“How did he do last night?”
“He mostly slept comfortably, though he did have a few bouts of coughing. His fever is down. Oxygen levels are good.”
He sighed out his relief. “Thank you. I’ll just wait in his room if that’s okay?”
The nurse nodded, then sat back in her seat to work on the paperwork in front of her.
Jon took the seat next to his father’s empty bed. He wanted to call Trinity, but it was only seven in the morning and he didn’t want to wake her after the long day and night she’d put in yesterday.
He’d sent Steph a text last night, telling her about his dad. Luckily, he’d sent it late enough that she hadn’t responded until this morning. She and Emmy had already left for the airport. They’d arrive in a few hours.
Steph said she sympathized with the situation, but wasn’t happy he wouldn’t be picking them up. Instead, he’d rented her a car, so she would have something to drive until she bought a new car—her old car wouldn’t have made the trip to Montana. She didn’t like having to take Emmy alone through two airports and to pick up the rental car, then drive in an unfamiliar area to meet him at the apartment he’d rented for them. She had the directions, and it wasn’t that complicated a trip. Given the circumstances, she could have been more understanding.
His dad needed him more this morning. And while he regretted not seeing Emmy right away and hearing all about her first plane ride, he needed to know his father was going to be okay. Jon had been away too long. He hadn’t called home or visited enough over the past many years he built his business and sucked at his personal life.
He planned to change things and spend more time with his dad and Emmy, living a simpler life afforded to him by all that hard work. His businesses were making him money. He had good people he trusted running them. Aside from overseeing things, he could focus on rebuilding his family’s ranch and raising his little girl.
And maybe he’d finally find a woman he wanted to hold on to and make a life with.
He thought of Trinity with her shy smile and generous heart.
Nothing like Steph, who liked to use Emmy as an excuse to get him to do what she wanted in hopes they’d get back together. He’d played that game for months when Emmy came along. But he stopped playing a long time ago.
He wasn’t that gullible.
He hoped this would be a fresh start for all of them.
When he floated the idea of bringing Emmy to Montana for the summer and that he’d love to move back home and live on the ranch full-time, he never expected Steph to say, “Let’s do it. Let’s leave California and build a different kind of life.” She had a job, family, a life in California.
But Steph had a tendency to wear out her welcome. Her coworkers didn’t like that she got away with doing half as much as them. Even her family was tired of her being selfish and manipulative to get what she wanted.
She painted a pretty imaginary picture of them starting over, living and raising Emmy together. He loved her unexpected enthusiasm, and maybe he got caught up in getting back to the life he’d had as a kid on the ranch. He dreamed of horses and cows in the pastures, and Emmy chasing chickens in the yard and picking vegetables in the garden. He hoped for the best.
Steph said she wanted a new job, new people, and a chance to re-create herself. But as their plans moved forward, it became clear she really wanted them to rekindle their love affair—one that had been doomed to failure because they weren’t compatible for a lot of reasons.
As much as he wanted to make the move, he’d repeatedly asked Steph if she was sure she wanted to leave her life behind and start over in a new place without her family. Because she relied on her family, and especially her dad, when life got too hard to deal with, which was often because Steph was spoiled and liked it when others did everything for her.
Despite all that, Steph pushed for them to move. Together.
He blew up that train of thought right off the tracks and made it clear they were not getting back together. She’d given him a look that said she knew better than him. He’d made it very clear he intended to stay at the ranch and she’d be in town where she’d have something to do—away from him—and work while Emmy attended school. He’d even found her a job.
He expected the next few weeks as she settled in to be fraught with a lot of anxiety. New state, new apartment, new job . . . He got it. He vowed to be patient while Steph settled in, even though he knew the best thing he could do was limit their interactions. He didn’t want to give Steph false hope that they’d be doing anything more than co-parenting Emmy.
But Steph had a way of seeing things that weren’t there and making something out of next to nothing.
He didn’t expect the transition to be smooth, but he’d put up with Steph’s drama—to a point—for Emmy’s sake.
Maybe if his father was up for company today, he’d bring Emmy for a visit. She’d love it. And it might do his father good to see her.
“Jon. Son. You’re here.” A nurse pushed his dad, who was seated in a wheelchair, into the room.
Jon stood and helped his old man into the bed. “I got in last night. Just in time to see your friend Trinity dragging you out to her car.”
He looked up at Jon, confused. “Trinity was at the house?”
“You called her, said you needed her to bring some food. She said you promised she could take you to the doctor.”
His father’s eyes clouded with confusion.
“You don’t remember?”
His dad shook his head. “No. Not really. It seems fuzzy.”
The nurse touched his dad’s shoulder to get him to lie down. She helped him settle his head on the pillow, raised the top of the bed for him, pulled the covers over his lap and the oxygen tube up across his nose, then connected the oxygen sensor to his finger and walked out.
Jon wondered just how little oxygen his father had been getting and if it had left his brain altered. “Don’t worry about it, Dad. The doctors and nurses will help you get better. Your color looks good.” The gray pallor he’d seen in his father’s face last night still haunted him. “How do you feel?”
“Better. The last few days . . . They were rough.”
“You should have called me. I would have come sooner had I known you were sick.” He’d have hopped on the earliest flight.
His father stared at his lap. “I knew you were busy.”
Jon stuffed his hands deep into his jeans pockets, feeling the extra helping of guilt pile onto the rest he carried with him for not paying attention to his dad and making him feel unimportant. “I’m not too busy for you.”
“You were packing, getting ready to move. You couldn’t have gotten here any sooner.”
He pulled one hand free and raked it over his head. “Damnit, Dad, I would have flown in immediately.”
His dad settled into the bed and covered his mouth as a string of coughs, less intense than they had been last night, rattled his chest.
Jon realized his anger was really fear. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here. But I am now.”
“Where’s Emmy?” For the first time, he saw some joy in his father’s eyes. Jon wished he’d been that happy to see him.
He checked his watch. “They should be landing any minute. I’m meeting them at the apartment in just a little while.”