Without hesitating, I said, “His daughter is here, and she has her five-year-old with her. I’m just here to pick her up and take her home. Her phone must be off or not getting any service because I can’t get ahold of her.” Although I did see a car like Aubrey’s in the parking lot on my way in, it was a rather common model and color, and could’ve belonged to anyone. I prayed I wouldn’t be caught in a lie.
The woman behind the counter sighed and relaxed her shoulders in sympathy. “Go to the second floor. If she’s not in the waiting room there, ask one of the nurses at the counter and they’ll get her for you. They won’t allow you in the room, but at least they’ll be able to get her for you.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much.” I slapped the counter lightly and ran to the elevator bank, impatiently stabbing at the arrow button until the doors opened.
Once on the second floor, I scanned the area for the nurses’ station, only to find who I’d been looking for curled up in a chair in the waiting room behind a large glass window. My feet felt glued to the floor beneath me as my chest tightened at the sight of her. I’d seen her broken before, but never like this. It was as if she could handle almost anything happening to her, but couldn’t bear something happening to someone she loved. It only made my heart ache worse for her.
I carefully treaded into the waiting room, stopping in the doorway. The room was empty. Bree was the only one in there. Her feet were pressed into the seat with her knees pulled up against her chest, her arms hugging them to her. She hadn’t noticed me because she kept her face buried as her back shook with what I could only assume were her sobs.
Slowly putting one foot in front of the other, I made my way to the seat next to her, sitting down carefully so as not to scare her. Finally, she pulled her head away from her knees and turned to me. In that moment, I wanted to sweep her into my arms and hold her tight, never letting her go. But I refrained and kept my distance, not wanting to push her even further away than she already was.
Her face scrunched up in grief as she hiccupped a cry. Her arms fell away from her legs, and the moment her feet reached the ground again, she pushed herself against me, wrapping her arms around my neck and crying into my shoulder.
“It’s okay, Bree. He’s going to be okay. So are you.”
“Why are you here?” she asked into my now wet shirt.
“I didn’t know if you had anyone with you, and I didn’t want you to be alone. I didn’t know if you needed help with Ayla. And I couldn’t stand the thought of you in pain, and possibly alone.”
Her arms loosened some, allowing her to pull away slightly without letting go completely. She sniffled and wiped her face on her sweater sleeve. “My sister came to pick Ayla up and take her home. I feel bad, because I’m sure Sarah wants to be here, too. He’s just as much a father to her as he is to me. But I can’t leave until he wakes up. I just can’t…” Her pain took over again, stealing her words.
“Where’s your stepmom?”
She shook her head. “She’s not feeling well and can’t come until later. And my other sister is on her honeymoon. If something happens…”
I held her face in my hands, pushing her head back so that she could look at me. “He’s going to wake up, Aubrey. You don’t need to sit here alone, waiting for it. They’ll call you and let you know how he’s doing. He made it out of surgery, right? The rest is the easy part. He just needs to sleep and regain his strength again. And then he’ll wake up.”
“How can you be so sure?”
I pressed my lips to her forehead, not even thinking about it beforehand. It felt too natural. “Because you had to have gotten your strength from somewhere. It wasn’t your mother. I think it’s a safe assumption that your dad is a strong man. He’s a survivor…like you.”
“Thank you,” she whispered as she rested her head against my shoulder again.
“Listen, if you want to wait here, I’ll wait with you. I don’t care how long you stay. I won’t leave. But I really do think you’ll be more comfortable at home. You’re not doing yourself any good by being here.”
“I can’t go home. I’d never forgive myself if he…”
“You can’t think like that, Bree. You have to stay positive.”
She relaxed against me with a deep sigh. “I just want to stay a little bit longer. Just until I have some news. Otherwise, I won’t be able to sleep,” she whispered, sounding so far away.
The overwhelming need consumed me to hold onto her and bring back the Bree I knew and loved. The only thing I knew to do was to talk to her about something. It’s what we always did. When things got tough, we’d just sit and talk, and before we knew it, everything would seem brighter and more manageable. “Tell me about him. You never said much about your dad before, and now you seem really close. I want to hear all about him.”
With my arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer, she let out a small shudder and grabbed the side of my shirt in her fist, causing my heart to nearly beat out of my chest. “He’s a great man. He made mistakes when I was younger, but he’s owned up to all of them. And he’s more than made up for them, too. My stepmom is amazing, and so are my sisters. I hated that my mom kept me away from such a loving family, but at least I have them in my life now.”
“He’s good with Ayla?” Even though it was no longer my job to protect Bree, or her daughter, I couldn’t fight the unexplainable strong connection I felt toward them both. I only needed to make sure they were both being well taken care of.
Her small giggle rippled through my side as she snuggled closer, attempting to hide her humor. “When he found out about Ayla, he wasn’t too happy. But once he got out the typical father speech about how he wanted better for me, he seemed rather happy. I think she’s kind of helped him overcome his guilt over things he regrets from when I was young. And he sees how good she is for me, too…that makes him happy.”
“She’s the reason you never went to college?”
“Yeah. But I don’t regret it for a minute. I thought about taking classes once she started school, but I decided against it a while ago. The drive isn’t really there for me. I think the reason I wanted to go to college so much before was to get away from my mom. But I don’t have that excuse anymore.”
“What about your job? You said you hate it.” I wanted to keep her talking, not only to prevent her mind from falling prey to the situation in front of her, but also because I didn’t know how much time I had with her, and I needed to know everything I could about the woman she’d turned out to be.
“My dad and Robin, as well as my sisters, have been so supportive ever since I came into their lives. They never treated me as anything other than their family. But after I graduated from high school, I wanted to be as independent as I could. I didn’t want to rely on them for everything, so I took the only job that was available at the time. I work at a motel downtown, the one across from the lake. But I had to take the nightshifts because Ayla needed me during the day. Now that she’s in school, I can work days, but they don’t need a day clerk at the moment, and everywhere else I’ve applied said they can’t be flexible enough for my situation. So I’m stuck there.”
“Why do you hate the motel so much? Just the hours?”
“That,” she started with a huff, “and it’s a pay-by-the-hour place. Meaning we get a lot of shady people. Hookers, johns, cheating husbands…those types of seedy characters. It’s depressing, but it helps pay the bills.”
I fought the urge to ask about her husband—what he did for a living, why didn’t he help out that much—but I refrained, knowing that listening to her talk about him would hurt more than the knowledge of his existence. So I kept my questions and concerns to myself and surmised that he was probably just as young as Bree, and most likely struggled along with her instead of being the dead-beat dad I’d imagined him to be.