Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 98321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Just under an hour later, I was in the waiting room listening to my mother fret and ask the same questions over and over again—why hasn’t anyone been out here to talk to us? How long can it possibly take to get an X-ray? Those people came in after us, why did they get seen already and we haven’t?—when Bianca rushed into the room.
“Because, Ma, they already told us, they’re short a radiologist today and it’s taking longer to get results. They said it would be a few hours, and they’re sorry for the delay. Those people brought in someone having an asthma attack who didn’t need an X-ray.” I smiled tiredly at my wife as she hurried toward us.
“Hey,” she said, her face concerned. “Any news?”
I stood up, and she hugged me tight. I inhaled the scent of her perfume and took comfort in the softness of her body against mine. “Not yet.”
She hugged my mother next. “How are you?”
“I’m angry,” my mother said petulantly.
“At the doctors?”
“Yes, and at Carlo! He had no business being up on a ladder at his age!” She sat down in a huff.
Bianca smiled patiently. “Why don’t I get us all some coffee?”
“Thank you, dear. That sounds perfect. We haven’t wanted to leave in case one of these doctors decides we’re worth his time and comes out to talk to us.”
“I’ll get it.” She touched my arm. “I’ll be right back.”
“Thanks.” I sank down next to my mom and watched Bianca leave the room and turn left.
“She’s a gem, isn’t she?” my mother asked.
“She is,” I agreed.
I was still thinking about her and trying to tune out my mom, who was back to alternately praying for my dad’s quick recovery and cursing him for acting like an idiot, when Bianca returned with a tray of coffees from Starbucks.
She sat down on the other side of me, and we waited another hour and a half, during which my mother hardly paused to draw breath. “He’s trying to kill me, that’s what he’s doing,” she insisted.
“By climbing a ladder?” I asked, laughing although I felt like I was nearing the end of my rope.
“By doing something I’ve told him a million times he shouldn’t do! He knows damn well he doesn’t have the balance anymore, and that he’ll fall and cause me to have a heart attack when I hear the news!” She scowled at me. “Don’t laugh at me. You know it’s the truth. He does things like this on purpose just to make me mad!”
I leaned toward Bianca and whispered, “This is why.”
Giving me a sympathetic smile, she patted my leg and took my hand. “I get it.”
Eventually, the doctor came out and said my father was fine, nothing was broken, but because he’d lost consciousness and had elevated blood pressure, they wanted to keep him overnight. We ended up waiting another couple hours for him to be admitted. I told Bianca a hundred times she didn’t have to stay, but she refused to go. We ate terrible hospital food for dinner and didn’t even end up talking to my dad because he was asleep by the time we got to his room.
When we walked out of the hospital, it was late and dark and pouring rain. My head was pounding, and I figured Bianca’s was too. I was parked closer, so I drove Bianca to her car, waited for her to get it started, and then followed her home.
Once we were back at our place, I set my keys on the counter and caught her around the waist from behind. “Hey. Thank you for being there today, it meant a lot to me. I’m sorry it was such a long day.”
“Don’t apologize. I wanted to be there.” She turned around in my arms and put her hands on my chest. “And if—if you don’t feel like trying tonight, I would understand.”
“Hush.” I kissed her lips. “You go upstairs and relax. Take a bubble bath or something. I’ll be up in a little bit.”
“Okay,” she said. “But I mean it. No pressure.”
“I heard you.” I glowered at her. “Now go do what I said, woman.”
She rolled her eyes and headed for the stairs.
I waited until she was out of sight, then went back out to the garage for the package I’d been hiding in the back of my SUV. In the house again, I listened for the sound of the bathtub running upstairs before grabbing a beer from the fridge.
Then I dumped the contents of the package onto the counter and cracked the fuck up. This day might have been stressful, but this night was going to be epic.
Fourteen
Bianca
Upstairs, I filled the tub and sank into the water scented with lavender bath salts. I closed my eyes and took deep breaths, listening to the thunderstorm outside, trying not to see it as a bad omen, and repeating all my positive affirmations, determined to get the universe on my side. Like attracted like, right? So if I wanted that good energy, I had to put it out there.