side as she practiced the piano, a proud smile on his face. She missed all the times she camped out on his office floor, engrossed in a book, while he worked. Or the times being silly and doing goofy dances while listening to music. Mia knew she got her sense of humor from him, as well as her love of music. His influence on her young life, hell, her whole life, had been immense. Even if the influence on the latter half of her childhood had been in a negative light.
But as she lay on Ethan’s lap flying to her dad, those negative thoughts were nowhere to be found. Instead, happy times with her father flooded her mind—when things had been good, when he’d loved her—all those moments she’d craved all her life. Mia knew what he could be like. She remembered his love. Her whole life had been spent trying to feel it again. She needed to mend this with her father. Or at least try. Because if she’d learned anything the past few years, it was that life was too short.
Mia
Michigan
While in the air, Allie had sent them more information about Mia’s father so that when they arrived at the hospital, they’d know where to go. That woman was gold in a crisis.
The second they arrived, Mia was on a mission to get to her father.
“Room number, Ethan?” she asked a bit impatiently as they entered the hospital.
“Three thirty-six,” he said, taking her hand and leading her towards the elevators.
In the elevator, Mia was a bundle of nervous energy. She rhythmically bounced as the elevator chimed at each floor. When the doors opened on the third floor, she bolted, not waiting for Ethan. She needed to get to her father.
She hadn’t been out of the elevator for more than five seconds when a code blared over the PA system. Her ears perked up and her gait automatically quickened.
“Code Blue, Room three thirty-six.”
Papa.
Oh fuck! Mia broke into a run. As she hurried down the hall, her eyes flicked from side to side, reading the room numbers, counting them down as she flew by. She skidded to a stop as a doctor came out of a room, angrily chucking his gloves across the hall. Glancing up at the room he’d just stormed out of, she saw the number and her heart stopped—336.
NO! Papa! Noooo!
Oh God, she thought as the doctor kicked the cart in his way. He’s gone.
Her legs gave out and she collapsed under the weight of her own body and all the guilt she carried. The moment her knees hit the hard floor, the tears were knocked out of her.
She was too late.
“Sweetie,” came a kind, female voice. Mia looked up through her tears. She appeared to be in her late forties and had the greenest eyes she’d ever seen. “Who are you here to see?”
A hand grabbing her bicep pulled her attention away from the lady.
Ethan.
Silently, he helped her stand and wrapped his arm around her waist, his grip tight as he basically held her up. Swallowing her tears, she replied to the nurse, her eyes fixated on the closed door to the room that had her father on the other side of it. “My father … in room three thirty-six.”
“His name?”
“Matthieu Devereux.”
With a relieved sigh, the nurse gave them a small smile. “That wasn’t your daddy, sweetie. He’s okay. He’s getting some tests done …”
Mia didn’t hear the rest of what the nurse had to say. It wasn’t her father …
“Did you hear me? Your daddy’s going to be okay.”
Mia turned out of Ethan’s arms to regard the nurse. “He’s really okay?”
“Yes. He’s just up in radiology.”
Thank God!
She swallowed loudly in an attempt to stem the reinvigorated tears. Nodding her head repeatedly, Mia let the fact that her father was alive wash over her. The chance to reconnect wasn’t lost.
“When …” she tried to ask the nurse, her words befuddled in her tired mind, unable to make it out.
“Why don’t you go sit in the family waiting room and I’ll come get you when he’s finished, okay? Um, what’s your name, sweetie?”
“Mia,” she replied quietly. There was a flash of recognition as the nurse put the pieces together. With widened eyes, she glanced at Ethan, and Mia couldn’t help the smile when they grew even wider.
“Thank you, Nurse …” Ethan said, letting the lack of her name hang in the air.
“Melody.”
“Thanks, Melody,” Mia said, latching onto Ethan’s hand again and let him lead her away.