Chapter 18

  My heart races as I bolt towards my car. Daddy, Daddy, Daddy… no. This has to be wrong. A heart attack? My feet take me faster. All I see is my car. I need to be inside it already. Why is this taking so long?

  “Henley?” Noah calls, still standing by his car. I barely hear him. My mind is swirling. Did that lady just say my dad had a heart attack? Could I have heard her wrong?

  I push myself faster towards my car and don’t dare waste a second tearing the door open. I drop down into it and within moments, my Supra is purring to life beneath me and right now, I couldn’t even give a shit how great it sounds.

  “Henley?” Noah yells again, this time more urgent. I don’t waste time looking over at him but my senses are telling me that he’s right beside my car wondering what the fuck is going on.

  I hit the gas and take off like someone lit a fire under my ass. I turn the wheel and my tires screech across the road with a loud, ear shattering squeal as I flip my car around to head back up the road. Before I know it, I’m over the hill and Noah’s place is long out of sight.

  A white car shows up in my rearview mirror and I glance up and take in the familiar white Camaro speeding to catch up with me. Even though I’m going a shitload faster than I was on Maxen’s track the other day, it doesn’t take long for Noah to catch up and sit right on my ass.

  I risk glancing up and realize he isn’t trying to get me to pull over and my phone is silent. He’s letting me take the lead and trusting that whatever I’m doing right now is necessary.

  His Camaro follows me closely around each bend as I swerve dangerously through the traffic. All I can think about is my Dad which has me pushing my Supra to its absolute limits. I need to get to that hospital and find out what the hell is going on.

  Please God, let it be nothing.

  I see Broken Hill District Hospital approaching and the slightest bit of relief surges through me. I made it and have minimized the biggest obstacle standing between me and Dad, now all I have to do is figure out where the hell he is.

  I pull up in the emergency bay, not giving a shit that it’s a ‘No Parking Zone’ and race out of the car. “Henley,” Noah’s voice roars behind me. I look back over my shoulder to find him trying to grab hold of me. I attempt to dart forward so he can’t hold me back, but he’s too damn fast. “What the fuck is going on?” he demands, searching my face which is when I realize it’s covered in tears. “Why are we here?”

  A sob rips up my throat. “My dad,” I cry as he becomes blurry through my tears. “He had a heart attack.”

  Noah uses his thumbs and wipes the tears off my cheeks before pulling me in and kissing my forehead. “He’s going to be alright,” he promises as he takes my car keys from my hands. “Go.”

  I don’t wait a second more.

  I barrel through the big double doors of the Emergency Room and scurry across the floor, searching for someone who looks like they know what the fuck’s going on. I find a nurse sitting behind the counter and I collapse into her desk, making her jump.

  The nurse looks up at me and sympathy etches itself over her features. “My…my dad,” I tell her with a sob, once against realizing that the tears are covering my face.

  The nurse grabs a box of tissues and discreetly slides them towards me before giving me a calming smile. “Just breathe, sweetheart. What’s his name?”

  “Harrison Bronx,” I say, somehow managing to get the words out without breaking down.

  “Alright,” she tells me, turning to her computer. “Just give me a moment and I’ll find out where they have him.”

  As she gets busy on her computer, my patience wears thin. I start pacing in front of her and the more she taps away on her computer, the worse it gets. I don’t understand why it should be taking this long? It should be as simple as looking up his name and seeing the corresponding room number.

  “Ok,” the nurse finally says. I instantly stop pacing and whip around to face her. “It looks as though they’ve been performing some tests on your dad. He should be settled back in his room in the Cardio Wing. Level three. Room 484. Go up the lift behind you, turn to the right, through the big double doors, and it will be the fourth or fifth door down from there.”

  “Thank you,” I say, nodding quickly before scrambling around, trying desperately to get to the lift. I hurry towards it and slam my hand down on the button, before waiting impatiently for the lift to arrive.

  It dings a few, painstakingly long moments later and I barge my way inside, not give a damn about the people around me. Facing the panel of buttons, my mind goes blanks. Did she say level three or level four? Do I turn to the right afterward? Where the hell am I going? I just want my Daddy. I need to know that he’s ok.

  I put everything else out of my mind and do my best to focus on what the nurse was saying. I go back in time, picturing the moment of standing before her desk and listening to her voice. I hear her voice in my head, the words, and sounds that came from her mouth and soon enough, it’s right there in my head. Level three, room 484.

  I slam my hand down on the ‘3’ and groan to myself as the doors take forever to close. I watch them with a heavy glare. How could a hospital have doors that take so long? What if someone was dying and they lost their battle because the doors of the stupid lift took too fucking long to close?

  The lift dings again and finally, the doors begin sliding into place.

  “Come on, come on,” I grumble under my breath, hardly able to stand still.

  Just about there.

  A hand slams between the closing doors and they instantly jump back open. “For fuck’s sake,” I groan out, not giving a shit who it is that needs the lifts. I mean, if it was a little old granny, then yeah, I’d probably feel like crap about it, but honestly? Not right now.

  The doors widen and standing before me is a body covered in tattoos and a pair of green eyes that stare deeply into mine, begging to know if I’m ok.

  A sob rips through me and Noah rushes into the lift, wrapping me up in his arms and holding me with everything he’s got. The doors close behind him as he tries his best to soothe me. “He’s going to be alright,” he tells me, repeating the very words he had said earlier. “Whatever it is, no matter how bad, he’s going to pull through and he’s going to be right back to threatening me with his gun in no time.”

  “You can’t say that,” I tell him, feeling that familiar jolt of the lift taking up and traveling up through the levels. “How do you know?”

  “I feel it, Spitfire,” he tells me, pressing his lips to my forehead before placing his hand over my heart. “If he was gone or critical, you’d feel it in here. Just like I felt it with Lily. He’s going to be alright. This is just a bump in the road.”

  The lift dings and the doors open on level three. Noah takes my hand and I turn to the right, pulling him in the direction the nurse had instructed. We make our way through the double doors and before I know it, we’re in the Cardio Wing.

  There are ridiculous posters on every wall, each one having something to do with looking after your heart, and while they’re supposed to be informative, I find them more annoying than ever. It’s practically a kick in the face saying ‘Sucked in, you landed yourself in hospital. Now here’s a poster to tell you where the hell you went wrong.’

  My eyes scan the door numbers, carefully reading each one as Noah’s hand tightens in mine. The doors on the right are going up by twos.

  478.

  480.

  482.

  And then finally, 484.

  As I go to barge my way in through the door, it opens from the other side and a smart looking guy in a white Doctor’s lab coat comes striding through. He presses his lips into a tight line and quickly nods his head, acknowledging my presence but also letting me know he’s got no time to stick around and chat. But really, I don’t care to talk to him, I need to see my dad. I can chase down the doctor later to make sure everything dad has told me was true. After all, he has a habit of downplaying things.

  The doctor kindly gets out of my way and I don’t waste another second barging through. Noah comes in behind me and crashes into my back when I come to a startling halt in the doorway.

  Dad lays in a hospital bed, already a sight I’ve never seen before. He looks as white as a ghost and his skin is all clammy, looking as though he just voluntarily ran a marathon nonstop after not visiting a gym for the past twenty years.

  He looks exhausted.

  “Daddy?” I murmur, stepping deeper into the room as my eyes continue sailing over him.

  Noah remains by the door, keeping out of the way as to not intrude as I make my way over to dad’s side. His eyes flutter open as I curl my hand around his and he gives me what he assumes is a beaming smile, only to me, it looks forced and as though it’s taking a shitload of effort. "Hey, Squish,” he grumbles, letting out a sigh as he wipes the smile off his face.

  “A heart attack, dad?” I accuse as though he’d done it purposefully to scare me.

  “Come on, now,” dad says, giving my hand a little squeeze. “It’s nothing. Just a scratch. I’ll be out of here this afternoon and back in the truck tomorrow.”

  “Dad,” I gape, absolutely horrified. “You had a heart attack. A freaking heart attack. You didn’t just scrape your fucking knee, and you can bet your ass you won’t be out of here by tonight. Surely they’ll keep you at least three or four days.”

  “Fucking pricks,” he scoffs. “They better not. I have a delivery scheduled for tomorrow.”

  “For fuck’s sake, dad,” I groan. “You’re not working tomorrow.”

  “Watch your language,” he scolds before letting out a shallow breath making me wonder if I’m maybe pushing him a little too much right now. I mean, he did have a heart attack after all and I’m here giving him a hard time about it instead of checking if he’s alright and asking how he feels like a good little daughter.

  Wait…daughter? Shit. Aria. I left her at Noah’s place. Fuck. I’m an awful person.

  “Really?” I challenge, unable to help myself. Maybe in another few minutes, my heart will calm down and I’ll be able to act like a decent human being. “You’re going to bring me up on my language right now when you’re lying in a fucking hospital bed. Do you have any idea how scared I was?”

  “Squish, I’m really ok,” he promises. “I just need to have a few more tests and then we’re in the clear. At the moment they think it’s a blood clot and best case scenario, it’s fixed with a little medication.”

  “And worst case scenario?” I question.

  “Worst case,” he says. “I’ll be in here a little more than three or four days.”

  “Jesus,” I groan as my mind whirls with the endless possibilities. "Do you need to have surgery?”

  “I don’t think so,” he tells me. “But we’ll see what the Doc has to say.”

  “Ok,” I sigh before collapsing down into the chair beside his bed. I quickly glance back to see Noah sitting at the end of the room, slouched in his chair but watching me carefully.

  A soft smile lingers on his lips and it does wonders for my racing heart. ‘I love you,’ he mouths, reminding me that he’s only a few steps away in case I need to breakdown once again. Though, now that I know dad is mostly ok, my breakdown can wait until I‘m tucked in bed and Aria is fast asleep.

  ‘Love you too,’ I mouth right back before turning to dad. “I don’t understand how this happened,” my inquiring mind wonders. “You were eating healthy. We bought the good stuff and you’ve even been going on runs every now and then. You’re as healthy as a horse.”

  Dad cringes and Noah chuckles under his breath making me wonder what the hell I’m missing. “Yeah…,” dad murmurs. “Those healthy meals I take on the road with me are usually forgotten about and replaced with a burger and fries which are washed down with a Coke.”

  My mouth drops open, completely and utterly astonished. “Excuse me?” I gape. “Are you serious right now?”

  Dad nods and the fact that he looks just a little proud of his wrongdoings isn’t lost on me. “Yeah. I toss that shit in the dumpster by the gas station.”

  “And the runs you’ve been going on?”

  Dad looks across the room to Noah as though they have some sort of inside joke before he turns back to me with a sheepish expression. “Pub,” he admits. “To be honest, I’m surprised this heart attack managed to hold out this long. I was expecting this to happen years ago.”

  Fuck me.

  I shake my head as the anger boils up within me. “Do you have any regard for your health?” I demand. “What if your heart had completely given out and you had died? Am I going to be the one that has to explain to Ari that the daddy she only just found has gone to heaven, didn’t care about looking after himself, and sticking around for her? What about when I’m at college? Is she going to go back with her mom? Tell me, dad, what songs do you want played at your funeral? You better start writing this shit down because apparently, you could fall off the face of the earth at any time now.”

  “Come on, Squish,” he says, awkwardly trying to sit up a little more. “You’re being a little dramatic. I’m not going anywhere. It was just a little heart attack and it’s not like it was a bad one.”

  My emotions become way too much for me to handle and instead of climbing up on dad’s bed and killing him myself, I barge my way back out the door with Noah’s mumbled, “Shit,” heard bouncing off the walls behind me.

  I pace up and down the hallway. How could he be so stupid? Living off burgers and fries while spending all his spare time at the fucking pub. Does he not have any regard for his health? Does he not give a shit about the mess he’d leave behind?

  Fuck. That selfish bastard.

  “Hey,” Noah murmurs, dropping down onto one of the hard, plastic chairs that line the hallway as I continue pacing. “Give the guy a break. He’s just shrugging it off to save you worrying. He knows how bad it is.”

  I stop to gawk at my boyfriend. “Were you not just in the same room? He couldn’t give a shit as long as he has his burgers and fries at the end of the day. What am I going to do?”

  Noah pats the chair beside him and I stare at it as though it’s going to bite me. No thanks, I’d prefer to continue pacing until I’ve created a grove in the floor. Not putting up with my shit, Noah reaches out and curls his fingers around my wrist before tugging me down into the chair beside him. “Sit your ass down and breathe,” he tells me. “That man in there is terrified and your emotions are too wound up to even see it. You need to calm down and help him through this by finding a way that allows him to respectfully keep his dignity.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “He’s throwing sarcasm at you so he doesn’t have to deal with the fact that he’s hurting right now,” Noah explain. “My guess is that he doesn’t like you seeing him like this and he’s doing his best to hide it from you too, and you’re buying right into it.”

  “No, he’s just acting like an immature child,” I spit.

  “True, but if you just had a heart attack, wouldn’t you want to give everyone a hard time?”

  “No,” I grumble.

  Noah shakes his head. “Liar.”

  I roll my eyes and let out a breath before looking blankly at the wall ahead of me. “I nearly lost my father today,” I tell him and as soon as the words are out, my biological mother is suddenly popping into my mind. I’ve never met the woman and having nearly lost Dad is making me realize how damn short life is. Why have I been putting off getting to know her? I could be missing something great. What kind of person does that make me if I don’t even give her a chance to explain herself?

  “Don’t,” Noah says, grabbing me and hauling me over into his lap, instantly making the thoughts of my mother fade from my mind. “Don’t you dare go there. You didn’t nearly lose him; he gained a wake up call and you gained a chance to help him turn it around.”

  “How?” I ask, looking into his eyes. “I’m so out of my depth here. I don’t know the first thing about getting someone healthy.”

  Noah shrugs his shoulders before indicating around to the nurses making their way around the Cardio Wing. “You’re sitting in the middle of a hospital with hundreds of people who would have the answers you’re looking for. Go and find one willing to chat with you and work out a plan to help get your dad’s life back on track. After all, he can’t chase me around with his gun if he can’t keep up.”

  I look around and realize he’s right, as always. Any one of the people walking around would have the information I need, it’s just a matter of getting out there and asking the right questions. “Ok,” I tell him, wiping at my face and double checking that I’m not a snotty mess.

  Noah runs his hands through my hair, pushing it back off my face before holding me to him. “You know, you didn’t have to come. You have a lot of shit of your own going on,” I murmur into his chest, knowing that all that Anton shit would no doubt still be going through his head.

  “Of course, I did,” he tells me softly, just for my ears. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. We can work out what we’re going to do about Anton later. This is more important.”

  “Thank you,” I say, pulling back so I can look him in the eye. “I’m sorry you went through all of that with Anton. I don’t like that he’s been using you like that all these years and using Lily to do it.”

  “I know,” he murmurs with a darkness in his eyes. “Neither do I.”

  I lean back into him, breathing him in until my emotions have completely calmed. “Alright,” I finally tell him. “Will you sit with Dad? I think I’m ready to start facing facts.”

  He presses his lips to mine before helping me up. “Of course, I will,” he says. “Anything you need, you got, Spitfire.”

  I focus on my task and find that having a plan helps to clear my head and suddenly, I’m able to breathe properly for the first time since receiving that phone call less than an hour ago.

  I find a nurse who’s happy to give me a few details and shares a few web pages and information booklets with me before sending me on my way. As I walk back to dad’s room, my plan to get dad back on track begins forming, helping me to feel better about the situation now that I can see a road out of here, though I have a feeling dad isn’t going to quite agree with my military style tactics.