“Oh, don’t be dramatic. It won’t take that long. I should still be alive by the time it happens.”
I burst out laughing before I could help it.
“Hey there.” Another nurse drew back the curtain. “The food cart is outside if you’d like to get anything. I know you’ve been saying you’re hungry.”
“I’ll grab you some breakfast.” I stood and motioned to the cart. “What would you like?”
“I doubt the selection is big, but coffee and some kind of pastry would be great, thank you.” She grabbed my arm before I headed out. “Two things before I forget. Don’t let her be alone tonight.” Her mouth flattened. “She’s shaken up, even if she won’t admit it. So, don’t leave her, okay?”
“I had no intention of it. What else?”
“I’m old and traditional and will expect you to ask my permission before you propose to my daughter.”
I blinked a few times as I tried to figure out how to reply.
“It’s only been a few months since we’ve?—”
“It’s been eons, trust me. I knew if you ever came back into her life, that would be it. And here you are. Now go to the cart before they leave and I have to wait until lunch.”
I had no reply as my jaw went slack.
“Go.” She pointed to the cart. “And if you get me a cheese Danish” —a smile curved her lips— “I may even tell you yes.”
20
EMILY
“I never thoughtthat sitting down for so many hours would be so exhausting,” I told Jesse from the passenger seat of his car.
When the call from the hospital had woken me out of a dead sleep, I had been too shaken up to drive and had called an Uber.
Jesse had offered to take me home after Mom was settled into a room and mostly comfortable with pain meds. Her doctor had told me that I could go back home and come back in the morning. My mother had thrown me out when I resisted, yelling at me to leave and get some sleep.
After we’d lost my grandparents while I was in high school, it had been just us, but we’d still had our extended family. Little by little, our family had shrunk to only each other.
I didn’t know if marriage was in the cards for me, especially after the way my engagement had ended. I’d figured I’d be permanently single but had no problem with being on my own.
But today, as I waited to find out if she was okay, I realized that I was never trulyon my ownif I still had my mother. If something had happened to her today, I wouldn’t know my place in this world without her.
And that realization had terrified me to my core.
“Hospitals are exhausting.” Jesse’s voice pulled me out of my musings. “I know how it is to be there all day, sometimes all night, and those chairs aren’t exactly comfortable. I always left tired, with a big knot in my back.”
He chuckled, but his smile never made it to his eyes.
I knew he was thinking about his sister, and I couldn’t imagine what it was like to see someone young and vital become so ill that your family had to spend endless amounts of time with her at a hospital.
“Yes, I still have a crick in my neck from falling asleep in the waiting room. I can’t wait to change and get into bed.”
Jesse pulled up in front of my apartment and shut off the engine, regarding me with a tentative gaze. I’d spewed out a lot in that hospital waiting room, surprising even myself at some of the words falling from my mouth. Fears I’d kept hidden far in the back of my mind rose right to the surface and had a crippling hold on me.
A weird weight had been lifted after my surprise confessions, even if I had no idea what to do about them.
“Thanks for the ride home and for…everything.” I leaned over to kiss his cheek. “I’m glad you came.”
“Me too, Em,” he said, stretching his arm across the back of my seat. “I have a suggestion. How about you stay with me tonight?”
He held up a hand before I could reply.
