blood sugar? Was she diabetic? What the hell was going on? Wayne was fucking fine and Millie wasn’t waking up? What kind of nightmare was this?
When he hit the button for the double doors to open, Gran looked at me in the wheelchair and blanched.
“Ash?”
I realized she probably thought something was wrong with me now, so I popped up out of the chair and walked over to her. “I … I’m fine, but Millie.” My throat pinched shut as I pushed down the urge to fucking lose my shit. “She’s not waking, something’s wrong, Gran.”
“Oh Lord, no.” Gran grabbed the cross on her necklace and closed her eyes. She started to mutter under her breath in prayer while I stood there stupidly with no God and no answers. I didn’t even know how to pray, but the sudden urge to connect with something bigger than me, something that might be able to save Millie, overwhelmed me.
I sank into the nearby chair and bowed my head, on the verge of a full-blown panic attack. I was one scar away from completely falling apart.
God, don’t take her from me. Please, I can’t take another loss. Help me.
A calmness came over my whole body then, relaxing my muscles and causing me to take a shuddering breath. Was it a placebo effect or something supernatural? I didn’t know, but I had a feeling that everything was going to be okay. I’d lost enough in this life, and Millie wouldn’t be taken from me.
The double doors opened then and my eyelids snapped open. It was Dr. Brown.
“Hey, sorry about that.” He held out his hands in apology. “Millie was having trouble clearing the anesthesia. She’s waking now, you can see her in a few minutes.”
“Praise God!” Gran screamed and the doctor gave her a tight smile.
What the hell? I was so confused.
“So she’s not diabetic or bleeding or anything?” I tried to wrap my mind around what happened and what I’d heard.
The doctor looked confused for a second and then shook his head. “No. She just lost sixty percent of the right side of her liver, the same organ we need to clear the anesthesia that made her fall asleep. It took a bit of flumazenil but it perked her up. I was just ruling out hypoglycemia because she’d fasted.”
I had no idea what the hell he’d just said, but all that mattered was that Millie was fine.
After he left, I sighed in relief and Gran slipped her hand into mine. “You know your daddy asked for you. Maybe you could see him before you head over to Millie.”
Shit. See Wayne in all his drugged-up glory … with half of my girlfriend’s liver inside of him?
No thanks.
Gran laid a hand on my chest. “You know, neither of you can heal until you forgive him.”
Leave it to Gran to hit me with the heavy shit right after my girlfriend almost died or got diabetes or whatever happened.
“Right now? It has to be now?” I growled.
Why were all the women in my life impossible?
Gran frowned. “We’re not promised tomorrow. Now is all we have.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Is that one of your needlepoints?”
She shook her head. “Can’t be. Needs a cussword.”
We both grinned at that but her meaning sank into me. Wayne would be in some fancy hippy-dippy recovery center for the next year and I probably wouldn’t see him much. Maybe now was the time to bury the hatchet. Maybe if I could see him like Millie did, I could try to forgive him for his faults.
When I walked into the room, Wayne was asleep. Perfect. Just how I liked him. Instead of leaving, I walked over to the bed and looked down at him. He looked like a really old beat-ass version of me. The years were not kind to him. Even though I had so many bad memories of him taking space in my mind, I had some good ones too.
“Remember when Jenna and I used to braid your armpit hair when you were napping?” I said, not expecting a response.
His eyelids flew open and he grinned. “Ash. My boy.” His hand reached for me and I took it.
“Hey.” Definitely going to turn my man card in. I’d almost cried three times in the last few hours.
“Ash,” my dad mumbled. “I saw Jenna.”
I froze, my hand going tight in his. “What?”
His eyelids fluttered, voice weak. “She was there, like an angel, watching over me. Over Millie. Over you.”
Damn, this morphine must be good. “Oh