“Old man, my ass,” Dad grumbles.
“Knock, knock,” a voice says, poking his head into the room. He’s in a white coat, and it’s clear by the way that my father sighs that this is his doctor. “How is my patient doing?”
“Perfectly fine, now that my daughter is here,” Dad says. “When are you cutting me loose?”
“Tomorrow,” the doctor says, coming further into the room. “For those that don’t know, I’m Dr. Fitz.”
“Is there anything my father isn’t telling me?” I ask. “He’s been ridiculously cagey lately.”
“That’s rude,” Dad mutters. “I’ve been nothing of the sort.”
“Mmhm,” I say, giving the full force of my stare to the doctor.
“Um,” he says. “Why is someone so tiny, so intense?”
“Welcome to my world,” Miles says. “Answer her question, and she won’t cry.”
“That feels like a very loaded threat.”
Dad groans, rubbing his face. “Fine, just tell her.”
“Mr. Freedman has some of the aches and pains that occur as someone gets older,” Dr. Fitz says. “Overall, he’s fine. However, I want him to change the medications he’s currently taking as he lives a life of higher stress than normal people.”
“You mean when his face turns the same shade as his hair?” I snicker. “Redheads are angry gremlins.”
“Cae,” Dad laughs. “Honestly.”
“In addition,” the doctor continues, “he’ll be on a modified diet to help reduce his cholesterol. He’s been doing really well with exercising.”
“See? I’m completely fine. I’m also cleared to go back to work, correct?” Dad asks.
“Yes,” Dr. Fitz replies. “It sounds silly to say that it was just a little heart attack, but that’s what it was. Your dad was lucky.”
Dad gives him a slightly pained look as I glare at him, and the doctor takes his leave.
“He just hung me out to dry,” he mutters.
“You scared the hell out of me,” I sigh, starting to feel sleepy again. My eyelids feel as if they’re a million pounds.
“Take a nap, baby,” Santo says gently. At my unintelligible noise, he smirks. “We’ll go hunt down food when you wake up, okay?”
“I couldn’t get her to eat anything,” Miles complains.
“Did you really think Cae would be easy to manage?” Dad asks.
I don’t hear anything else as I allow myself to fall asleep. I can’t really do anything if I’m about to fall over anyway.
23
SANTO
“Why do you look like you’re about to jump out of your skin?” Mr. Freedman asks.
My eyes have been on Caelia, but I can’t stop tapping my foot. She’s been sleeping for an hour, and we’ve all been shooting the shit in the meantime. Now, I’m indeed antsy as I start to think about everything.
“He’s overthinking,” Levon grunts. Sighing, I slouch in my chair as I nod. “Out with it before you infect us all with your nervous energy.”
“Where are we going to live?” I ask. “How are we going to handle leaving Caelia when we’re on the road? Though, I can renegotiate my contract so I won’t have to travel. I only agreed because there was nothing keeping me tied to Nashville. That’s obviously changed.”
