Page 26 of Single Mom's Secret Diary
We step forward together, and she has her finger up at us before we settle against the counter. Then, she points, and a doctor in his white coat is sticking a pen back into his coat pocket as he walks up to us.
He’s Korean, mid-fifties, and has a reassuring smile, which he gives us now. “Avery Caruso’s family?”
“Yes.” Dominick clears his throat. “I’m her father.”
“We got the results, and we’ve given her potassium ferric hexacyanoferrate—Prussian blue. She should be just fine, but she’s going to need to take it easy as she recovers. We’re going to monitor her for the next couple of hours to be sure she can keep liquids down and that she responds to her meds, then you can take her home.”
He smiles again, looking at the three of us in a silent bid for questions.
“Can we see her?”
“She’s pretty out of it, and will be for a while, but there’s no harm in going in to see her. One at a time, though.” He taps the chart in his hand to accentuate his point.
“We’ll go gather her things and get everything ready for her to go home.” Still, I linger, even if just to get a peek of her sleeping. Just to know she’s breathing.
“Come. I will give you my extra key and a list.” Dominick pats my shoulder and soldiers on behind the doctor toward her room.
Wyatt and I follow, and hovering in the doorway, I watch a bundled up Avery with breathing tubes in her nose and a monitor beeping with her heartbeat. An IV is in her hand. God, the sight breaks my heart.
Tears spill down Dominick’s cheeks as he goes to her, his big hand brushing her hair from her forehead in the most loving, fatherly gesture. He leans down to talk softly against the top of her head, and I’m shook by the sight of it.
I back out of the room and spot Ryder at the end of the hall as Wyatt peeks in at Avery. Meeting him halfway, I hold my hands up, knowing we left him behind in the hysteria. “She’s okay. They just told us. Her dad’s in with her.”
He drags his hand down his face and bends over at the waist. “Thank fucking God.”
The strain on my oldest friend is another blow for the day. They seem to keep coming, and I hope they’re done.
“I’m sorry for leaving you behind.”
Ryder shakes his head. “I can’t say I’d have been much better if our roles were swapped. But fuck, I had about fifteen heart attacks on the way over.”
“Go look in at her.” I wait for Dominick to come out. He’s dangling a key from his fingers and has resumed the deadly dad look.
“You care about my daughter.” It doesn’t sound like a question.
It still has an easy answer. “I do.”
“Then, you will take care of her. I will make a list.” And he does. Standing at the nurses’ station, he gives me her address, her favorite soup and candy, and even directions on how to draw her a bath with her finicky tub.
I try and fail not to laugh, but I’m off and only make it to her townhouse fifteen minutes before Dominick comes in with her. I’ve just put away some groceries and pulled back her sheets.
She moans lightly as he tucks her in.
He returns to me, hovering in her door. “Sophia and I have Charlie. You make sure she gets better. No leaving her alone. And you call me when she wakes up.”
“Yes, sir.”
Avery’s dad pats my cheek in mild threat and nods before he casts one last glance at his daughter and storms out the front door.
I pull a chair into her room from the kitchen and sit by her bedside, watching her sleep. My alarm goes off to give her medicine, so I go digging for it among the things I brought of hers from the office.
The bag from the drugstore is nestled into her purse, and a small notebook catches my eye. I’ve seen her writing furiously in that thing at the office. And she’s always quick to close it.
I take it out and set it on the nightstand beside her bed. It’s not difficult to get the medicine in her. She doesn’t move well on her own, but she’s coherent enough to swallow before slumping back into sleep.
For the next few minutes, I can’t help but stare at the notebook.
This is stupid. I’m being an asshole.
