Page 59 of The Woman with the Target on her Back (Grassi Family)

Her mom didn’t reach out.

She did get one text from Sheryl who seemed to be her only actual friend. And even that seemed to revolve more around common interests—the coffee shop, the farm, the market—than an actual close connection.

I wondered if she knew that, or if she was simply so accustomed to being on her own that she didn’t realize what she was missing.

What about her birthday?

Did anyone bakehera cake? Did they sing toher? Did they get her presents?

That was what was on my mind as she yanked up her panties, and walked lazily through to the kitchen where she left her phone.

I ducked into the bathroom, but came back out to find her eyes huge as sheyessedsomeone on the other end of the phone to death.

“Yeah, ah, I’ll be right over,” she said, then ended the call.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

We’d gotten updates on her dad.

They’d extubated.

But he was slow to come off of the drugs they’d given him. Then when he did, he still seemed a little ‘far away.’

We’d been meaning to call a service to go and see if he’d respond better to her, but we’d… we’d gotten caught up in our own little game of playing house.

“He’s awake and talking,” she said, sounding breathless. “The nurse said he’s… being difficult.”

“Well, the apple didn’t fall far from that tree, huh?” I teased as I walked up to her, putting my hands on her hips. She didn’t even rise to the bait at all. “This is a good thing, right?” I asked, confused by her lack of a reaction.

“Yes. Yeah, of course,” she agreed, but something seemed off as she pulled away from me. “I, ah, I have to get dressed. Can we get a car on this short of notice?”

“Yeah. I’ll handle it,” I assured her, still confused by her behavior as I texted Aurelio, and he said he would get the company to send someone right over.

Forty minutes later, Traveler was dressed in jeans and a black tee, her hair pulled back, her face bare, and her gaze far away as we all sat in the car and rode to the hospital.

Aurelio sensed the shift too, catching my gaze over the top of Traveler’s head and pinching his brows.

I shrugged.

Because I had no answers to give.

“I should have brought something,” she said, stopping mid-stride across the parking lot. “Right? That’s what you do. You bring people things in the hospital.”

“Yes,” Aurelio said, tone calm, patient. “But he’s in the ICU. The rules are different about what you can or can’t bring in. So until they move him to a lower floor, it’s better to play on the safe side and not bring anything in that you shouldn’t.”

“Right. Okay. Good. I… okay.”

We waited for Traveler in our usual spot as she took off toward the stairs.

“She’s off,” Aurelio said.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“Did you guys fight?”

“What? No. She was completely fine until she called the hospital back. I missed the beginning of the conversation. I walked back into the room when she was about to hang up, so I don’t know what might have set her off.”

“Her relationship with her dad is strained, right?” he asked.

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