Jo gave him another sympathetic squeeze before turning to the rest of us. “I should get you home,” she said. To me? To Alec?
“It’s no problem if you want to stay awhile,” Alec said.
“You are the best,” Jo said to him. She bounced Robbie on her hip. “Maybe. Thanks. Just until we hear.”
The entrance doors slid open again and Meg came in. “John’s watching the kids,” she announced. “I brought sandwiches.”
I watched my family engulf Trey. I’d missed this, I realized. Team March, united again, the way we had been when Daddy deployed.
Trey’s relationship with my family had survived his breakup with Jo. But if they all knew we had slept together, how would they feel? It’s not like he would have stayed with me. Not when he really loved Jo. And he needed this, needed them. He’d already lost one family. I couldn’t deprive him of mine.
We sat in the scratchy waiting room chairs. Meg dispensed hand sanitizer and sandwiches from the capacious mom bag I’d made for her a couple years ago. Except for Alec, nobody ate much.
“I’m not hungry,” Beth said.
“You should eat something,” our mother said.
“Oh, I ate with Mr. Laurence. Miss Dee made cookies.” Beth managed a small, strained smile. “Chocolate chip.”
When Robbie got bored with the toys Jo brought, I drew silly faces on my fingers and thumbs and put on a puppet show with my hands. Jo smiled at me gratefully.
“Laurence family?” the nurse called.
Trey stood.
We all did. Even Alec, the newest member of the clan, gathering his long legs under him, pulling out his earbuds to listen.
Trey looked around at this demonstration of support, his dark eyes glittering. My mother took his arm. I was so proud of her. Of us. So grateful for our family.
The doctor came out. She looked a little taken aback as the mob of us converged—well, we were a lot—but delivered her report to Trey in a dry, reassuring voice. Apparently the stroke had been caused by a clot, revealed by the CT scan.
“We’ve given Mr. Laurence a medication to break up the clot and reopen the blocked artery,” the doctor said. “We’ve found that if the drug is administered soon enough, it can reduce the stroke’s severity. Even reverse some of its effects. Your grandfather is lucky you got him here as quickly as you did.”
“Because of Beth. Thank you,” Trey said to Beth.
She blushed.
“We’ll have to watch him extra closely for the next twenty-four hours,” the doctor said. “I’ll order a repeat CT scan in a day or two to make sure the drugs worked.”
“But howishe?” our mother asked.
The doctor hesitated. “Conscious. Confused, which is completely normal. And of course he’s very tired. We’ll continue to assess his condition over the next few days.”
“We’re admitting Mr. Laurence now,” the nurse said. “You can wait for him up in the room if you want.”
“All of us?” Jo asked.
“We won’t fit,” Mom said practically.
“You all can go,” Trey said. “You heard her. He’s normal. He’s going to be fine.”
Which wasn’t exactly what the doctor said. “What about you?” I asked.
“I’m fine, too.”
“We love you,” Meg said. “Call if you need anything.”
Jo scowled. “I don’t like to leave you here alone.”
