“No,” Ford said from behind a sigh. “He’s been sleeping a lot, hasn’t he?”
“Yeah,” I said with a small breath. My stomach fell down toward my feet, knowing what that meant.
“That’s not a great sign, is it?”
“The neurologist’s nurse told me he might improve with treatment, so long as we can get him going on his medications soon.” We had an appointment, but it was six weeks away, and the neurologist didn’t want us to go back on the old medication. He wanted to reassess my dad before making that kind of decision.
And I had to accept that the reality was this was terminal. Treatment would delay it, and it would provide maybe some measure of comfort.
But it wasn’t going to fix anything.
It wouldn’t make him a better person.
And it wouldn’t stop the inevitable.
“Come by after he’s settled and Nikos gets there.”
“I will.” Ford hummed and yanked my sleeve, pulling me close to kiss my temple. “I love you.”
I softened. “I love you too.” And fuck, I really did love the shit out of my friends. It felt foolish now that I’d tried to handle all of this alone at the start. I could have been relying on them so much sooner.
And saved me so much pain.
But I was never the sharpest knife in the drawer, and hell, maybe that was part of my charm.
I was just settling into the couch with some hot cocoa when the buzzer rang, and I didn’t bother getting up because I knew Micah would let himself in. The sound of his metal cane tip filled the hallway, then the scrape of him hanging it up before he moved into the living room.
“You here?”
“On the couch, left corner.”
He made his way over, knocking his shin against the coffee table the way he always did, cursing as he sat. “Burn that fucking thing.”
“You’re the only one who knocks into it. And I like it.” I swung my feet up to prove my point, letting them fall with a loud thud. “I made hot cocoa, by the way.”
“What the fuck, dude? Why the fuck are you drinking hot cocoa?”
“Today hurt my feelings, so I’m having cocoa.”
There was a heavy pulse of silence before he spoke again. “How bad is it?”
“The situation or Dad?” I couldn’t help but ask.
It took him a moment to answer. “Both, I guess.”
Shifting to face him, I sipped my drink, then set it beside my foot and dug my toes into the wood to distract myself from how much this all was. “Do you really want to know? Because the last time we came close to talking about this mess, you and Caleb walked out.”
“Yeah, but that was Mom’s bullshit.” He went quiet for a second. “Mom’s really gone, right? She actually left the country?”
I sighed. “Mm. She’s really gone. She disconnected her phone line, and she’s in the fucking wind.”
“And what she said about Dad?”
I rubbed a hand down my face. “She wasn’t lying. He’s not good. He’s pretty far advanced with the Alzheimer’s. He sleeps most of the day and wanders a lot at night when he starts sundowning.”
“Is he here?”
“Fuck no,” I said with a harsh laugh. “I wouldn’t be able to find the fucker if he wandered off. I’m paying a friend to stay with him while his wife is overseas.”
