Page 85 of Twenty Years Later

Her eyes changed from worried to grateful. "Thank you, Alex. You are truly amazing. You know that?"

I had to smile at that. Jayda calling me amazing felt pretty damn good.

"Dad? Sorry about that," she said, bringing the phone to the bed as I stood up to grab my clothes.

The timing sucked, but I knew we still had tonight and tomorrow. And I knew now that we had the doctor's okay, we'd definitely make the most of it.

Chapter Thirty-One

Jayda

After getting dressed, Alex sat on the bed next to me, holding my hand through the entire conversation. The phone call wasn't easy. It broke my heart to hear my dad finally admitting that he was worried about my mom. Part of me was relieved, though, because I really needed his help if we were going to try to figure this thing out.

And Alex sitting beside me and stroking my hand? His support meant the absolute world to me.

We had talked about this on the phone, and he knew how hard it was to be in the so-called "sandwich generation," where we had to worry about our aging parents while raising our own kids. Thankfully, his parents were in great health. And my parents had been relatively healthy... until now it seemed.

But I knew that others had it worse. I had a good friend in New York whose mom with COPD had moved in with her, and she already had her hands full with a husband and three children. And other friends had already lost one or both of their parents.

As Blake used to say, "It could always get worse," a weirdly comforting thought and reminder that you better appreciate what you had now.

My dad wasn't the biggest talker, and he certainly didn't go into details about his feelings and worries, but we settled on a plan that the three of us would go to the doctor's appointment together. And maybe between us all, we'd be able to get to the bottom of it with her doctor.

When I hung up, I felt completely wrung out and emotional. My dad acting vulnerable and needing my help was something new to me. And I hated to see it.

To top it all off, I still hadn't told them about my pregnancy. I just didn't know how to handle it. I knew they'd worry. And I was waiting to tell them about it when I was hopefully a little more certain about where Alex and I stood.

But right now, I didn't know. I didn't know anything. All I knew was that Alex wanted to be here for me through the pregnancy. But I still didn't know what that meant. For now. Or for the future.

"I bet that was hard," Alex said, his hand still gripping mine, his voice laced with empathy.

"Yeah. It was." I sighed. "But at least we're moving in the right direction. I just hate seeing my dad like that. He's always been the strong one, taking care of us, helping me."

Alex let go of my hand to wrap his arms around me and hold me. "I'm so sorry."

I let his strength pour into me and comfort me. Something about his body surrounding mine made me feel better, making my thoughts turn back to Alex.

Alex.

My heart literally ached with how much I loved him. But while I desperately wanted to tell him, I was also gun-shy to say those three little words to him, words I hadn't said to a man since that night Blake had died.

"You know I'm going to be here for you," he said, "and help you through this too."

I pulled away to look up at him. "You are?"

He nodded. "Absolutely, I am."

"But how?" I didn't want to interrogate him or seem too needy, but damn it, I was ready to hear some specifics.

He reached up to sweep a lock of my hair out of my eyes. "Well, I've been talking to the powers-that-be at the clinic and they're working with me to move some patients, reschedule others, so I can have big chunks of time to come up here and be with you."

That sounded amazing, but I wanted more, and I didn't know what to say.

"And in a few months, maybe even weeks," Alex continued, "my patients will be mostly phased out so I can move up here."

I felt my jaw drop at those words. He'd just kind of slipped it in there like it was nothing. But it was everything.Everything. Did he really mean that? I couldn't quite take it in.

Alex was seriously going to move to Maine?

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