Page 13 of In His Arms

Chapter Four

Alex awoke in the middle of the night with Jessie’s body curled into his and the damn phone ringing itself off the hook.

He reached across her to answer the phone. “Hello?”

“Alex? Is my daughter there?” Lena Miller’s voice came out in a rush.

“Yes. What’s wrong, Lena?” He rubbed his eyes to wake himself up.

“It’s Mike. We’re at the hospital. The doctors said his cancer came back and they’re not giving him much longer to live. He had a respiratory failure and is hooked up to a ventilator. Please get Jessie here.” She started crying. “Oh, God, I need her. Please bring her to me, Alex. I have to go; the doctors are coming back in.”

The dull tone sounded in his ears after Lena hung up the phone. Mike’s cancer was back? He clicked the button and turned toward the peaceful angel sleeping beside him. It would kill her to find out the news, and it broke his heart that he had to tell her.

He leaned down, gently shaking her while he kissed her face. “Jess, honey, wake up.”

Her eyes fluttered, and then she smiled, nearly breaking his heart. “Three times wasn’t enough for you? What time is it?”

“Jess, we need to go to the hospital.” He kissed her again, but she pushed him away.

“What’s wrong? Are you ok?” She glanced down at the phone in his hand. “Oh, God. It’s my dad, isn’t it?”

“We need to go.”

The hospital was thirty miles away in the next town. Alex held Jessica’s hand while he drove, but she remained distant. She didn’t ask questions, didn’t say anything. She sat in the passenger’s seat staring blankly out the window.

They arrived at the hospital in record-breaking time. Alex dropped Jessica off at the front doors and went to park the car. He didn’t know how to be there for her, but he knew he had to be.

After he parked the car, Alex ran to the wide double doors where he found Jessie and Lena embraced. He pulled the nurse aside and she told him Mike had died. His eyes darted around the room and noted several of their friends sitting along the far wall. Annabelle sat in the corner with a few others he knew, along with his own father and stepmother, both of them staring at the floor.

Alex walked over to Jessica and kissed her before he wrapped his arms around her and her mother. They clung to him, needing something real—something breathing—to give them strength. He laid his head on Jessica’s and kissed her.

“Mrs. Miller? We need you to sign some paperwork.” A young man in scrubs stood in the doorway with a clipboard in his hand.

“Ok, just one second.” Lena wiped her cheeks. Jessica laid her head on Alex’s shoulder, wrapped in his arms, his love and comfort. “Jessie, I need to sign the release forms. I really don’t think you should be here right now.”

“Mom, I can handle it,” she said through her tears.

“But I can’t.” She kissed her daughter’s temple. “Please just go until they take away his body.”

Jessica’s body shuddered against Alex. Her whimpers filled the otherwise silent room. Alex saw the worry cross Lena’s face.

“Alex, please just take her somewhere away from this madness.” She pleaded with him.

“Don’t worry, Lena.” He tucked Jessica against his body and led her outside. “We’ll be back in a few minutes.”

****

“I’ll take you home if you want. Lena will understand.”

“But I don’t want her to be alone.” Jess wiped her tears with the sleeve of her shirt “I’m all she’s got, Alex. I can’t imagine losing the one person I loved. She loved Daddy, and now she has no one around. She needs me.”

He took a deep breath. “Sweetheart, Annabelle is here with her, and so is the rest of the garden committee. They’re her friends and will understand if you need to go home and rest for a few hours.”

“But what if she needs me?” Her words were whispered against his neck, sending chills down his spine. She pulled away and met his eyes. “I wasn’t here for her when he died. No, I was at your house, in your arms, peaceful and happy while she went through all this alone.”

He didn’t know how to answer that. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her hair. She lost her father, and now feared she could lose her mother.

“I knew he was sick, Alex.” She sniffled and wiped her tears. “He was so pale. I could tell he didn’t feel good and I still left him. What kind of daughter does that to her sick father? I should have been with him.”

---