Everything else drops away.
“Vivian.” Her name comes out before I’m even fully aware I’m saying it.
She looks up. And I see it.
The tears. The way her face crumples just slightly when she recognizes me. I’m already moving, and she pushes to her feet atthe same time. We meet halfway, no hesitation, no space between us as I pull her in.
She folds into me like she’s been holding it together until now and doesn’t have to anymore.
My arms tighten around her automatically. “Hey. Hey.”
She presses her face into my chest, breath hitching.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, quieter now, steady even if everything in me is already keyed up.
“She—” Her voice catches. She pulls back just enough to look up at me, eyes glassy. “She came in because she fell. She hurt herself. Sprained her wrist.”
“Okay,” I say, grounding it. “Sprains aren’t horrible.”
“But she’s been coughing,” Vivian rushes on. “And they ran tests and—she has pneumonia. They admitted her. They’re keeping her.”
I nod, absorbing it, breaking it down into pieces I can work with.
“She’s here,” I say. “They’ve got her. She’s being taken care of.”
Vivian shakes her head, hands lifting like she doesn’t know what to do with them. “I know, I just—I don’t know what to do. I don’t—” Her voice falters. “I’m frozen, Ty. I feel like I should have pushed her to go to the doctor.”
I tighten my hold on her slightly, grounding both of us.
“It’s okay now,” I say again, softer. “She’s in the best place she can be.”
Her shoulders drop a fraction, and we move back to the chairs together, side by side. Her hand stays in mine like she’s not ready to let go. I’m not either. Everything else keeps coming at me—sound stacking on sound—but this, right here, gives me somewhere to put my focus.
A few minutes pass before a doctor approaches. “Vivian?” he says gently.
She straightens immediately. “Yes.”
“I just wanted to let you know your grandmother is restingcomfortably,” he says. “We’d like to keep her for a couple of days—just to run a few more tests and make sure the antibiotics are doing what we expect. But assuming she responds well, there’s every chance she’ll be home before the weekend is over.”
Vivian nods, absorbing it. “So she’ll get to come home soon?”
The older man dips his head. “We’ll keep you updated,” he says with a small, reassuring smile before moving on.
She watches him go, then exhales slowly.
“Okay, home by the end of the weekend,” she murmurs, more to herself than to me.
“You should go home and get some rest,” I suggest, already knowing my words will fall on deaf ears.
“I’ll stay here as long as they let me, Ty,” she whispers, already in her head making plans. “I can close the store for the next few days, put off any meetings. But I’m supposed to be with the girls for their session on Saturday.”
I glance at her. “The workshop.”
She nods, stress creeping back in. “I can’t leave her, but I can’t just not show up either. Emma’s counting on me, and the girls?—”
“I’ve got them.”
She turns to me. “Huh?”
