social Security check in exchange for unlimited beer. I told him that was a losing proposition. Frank…” He nodded toward the other man. “He’s usually waiting outside when I get here at ten in the morning. You look like you have a job.”