4. Chapter Four
Chapter Four
Juliet
“ T ag! You’re it!”
I smile as I watch Piper run around the playground equipment with a few other kids, laughter and shrieks filling the small park.
“They’re all getting so big,” Lily sighs as we sit next to each other on a bench, watching our children play together as they have for a while now.
I let out a playful groan. “Don’t say that. That just makes them grow even faster.”
Lily cracks a smile and nudges me, the cold breeze ruffling her blonde hair. “We have no control over time.”
If I did, I don’t even know what I would do. Would I go back when things felt like a fairytale between Leo and me? Would I skip forward to when Leo leaves again so that I can skip the possibility of being hurt again?
I have no clue.
I’ve worked so freaking hard to be aware and in control of things, and Leo ruined that.
“How are you and Jensen doing?” I ask her, distracting myself from my own thoughts. I’ve been spending too much time in my own head lately.
“Great,” Lily says, her eyes brightening at the mere mention of her husband. “He’s working an assignment right now, but he should be home soon. It’s not that big of a fire. The kids miss him like crazy, though.”
I look back forward as Matthew, Madison, Wren, and Piper scatter across the playground to avoid being tagged by Kai, who I swear sprouted up a few inches since the last time that I saw him. They’ve all grown.
“I bet he misses all of you too,” I tell her, my voice nearly getting caught in my throat.
She doesn’t know about Leo yet.
“Everyone still misses you at the hospital. ”
I smile a little. Lily and I met at the hospital years ago when I first started as a nurse. I expected to stay at the hospital for the rest of my career, but when I heard that Frank Galloway needed a long term care nurse, I couldn’t get him out of my mind.
I thought of all the terrible things that I’ve heard him say to Leo. I thought of the look of disapproval that he gave me when he found out that Leo and I were together. I thought of how he chastised my mom for forgetting to polish the dining table before a dinner party.
Yet…I still found myself feeling sorry for him. He was dying. He was in the most vulnerable position of his life, and I nearly grew up on his estate.
I knew him.
It felt wrong to turn my back on him. To let my anger get in the way of my mission to heal and help.
“Do they miss my nursing skills or my killer snickerdoodle cookies?”
Lily tilts her head back with a laugh. “Hm. I’ll have to ask.”
Amusement warms me, breaking through the heaviness in my chest. “I’ll come by and visit sometime. ”
“With a full container of cookies? There’s nothing better to combat the cold than warm cookies.”
I hum under my breath playfully. “Maybe. I’ll think about it.”
Her shoulder lightly bumps against mine. “We need to hang out more. Preferably outside of the hospital if possible.”
I have gotten a little caught up in my work lately. The worse Frank gets, the more care that he needs throughout the day. His oxygen levels continue to concern me, and I have to be on top of his pain medication management.
He needs me, and neither of us expected that.
“We can go get a cup of coffee sometime,” I suggest. “Or a stronger drink.”
Lily smirks as she drags her fingers through her hair. “Yeah, I like the sound of that second option.”
Both of our days are long and hard, but we’re dedicated to our mission to help and heal. It doesn’t matter how tired we are or how much we’re carrying on our plates. We move forward no matter what.
“I also have another suggestion. ”
I raise an eyebrow at her.
“You need to put yourself out there and find a nice guy so that we can go on double dates,” Lily tells me, nudging me with her elbow.
Well, this is sort of ironic.
“Lucky for you, the love of my life just came back to town,” I reply with an overly cheery quip to mask the anxiety thrumming through me.
Lily blinks at me. “Wait, what?”
I look away from her, breathing through the crest of restlessness that crawls under my skin. “Leo Galloway. Remember? I told you we were together when we were teenagers.”
Lily nods as realization rushes back to her face. “Seriously? He actually came back?”
“You’re just as shocked as me.”
She frowns. “Did he come back because of his dad?”
“The secretary broke the news to him. He came home the next day,” I reply. “His dad didn’t want him to know.”
Lily exhales slowly as she leans back against the bench. “Right. I’m pretty sure everyone remembers that fallout.”
Rumors flow through this town like an endless stream. When Leo left town, people quickly figured out why. I’m pretty sure some of the house staff ran their mouths too, telling everyone about Frank and Leo’s explosive fight after he found out about our relationship.
A lot of people didn’t approve of Frank’s handling of the news. Some turned to other companies to do business with. It’s safe to say the Galloways’ reputation suffered from that whole ordeal.
“I barely recognize Leo now. He’s become this bigshot CEO in the city,” I say, my eyes dropping to the ground. “He just doesn’t act the same.”
“A lot of time has passed. People change.”
Completely? Leo seems like a stranger.
“Yeah, it just…sucks,” I mutter. “He’s better than this cold, selfish person he’s become. I think he’s more upset about having to deal with his family’s affairs than his father being on his deathbed.”
“Seriously? ”
I sigh and rise to my feet, pulling the long sleeve of my coat back to check the time on my fitness watch. “I don’t know. He’s just different. It’s weird.”
Her face softens. “This is hard for you. You were in love with him once.”
My chest aches as I nod. Those days feel like yesterday and a century ago all at once. Honestly, I don’t know if every trace of love for him has left my heart.
Deep down, there’s a part of me that misses him.
Or maybe I just miss what we had. I miss being loved. I miss being chosen.
But that didn’t last forever.
“I should go. I need to check on Frank.”
“How’s he treating you?”
I smile a little. “Good. You’ve seen how people start to change when they’re faced with their own mortality.”
Lily nods. “What you’re doing for him…it’s a really good thing, Juliet. Not a lot of people can handle that. ”
I went to school to learn how to heal and help people. Letting someone slowly die feels counterintuitive at times, but this is the most that anyone can do for him.
Take care of him. Make him comfortable. Dull the pain as much as possible.
That’s how I can help him.
I give her a grateful look and hug her goodbye before calling Piper over to me. She whines and protests a little about being torn away from her friends, but when she hears that we’re going to see Mr. Frank, she quickly straightens up.
She loves visiting him.
When we arrive at the estate, I don’t see any sign of Leo’s fancy rental car. Maybe he left town already.
My stomach flip flops. Would that really be the worst thing?
Piper slips her backpack on once she gets out of the car, and we head inside the house, following the same path upstairs that we always do every single day. At least I do.
“Hi, Mr. Frank!” Piper calls out as she bounds into his bedroom.
Instead of being annoyed by her shrill, loud voice, Frank smiles and gently pats the edge of his bed. “Hello, Piper.”
Piper hops up onto the bed next to him and pulls off her backpack. “Look what I drew!”
While she digs around inside her bag, I check Frank’s vitals and his breathing. Nothing has gotten worse since I last checked on him, but nothing has gotten better either.
At this point in the progression of his cancer, I don’t expect anything to improve.
Piper holds up a picture she drew of the mountains and the forest in Crayon, scribbled streaks of color filling the printer paper. “Do you like it?”
“I think it’s great,” Frank tells her as he takes the picture to admire it more closely. His hands slightly shake, but Piper either doesn’t notice or chooses not to say anything. She’s used to it at this point. “You should put it on the fridge.”
“Can I?” Piper asks me with a hopeful sheen in her eyes.
“Of course,” I reply before passing Frank a grateful look. He knows how important Piper is to me.
He has never complained about her coming along to work with me, and he didn’t pressure me to tell him who the father was. Of course, he did ask like other people did, but he accepted my answer of a one night stand with a man who came and went.
He never pushed for more information after that, and I’m glad he didn’t.
He could’ve figured out that Piper is his granddaughter.
Piper takes the picture back and smiles down at it with pride.
“Any pain?” I ask Frank quietly.
Frank faintly shakes his head, his jaw clenching. He’s still a prideful man, even in front of a six year old. “How has school been?”
As Piper delves into every detail that she can remember about school, I up Frank’s pain management dosage by just a little so that he can ride off this wave he’s trying to hide from me.
It’s hard to hide things from doctors and nurses. I can tell he’s in pain by his elevated heart rate. By how strained some of his words are. By how his muscles tense up when the pain crests.
He can’t hide from me .
For a long time, he probably tried to hide his symptoms and act like nothing was wrong. Then, he had to face the fact that something truly was wrong. Something he couldn’t run and hide from.
“I got a 100 on my color test,” Piper tells him.
Frank’s eyes widen in pretend shock. He knows how smart she is for her age. “Let me see.”
Piper rummages around in her backpack again, and I remain quiet as I watch the scene. A scene that I’ve seen countless times before.
A grandfather and his granddaughter. Both oblivious to their connection.
And I’m the reason for that.
Guilt has lingered within me since the day that I found out that I was pregnant.
What kills me the most is that I even lied to my own mom about who the dad was.
I felt like I had no choice because if I told her that Leo was the father, she would’ve tracked him down and dragged him back to Evergreen Heights .
I didn’t want him to come back and be there for us because he was forced. He had already chosen to leave me behind, and I wasn’t going to beg for him to return.
I was going to get everything under control myself, and I’ve pretty much done that. Somewhat.
“Come on, Piper. We should—”
Before I can finish my sentence, I hear familiar footsteps behind me. I turn around just as Leo appears in the doorway of his father’s bedroom, wearing another expensive suit like he’s heading to the office.
Like this is all just business to him.
But I can’t be annoyed because his eyes land on our daughter, and fear clutches my heart.