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“Sir, you need this on,” a nurse says. “We’re waiting for an observation room.”
His arms are huge, nearly the size of my thighs.
“Dad!” she says again when she gets to his side.
He pushes her away, his mouth moving but no words come out other than groans.
I swallow, taking in the scene, dumbstruck.
“Is he okay?” Charley asks, wrapping her arms around herself. Tears stream down her face.
“You are?”
“His daughter.”
I make my feet traverse the space between us, coming up behind her. I place my hands on her arms, and she jumps nearly a foot in the air. Spinning, she takes me in, her mouth agape.
Her father grunts some more, and I look down to see him pushing at Charley again, and I move her out of his reach.
“Cade, what are you doing?”
“I’m— I…”
She starts to shake. Full-body tremors. “What are you doing in here?”
“I drove you here.”
“But what are you doinghere?” she emphasizes, pointing at the ground like I’m in her space.
Her face turns red, eyes sparking. I take a step back. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Behind her, her dad pulls off his mask. “Who is that? Who are you?”
I peer behind her to see an angry face screwed up like a wrinkly plum.
“Sir, your mask needs to be on.” The nurse gives me major side-eye, and I take another step in the opposite direction I want to go in.
“Dad,” Charley complains, turning her back on me.
I stand there for a few moments, but it’s as if she’s shut me out. A door opens up, and the paramedic starts pushing the stretcher, Charley following after.
My mouth works like I’m going to call out to her, but I snap it shut. She doesn’t want me here.
A pinch starts in my chest, her rebuff sitting like a lead weight in my stomach.
I walk toward the doors.I surprised her is all, I tell myself. She didn’t want me there, and I guess she never actually told me to follow her, but I wanted to be there for her. Like I have from the very beginning. Not letting her push me away when that’s all she wanted to do.
I can’t shake the feeling that we just took two huge steps backward. Not to mention the fact that her father clearly didn’t want me there.
I’m not pretending to know anything about their dynamic, but I’m predisposed not to like the guy. The name he called her. The fact that she told me she does everything for him and sometimes, he’s not very nice to her. I can picture her running around the house while he just sits there. You don’t get that large by helping out.
I can’t stop the wordselfishbeing thrown around in my head. Not to mention what she’s told me about her grandmother not seeing her until recently.
What is this guy’s problem?
I’ll be damned if he’s going to come between me and Charley.
I get to the car and take a deep breath, wrapping my hands around the steering wheel. Next to me, a phone pings, and I look over to see Charley’s blue case seated there.