you know my grandmother almost as well as I do. You already know that everyone loved…loves her.” My voice broke when I accidentally referred to Grams in the past tense. He gave no further protests as I walked away.
Back on the other side of the yellow line, Kendall rushed toward me with Keith at her heels. Her eyes asked a million questions. A flush faced Gabe pushed through the crowd to tower over me while he waited with barely concealed anxiety. Alec’s face belied both his reporter’s curiosity and his genuine concern for Grams and me.
I laid out the only details that mattered right now. “Grams is at Nashville General and she’s alive. They can’t tell us any more than that about her condition.”
“We can be to the hospital in about a half hour,” Gabe declared. He and I started for the truck. Kendall paused to say a quick goodbye to her rekindled love.
“Celeste!” Alec hollered after me as he ran to catch up.
Slightly agitated that he was delaying my rush to my grandmother’s side, I spun on him. Before I could spout off my annoyance he scooped me up off the ground in a tight bear hug. It would’ve been a nice moment to squeeze him back and revel in the comfort and security he offered. But I didn’t. Instead I bristled at the act that threatened to expose my vulnerability at a time when I needed to be strong.
“I’m so sorry this is happening to you and your family.” He whispered in my ear as he returned my feet to the ground. “If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know.”
“Thank you.” I mumbled.
He gave me a tight smile that didn’t make it to his eyes. “No problem. Listen, I have to go to Memphis for a little while, apparently there is some big story there. But if you need me for anything at all, I can be back in a flash. All you have to do is call.”
“I will,” I lied. His involvement with me would only get him hurt. Grams’ current situation proved that. If I cared about him and wanted to keep him safe, I needed to stay far, far away from him.
“Good. Now go!” He prompted. I turned and dashed to my truck.
Gabe and Kendall were already buckled in waiting for me. I threw the truck in gear and sped off. My heart ached with my hope that the Nashville doctors could work miracles, but I slammed the gas pedal down in case they couldn’t.
CHAPTER 25
We arrived at the hospital in record time. A bored looking woman at the information desk told us that the ICU was on the second floor. Too impatient to wait on the elevator, we raced up the stairs. We located the nurses’ station and asked for Grams room number. A stern faced nurse informed us her visitation had been restricted and we would have to wait in the waiting room until her doctor could speak to us.
The waiting room was a drab, depressing place. Someone tried to liven it up by hanging a relaxing seascape painting on the wall. It wasn’t fooling anyone. This could never be a happy, relaxing room. We took a seat in the burgundy padded chairs and stared numbly at the television mounted on the wall. With the volume turned down low, we couldn’t hear it at all. Not like that mattered.
“Should we call Mom?” Gabe asked.
“After the fact,” I said.
“She’s going to be pissed that we didn’t call her right away.”
“If we call her now she’s going to jump on the first flight out to get here. Barnabus could pay her a visit, too.”
He leaned back in his chair and let his head fall back against the wall. “After the fact.”
Keni picked at a loose string on her pink cotton shorts. “If I can get in there, I can heal her.”
“We would have to figure out how to hide your wings and that glowy thing you do, plus explaining to the doctors how their patient was miraculously healed,” I pointed out.
“I’m not going to sit here and let her die,” Kendall hissed through her teeth.
I reached over and squeezed Keni’s hand. “No, we won’t. We’ll wait and hear what the doctors have to say. If we have to get you in there to heal her then that’s what we’ll do. One way or another we aren’t losing her today.”
If we haven’t lost her already. My mind added.
We hadn’t been sitting