Thirty-One
S cott stepped through her front door, but she met him and put her hand on his chest before her dad saw him. She pushed him back outside until they were both standing on the front stoop and closed the door behind her, but not all the way. She needed to be able to hear her father in case he needed any help.
“What’s wrong?”
“Dad’s not doing well.”
“Is he OK?”
“I don’t know. He won’t let me take him to the hospital.”
“Lauren…”
“I know. But after mom, he doesn’t like them. Neither do I really.”
Scott wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close. “Come on. I’ll help convince him. Either he goes in with us or he goes in with an ambulance.”
She wanted to take him up on his offer, but she didn’t need his help taking care of her dad. Too bad he didn’t give her the chance to politely decline.
Scott pushed her through the door and called out to her dad. “Jim, Mr. Somers, hear you aren’t feeling too well.”
An hour later they found themselves standing with the doctor in front of the nurse’s station in the ER.
“Heart arrhythmia?”
The doctor nodded, “more common than you might think. With medication it should be fine, but I want to make sure. So, we’re going to keep him here for a few nights and watch for atrial fibrillation and determine if surgery isn’t the better option.”
“Surgery!” Lauren reached for Scott’s hand. As soon as her fingers found his, she held on for dear life.
“It’s not emergency surgery. We go in and give his heart a shock to get it all back to normal. If we decide that’s the best course of action, we can schedule it for a few months from now.”
“I was supposed to drop the cookies off for the council meeting tonight.” She didn’t know why that was her first thought after hearing her feather might need surgery.
“I’ll take care of them. I’ll also let Melody know you won’t be in tomorrow. Then I’m coming back with some dinner for us.” Scott looked at the doctor. “I’m assuming Mr. Somers shouldn’t eat?”
“It’s for the best. At least until tomorrow morning.”
Scott leaned down and kissed her cheek. “I’ll be back, go and check on your dad.”
Lauren walked away in a daze. Her brain still hadn’t processed everything that was going on. When she stepped behind the curtain, she looked over her shoulder. Scott hadn’t left yet. He was still talking to the doctor. She wanted to go back and listen to their conversation, but her father interrupted her.
“Lauren, now, I don’t want you to worry. I told the doctor to tell you what was going on because if it came from me you’d come up with the worst-case scenario.”