Chapter 26
Jordana couldn’t peel her eyes from the long lane leading to the house.
She just wanted to see the ambulance. She needed to see that her father was okay with her own eyes.
Forrest stood quietly beside her, not trying to stop her from watching looking for the ambulance obsessively. Instead, he offered his silent support.
Just thinking that he’d woken up Miss Winnie, Miss Ruby, and Miss Mitzi to help find the ingredients for her mother’s soup showed her how much he loved her.
Somehow, Jordana had been able to even have fun showing the women how to make it with her mother’s twist when compared to the American version.
“What’s the matter?” Forrest asked suddenly. “You just frowned.”
She did, didn’t she? And she knew why. “I was just thinking how in less than a week I feel more attached to Shadows Landing than to Brasília.”
“And that made you frown?”
“It made me realize that maybe we don’t have to evenly split our time between the two cities. I only wish my father were closer. He’s the only reason I’d need to go back more often than the two to three times a year to go into the .”
“Maybe your dad will retire here?” Forrest offered her a little hope, but she didn’t know if her father could ever stop supporting Brazil.
Jordana paused and looked down the lane. She didn’t see anything, but she did hear something. “Do you hear that?”
Forrest nodded. “Someone is driving up the lane.”
Right after he said it the ambulance finally came into view. Jordana raced down the steps and practically hopped from foot to foot as she impatiently waited for the ambulance to pull up and stop.
The second the back door was opened, Jordana was there. “Dad!”
“He’s still coming out of the anesthesia,” Kenzie told her as her father muttered as if talking in his sleep. “Normally family doesn’t see a patient until they’ve woken up and are transported back to their hospital room. But we didn’t want to risk waiting around in case someone spotted us.”
Gavin got out of the back where he, Kenzie, and Agent Spivey had been sitting with her father. “He did really well, Jordana. His blood pressure, heart rate, and everything have stayed stable thanks to your medicine. You’re going to change the world with that.”
Doug, the EMT, and Agent Mayfield came around the back as Forrest joined them to help lift her father out of the ambulance and carry him back inside. His color looked good, but she hated that his eyes were closed. She just needed to hear his voice.
It didn’t take long, but it seemed like forever as her father was moved to the bed and Kenzie got him hooked back up to monitor his vitals. While she did that, Gavin gave her a play-by-play of the surgery and what Rowan had done.
“You think he’s on the road to recovery now?” Jordana asked once it was just Kenzie, Gavin, Forrest and her in the room.
“I do.”
“Jory?”
Jordana almost cried with relief as her father mumbled her name. “Dad!”
Jordana held his hand as he fully woke from the anesthesia. He smiled and squeezed her hand. That’s when she knew he was going to be okay. However, when he coughed, she was crushed when he grimaced in pain. “Is there anything we can give him?”
“Of course.” Gavin pulled out a bottle and a syringe. “It was in your chart that you can take morphine. Is that correct?”
“No!” Both Jordana and her father replied.
“I’m allergic to morphine,” her father said, grimacing again as he moved to sit up a little more. Forrest hurried over and helped him get comfortable.
Jordana saw the concerned look Kenzie and Gavin shared. Someone was trying to kill her father or have someone else do so.
“Fentanyl?” Gavin asked instead.
“I can take it, but I want to be off drugs as soon as I can,” her father told them.
“The first two days are the worst. We’ll move to oral pain meds on the third day. When you’re ready, we’ll move to over-the-counter meds,” Gavin said, measuring out a dose and injecting it into his IV. “This might make you sleepy.”
“Is it weird that I’m hungry?” her father asked.
“Yes,” Kenzie answered with a smile. “But we’ll get some of that broth from Suze and start that for dinner. If you tolerate it well, we’ll see what we have for tomorrow.”
“I made Mom’s soup. It’ll bring it by when it’s done with some bread and maybe you can have it tomorrow if you’re feeling up to it.”
Her father squeezed her hand. “You made your mother’s soup? You haven’t been able to do that since she died.”
Tears pressed against her eyes as she nodded. “I know, but I had some avós and Forrest to help me make it.”
“Avós?” Kenzie asked.
“Grandmothers,” her father answered. “It was a family tradition that when someone was sick, my wife and her mother and my mother would get together to make them soup.” Her father turned back to look at her and grinned. “Did they happen to show you how to make that apple pie?”
Jordana laughed as her father’s wink turned into closed eyes and soft snores. “The soup should be done,” she said to Forrest. “Let’s go get the bread and then pick it up. That way my dad can eat it the second he’s ready. And we can have some for lunch if you all want. I made a large pot.”
“Thank you,” Gavin told her. “But I’m going to go home and take a shower.
I’ll be by to check on him when Kenzie is done with her shift.
I do think we’re through the worst of it.
I also think there’s less of a chance for sepsis this time around since we checked very thoroughly before we closed him but also because your medication is still in his bloodstream.
Jen, the ER nurse who helped us, ran his blood work we’ve been collecting.
I’ll email you the results. You’re going to be very happy with them.
You’re going to save so many lives, Jordana, not just your father’s. ”
Jordana stepped over to Gavin and hugged him. “Thank you for everything you’re doing for my father.”
Gavin gave her a smile before leaving instructions with Kenzie.
Kenzie turned to them and took a deep breath.
It looked as if she, too, was finally relaxing.
“Go run your errands. Your father will be asleep for a while. I’ll call you if anything changes.
Oh, they’re filming downtown again. We got a pass-through with the ambulance, but you’ll have to park at Gil’s and walk during a break in filming.
Unless you want to dress like a pirate, then you can walk through. ”
“I’m too tired to dress like a pirate,” Forrest said, shaking his head. “We’ll just make a run for it during a break. Are you ready?”
Jordana stepped back to her father and kissed his forehead before stepping back to Forrest’s side. “I’m ready.”
Jordana stared at a whole street filled with pirates. “I think there’s more now than there was the last time.”
“Maybe more locals are participating,” Forrest suggested.
There were sword fights in the street, pirates ziplining, and a pissed off looking Mary off to the side frowning at the chaos. “Lacy and Leah are better at sword fighting than these people.”
Forrest snickered and then the sound of an amplified voice rang out. “Cut! I’ll review the tape to see if we got it. Relax or practice for the next ten minutes,” the director said through a bullhorn from under a tent down by the other end of Main Street.
Forrest reached down and took her hand in his as they weaved their way down Main Street between the reenactors.
Jordana glanced into the window of Bless Your Scarf at a cute dress when Forrest suddenly stopped.
She turned only to find a group of men standing shoulder to shoulder on the sidewalk with swords.
Movement caught her eye and she glanced behind her.
More pirates were filling in. They were encircled.
“We’re not part of the documentary,” Forrest said, his voice forceful yet calm. “Step out of our way.”
“Where’s your father?” The man with the eyepatch growled at her.
She looked to Forrest and saw the moment they both realized that these were not reenactors. They were some of the men who had kidnapped her in Brazil. Specifically, she recognized Danilo from when he’d taken her.
“He’s in New York,” she answered in Portuguese, just to make sure Forrest understood that these men weren’t locals.
“We both know the man in the hospital bed in New York isn’t your father,” eyepatch snarled as his eye narrowed with anger. “Tell me or I’ll kill your boyfriend right in the middle of the street.”
Jordana went to answer, but Forrest stopped her. “I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to kill me anyway.”
Danilo snarled out a grin and Jordana’s heart sank. How did no one see they were in trouble? Forrest slowly let go of her hand even as she desperately wanted his touch. She saw him glance around and knew he was counting the number of men around them. There were ten. She’d already counted.
Jordana glanced around one more time and saw Melinda standing at the door to the church. She was watching them, her eyes narrowed, and a frown on her lips.
“You’re right,” eyepatch said, raising a sword to point right at Forrest. “We don’t need you.”