Something Unexpected by Vi Keeland
CHAPTER 33
Beck
A MAN STOPPED me in the hallway as I charged toward the ICU’s double doors.
“Beck?”
“William?”
He nodded and extended his hand. “Thank you for coming.”
“Of course.” I stupidly hadn’t asked for his number earlier when he’d called. I’d phoned the number on my caller ID, but he must’ve called from the hospital because it brought me to the Cedars-Sinai switchboard, and I couldn’t get anyone there to tell me anything, no matter how many times I tried. Needless to say, I’d been ready to crawl out of my skin during what turned out to be the nine hours between William’s call and my arrival. I kept thinking the worst would happen before I got here. And now that he was in the hall and not with her… I swallowed. “Is she okay?”
William nodded. “She’s about the same as when I called. The nurses are changing one of her ports, so they asked me to step out for fifteen minutes.”
I looked to the double doors and back to him, raking a hand through my hair. “Okay.”
He gestured away from the ICU. “The coffee is drinkable in the machine. How about I grab us two?”
I nodded. It took every bit of willpower to wait while he punched numbers into the vending machine and got us two paper cups of coffee. But William looked as frazzled as I felt, so I thought he might need a few quiet minutes.
He passed one paper cup to me. “Here you go. Sludge with milk.”
“Thanks.”
“So…” He sighed. “Like I said on the phone, my daughter was very specific with her instructions when she gave me your number. I was only permitted to use it if she…”
I put my hand on his shoulder. “I get it. You don’t have to say it. I don’t think I could either.”
He smiled sadly. “Thanks.”
“What happened? Did she have another heart attack? Or has she just deteriorated over the last two-and-a-half months?”
William’s brows puckered. “Do you not know about the surgery?”
“Surgery?”
He closed his eyes. “I’m going to kill my daughter.”
“What surgery did she have?”
“Nora had a heart transplant four days ago. She told me before she went in that she’d told you. I had no idea you didn’t know.”
My brain was still stuck on the first sentence. “Nora had a transplant?”
He nodded.
“But she wasn’t even on the list.”
“She wasn’t until a few months ago. One day she received a FedEx with a letter inside. She spent the entire day locked in her room crying, but the next morning, she came out and told me she’d changed her mind and had an appointment with her cardiologist to get on the list.”
Gram. It had to be. “Do you know who it was from?”
“I thought it was from you. But obviously I was wrong.”
It didn’t matter now. “So they did the transplant? She has a new heart?”
William smiled. “A healthy one that’s beating strongly. She made it through the surgery great, which was the riskiest part. Going in, her chances of pulling through were on the short side of fifty-fifty. The vessel reattachment was complicated due to where her tumors had been located. But she fought the fight.”
“What happened then?”
“A blood clot got caught in the artery near her lungs. They kept her out for two days to let her body heal after the surgery. The afternoon they were going to lower the sedatives, she started having trouble breathing on her own. She’s on a ventilator now.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “And an infection set in. It’s not looking too good.”
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck!
“Do you think we could check if it’s okay to go back in? I really want to see her.”
“Sure thing.” Her dad put his hand on my arm. “But son, I should warn you, she doesn’t look so good. She swelled all over from the blood clot, and she’s got machines with bells and whistles doing all of the work for her. It’s a lot to see.”
I swallowed. “Okay.”
All the warning in the world couldn’t have prepared me for what I found in Nora’s room. If William hadn’t led me to the bedside and picked up his daughter’s hand, I probably could have passed right by and thought it was someone else. Nora looked terrible. Her skin was pale, there was a fat tube threaded down her throat and taped into place on her face, and another smaller tube ran up her nose.
I couldn’t move from the doorway. Eventually, William came over. He rested his hand on my shoulder. “If it’s too much, I understand.”
“No. No. I’m sorry. It’s just…”
“I wanted to speak to the nurses, anyway.” He gestured toward the bed. “I’ll give you a few minutes alone. They say she might be able to hear us, so I’ve been talking to her.”
I forced myself to take William’s place at Nora’s bedside. What I wouldn’t give to change places with her right now. Why did the women I loved always have to endure so much when I rarely got a cold?
Leaning down, I kissed her forehead gently.
“Hey, beautiful.” I shook my head. “I can’t believe you had the surgery and didn’t tell me. I should be mad at you for that, but I’m too fucking happy you took the chance.” I brushed hair from her face. “I knew you were fearless. You are the strongest person I know. A woman who swims with sharks and jumps out of airplanes is not going to let a little blood clot keep her down. You’re going to pull through this, sweetheart. I’ll be honest, I was terrified on my way here, not knowing what the hell was going on. I let my mind go to some pretty dark places. But you have an angel watching over you now. And even if I had doubts about the doctors’ ability to bring you back to me, I have no doubt that Louise can do it.”
William came back a few minutes later. “You good?”
“I am now.” I smiled and took Nora’s hand. “I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life. She’s going to make it.”
William smiled back. “She’s going to kick my butt when she finds out I called you.”
“It’s okay. I bet you’d be really happy to have her pissed off.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I would.”
“Me too.”
For the following forty-eight hours, nothing much changed. Nora was on heavy-duty blood thinners to ward off additional clots and a heavy dose of antibiotics to treat the infection. At one point, she sprung another fever, but her medical team managed to work through it. The doctors had warned though, that her heart rate had grown slower—likely from the infection—and each day, the chances of her pulling through declined.
I’d convinced William to go home and rest for a little while, but only on the condition that I’d take a break when he got back. I didn’t want to, but I also didn’t want to go back on my word with her father, whom I’d only just met. I thought I might crash in my rental car for a bit, so I could still be nearby.
William returned, looking a little more awake, and just as I was about to go, an older woman walked in. She had bright makeup and the type of smile that showed on her whole face. It went with her cheery pink blazer and the stickers all over the cart she was pushing.
“Good morning.” She stayed in the doorway. “I’m one of the volunteer angels.”
William and I nodded. “Morning.”
“I have a cart full of goodies, if you gentlemen would like anything. I have sample-size deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, even a razor and shaving cream, if you need them. Also got some books and newspapers. We know family doesn’t like to leave too often, so we bring the necessities to you. What can I give you today?”
William shook his head with a polite smile. “I’m good. But thank you.”
“Me, too.”
“Okay.” She reached into a box on the top of her cart and pulled out something small wrapped in plastic. “But I’ll leave you with this. We can never have too many people watching over us.” She stepped into the room and held her hand out.
William took whatever it was. “Thank you.”
“I’m here until three. So if you change your mind and need something, just press zero on any hospital phone and tell them to send Thelma up.” She waved and pushed her cart away.
I looked at William. “What did she give you?”
He opened his fist. “A little gold pin. It’s an angel holding a heart.” He turned it over. “There’s a prayer on the back, the prayer for the patron saint of the sick—Saint Louise.”
“Saint…Louise?”
William nodded.
I looked up and closed my eyes with a smile. The angel pin would have been enough to make me believe, but Thelma and Louise? Now that was my grandmother’s sense of humor.
