Shay frowned. “Like who?”
He shook his head. “Like someone you care about. Someone who can support you. A friend? Someone you spend a lot of time with?”
She eyeballed him. “You’re being serious right now?”
“Yeah, I am.” He shifted sideways in his chair to face her fully. “My therapist says that even the strong one in the family needs someone to have their back… Who’s got yours?”
“Gabe,” she said. “Gabe’s had my back metaphorically and literally for the past twenty years. And the rest of my team arealways there for me.” And then there was Rosie. She hadn’t been in Shay’s life for long, but she’d already become an integral part of it, and they’d been spending the most time together. Shay had barely seen Gabe outside work since she and Lori had gotten together.
“Okay, so have you called her?”
Shay pushed herself further back in the chair. “I texted to let her know what was happening and that I wouldn’t be at work.”
“What are you, a millennial? Go call her.”
“Oh my Lord, fine.” Shay jumped up and pulled her cell from her purse. “I’ll call if it’ll shut you up.”
Aaron grinned. “It will.”
“I liked you better when you were self-centered.” She walked out and headed to the front of the building, needing some fresh air to cleanse her nose of the nauseating antiseptic and sickness scent unique to hospitals. She squinted when she emerged into the midday sun, but the heat felt good after the chilly a/c in the waiting room. She shivered, not realizing she’d gotten cold to the bone, and closed her eyes, soaking up the sun’s rays like she was a walking solar panel.
After a few revitalizing minutes, she became aware of the weight in her hand again and the reason she’d come out there. She unlocked the phone and opened her contacts’ favorites. Rosie would probably be having lunch with Lori if the visit to her boss’s florist had worked out. Gabe would be working.
“Hey, I’m so glad you called. How are you? How’s your dad?”
Just the sound of Rosie’s voice relaxed all the muscle tension making Shay’s body ache. “I’m fine.”
Rosie scoffed. “No, Shay. Howareyou?”
“One second.” Shay looked around and found an unoccupied bench close by. She sat in the center of it, hoping that would discourage anyone looking for miserable company. “I’m holding it together.” She stopped short of saying that she wished Rosie was there with her. She’d slowly concluded that she missed the way Rosie held her tight on the nights they’d actually slept in Mexico,and just the thought of her embrace right now was weirdly comforting. “My brothers are here, so I’m not alone.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Shay laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. She’d shared more of her family background with Rosie than anyone, other than Gabe. “I suppose I was alone when Aaron went to see his family. The rest of them are too self-absorbed to consider I need support too.” She played with a finger curl and smiled a little when she recalled how good Rosie had said her hair looked. “But Aaron’s back now. He even suggested that I call…”someone who can support me. When had that person become Rosie? With only brief consideration, Shay knew it wasn’t just because she’d done the same for Rosie. It was more than that,waymore than that.
“Good. I know you won’t feel like it, but have you eaten anything? You need to keep your body fueled.”
Shay touched her stomach reflexively, and it grumbled beneath her fingers. She smiled a little more at Rosie’s attempt to take care of her. “I haven’t had anything since yesterday, but I’ll grab something from the hospital cafeteria when we’re done talking.”
“Can you talk about what’s happening with your dad?”
There was the therapist in Rosie’s gentle voice, the compassionate seeking of consent to talk about something that might be difficult. Shay should’ve texted her yesterday to tell her how things were at the hospital, but a stubborn part of her just wanted to stick with her form: text Gabe and handle it alone. “Sure. He was confused when I got here, and he didn’t seem to know any of us except Aaron. They were waiting on results from a CT scan. That didn’t show anything, but the doctor wanted to keep him under observation for twenty-four hours. That’s normal, right?”
“It is, yes,” Rosie said, “and they should’ve woken him up every few hours to make sure his symptoms hadn’t gotten worse. Is that what happened?”
“Yeah, yeah. That’s exactly what they did. The nurses put a sleeper chair in his room, and they went into the waiting room acouple of times to let my brothers know how things were going. Me and Aaron took shifts through the night.” She paused for a second to steady her breath when she realized she was racing through her explanation, and all the dark thoughts that had zipped through her mind while she’d been in her daddy’s room watching his too-still body came rushing back.
“Are you still there?”
“Yeah, sorry. I was just taking a beat.”Hell, no. She glared at a young man approaching her bench with a purposeful swagger and a broad grin, but he U-turned before she was forced to say anything. She’d expected sad relatives of other patients wanting to sit with her and share their stories, but she hadn’t expected assholes thinking they could hit on her because she was emotionally vulnerable. “It seemed to get harder for them to wake him up every time, and when they came in at seven thirty, it took them forever. He vomited immediately, and he wasn’t able to answer any of the questions. The next thing we knew, they rushed him out of the room for another CT scan.”
“Oh, God, I’m sorry, Shay. That must’ve been terrifying.”
“Scarier than facing enemy fire.” She blew out a long breath. “I bet that sounds stupid.”
“No, it doesn’t at all,” Rosie said. “We’re talking about your dad, probably the strongest man you’ve ever known. It’s difficult to see him in a position that compromised.”
Shay leaned forward and put her elbows on her knees. “The second CT scan took longer than the first one, and we were going crazy in the waiting room. The doctor came in about an hour later to say Daddy had developed acute hydrocephalus and that they were prepping him for emergency surgery to relieve the pressure and…” She swallowed against her dry throat, wishing she’d stopped to grab a cup of coffee, regardless of how terrible it was.
