Page 148 of The Promise Of Rain

I took the phone away from my ear.

At the sight of the nursing home number, I began to shake.

Hand trembling, I pressed it to my ear.“This is Jenny,” I rasped.

“Jenny.”She began gently.“It’s Abby.”

“No,” I whispered.“I just saw him.”

“I’m so sorry, honey,” she murmured.

“He was out of his wheelchair and walking and everything,” I sputtered.“How could things turn so fast?”

“He’d been declining for some time.I swear his energy tripled when you walked in the room.He loved you so much.”

Loved.

Past tense.

No.

“I’m on my way,” I blurted, the part of my mind that understood going offline.“I don’t want him to be alone.Is the doctor with him?How long does he have?”

“Honey,” she sniffed.“Is there somebody I can call for you?”

No.

I panted into the phone.

“Jenny?”she called softly.“Do you want me to call Deacon?I have his contact information in Darlene’s file.”

No.

I cleared my throat.“No.Don’t do that.”

I tipped my head back and blinked the tears away.“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” I choked out.“I’d like to sit with him for a bit if that’s okay.”

“Of course.We’ll see you soon.”

The drive to St.Michael’s passed in a blur of trees whipping past my window and road disappearing beneath me.

I knocked on the locked outer doors to St.Michael’s and watched as Abby hustled over and let me in.

“Honey,” she whispered.

I held up my palm and turned my face away before clipping past her down the hall.

Outside Ansel’s door, the doctor stopped me.

“What?”I snapped.

The doctor cleared his throat.“Ansel was your dad?”

I nodded, locked in disbelief.

“Your father passed away peacefully in his sleep a few minutes before two this morning.”

I stared at him, holding his eyes, challenging him to dare to say that to me.