Page 67 of Take Me Home

“I’m coming with you to the appointment.”

June shot him a look that said tojust stop.

Ash’s mother slid his father a mug of coffee, paired with two pills from the orange bottles on the counter and a book of crosswords from the pouch on his nearby walker. With a grunt, he reached out a hand, and she remembered the glasses he now needed, handed him those, too. When she set her hands on his shoulders, he squeezed one back, sliding the glasses on.

She marked the dosage in a notebook, then poured two more mugs and set one of them before Ash. Her eyes were tired, chastened. “I know,” she said.

“Know what?” That he shouldn’t have to push for the doctor? No shit. They all knew that.

“You think you can’t trust what we’ve told you.”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “Seems that way.”

“So, come and see for yourself then.”

—

By the time the doctor’s office called back, some of the morning’s urgency had dulled. Dr. Griggs had directed them to the hospital at the mention of a head injury, but the long wait and no obvious signs of illness chipped away at Ash’s certainty. His father wasn’t speaking to him, either, sure this was all a waste of time.

The rest of the family had been equally frosty. They’d planned to all go skating and still could have gone, but Maggie insisted it would be hell without their mother helping with Cosette and Isabel. The girls were particularly wild that morning, and Maggie was short with them. June was no help, sleeping off her hangover. The twins were practicing their dance routine in the living room, nitpicking each other’s form and snapping that they couldn’t turn down their music when he suggested it might be contributing to the chaos.

Ash tried to wrangle his nieces while his mom made breakfast and Maggie took a call from her husband, but things went from bad to worse. Nick’s first flight, a remote charter that ran just once a day, had been canceled, throwing his entire travel schedule up in the air, so he might not make it on Christmas Eve after all. Maggie relayed this news like Ash was somehow personally responsible. While that was bullshit, he was relieved for a little space from all his sisters, despite the all too familiar mix of anxiety and abject boredom that made time move backward in hospital waiting rooms.

When a nurse arrived to take his father back, Ash followedhis parents, intending to get the truth straight from the doctor’s mouth. His mother flipped through two notebooks—a medicine log and another with detailed symptoms—to supply exact answers to intake questions. “So, no real changes since the tenth,” the nurse summed up, checking boxes on a computer.

“Nope,” his father said. “I was fine then, and I’m fine now.” His tone was pointed. He’d gone through a full workup following his surgery.

When the nurse left, the room fell silent, and Ash pulled out his phone to find a slew of text messages from Hazel.

We’re by the ticket counter. Are you here yet?

Help, my dad has left me to “bond” with Val over coffee. Please tell me you’re here somewhere.

Asher??

He’d lost track of time. It was eleven-thirty, and his father still hadn’t gone back for an MRI yet.

“Another emergency?” his father muttered.

Ash had risen from his chair as if to leave. He sank back down, tucked his phone into his pocket. “I didn’t know they’d send you here,” he argued weakly. “I thought your doctor would just see you in the office.”

“I knew. And I didn’t want everyone worried about nothing four days before Christmas.”

Ash swallowed down the anger that balled up in his throat. He didn’t think he could hear one more time that nothing at all was wrong. It didn’t feel like nothing was wrong. It felt like his parents’ house was falling apart, their finances were strained, and his father was deteriorating right in front of them. “Dad—” he started.

“What’s going on with your car?”

“My car? What does that have to do with anything?”

“Making conversation. We’ve got time, after all,” he said, looking pointedly at the clock above the door. “You’re so concerned about everyone else. I want to know what’s going on with your car.”

“Nothing. It’s old. It’s not reliable enough to drive across the state. Had another option, so I took it.”

“About time to get a new one, don’t you think?”

“Sure, I’ll go test-drive a Tesla later.”

His father shook his head at Ash’s sarcasm. “You hurting for money?”

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