Chapter 9
“I’m done with grass. We’re installing AstroTurf and calling it a day.” ~ Harper
Harper
T he door to my office flies open and I quickly click away from the book website. I’m trying to find my next romantic suspense book to read. I love reading romance. So sue me.
“Hey, boss,” Sloane says. “The beer delivery is here.”
I stand. “Thanks.”
“I can handle it.”
“You’re the only person behind the bar this afternoon. I need you there.”
“Okay,” she agrees but she looks like I kicked her puppy.
I frown as she leaves. Sloane wants more responsibility but every time I give it to her, she flakes on me. The last time she said she’d open up early for a delivery of new glassware, she ‘forgot’ about it and I ended up taking delivery in my pajamas. Not my finest moment.
I make my way to the rear entrance and open the door.
“Hey,” I greet Chloe. “I didn’t expect you. ”
Chloe is the bar and restaurant manager for Five Fathoms Brewing, the local brewery on Smuggler’s Hideaway. I exclusively stock Five Fathoms beer. Not only do I want to support a local company – especially one owned and operated by five women – but their beer is fantastic.
“I volunteered.”
I narrow my eyes at her. “You volunteered or you were volunteered?”
Her nose wrinkles. “What’s the difference?”
“The difference is I need to know what you did.”
She rolls her eyes. “No one can handle a joke anymore.”
“What did you do?”
“I may have dressed up as a mermaid ghost and haunted the brewery.”
“What happened?”
“Blossom screamed and went running. Straight into Paisley, who fell.”
I gasp. Paisley’s pregnant. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. Doesn’t have a scratch on her, but Eli went overprotective future girl daddy on me.”
“Girl daddy? Is Paisley having a girl?”
“Crap on a mermaid cracker. I’m not supposed to tell.”
I zip my lips. “I don’t have anyone to tell.”
She snorts. “You have an entire bar of patrons you can spill the beans to.”
“You’re confused. It’s my job to learn the secrets of the island from my patrons. Not the other way around. ”
The driver saunters toward me with a clipboard. “Here you go.”
He hands me the clipboard but my phone rings before I have a chance to look at it. “Excuse me.”
“Hi Jade,” I greet my neighbor. “Please tell me Dad isn’t watering your flowers with his urine again.”
“Oh, honey.”
My heart stops at the sympathy clear to hear in her voice. “What’s wrong? What happened? Is Dad okay?”
“You need to come home.”
“On my way.”
I’m already running before I hang up.
“I’ll handle the delivery,” Chloe shouts from behind me. I wave to acknowledge her.
I run all the way home. Why didn’t I drive today? I usually drive, but I decided it was a lovely day for a walk. No more. I won’t be caught without my car again.
I round the corner of my street and notice a crowd has gathered on my front lawn. I shove my way through everyone to reach Dad, who’s sitting on the grass.
“What’s going on? What happened?”
“The lawn mower attacked me.”
“The lawn mower? What were you doing with the lawn mower?” Dad shouldn’t be mowing the lawn. He needs a cane to walk for smuggler’s sake! “Jade’s son, Adrian, mows the lawn.”
“Look at the lawn. He hasn’t mowed in weeks. ”
“I’m sorry.” Jade wrings her hands. “Adrian is away at rugby camp. He’s supposed to come home on the weekends, but he’s having a good time and…”
I hold up my hand to stop her. “This is not your fault, Jade.”
I offer Dad my hand. “Let’s get you up and in the house.”
He raises his left arm and I notice it’s bent at a strange angle. This is not good since his right arm never fully recovered from his stroke.
How am I going to get him in the car and drive him to the hospital? I don’t want to use an ambulance. Ambulance rides are not covered in my insurance.
A siren wails. Too late.
But when I glance over my shoulder, it’s not an ambulance arriving. It’s a police car. Lucas, Chloe’s husband, folds out of the police vehicle and makes his way to me.
“Chloe rang me. She thought you might need help.”
“Thank the smugglers for mermaid ghosts,” I mutter.
“Mermaid ghosts?” Dad asks. “I’m not the one who needs help.”
“Dad,” I grumble. “We’re going to the hospital. You need to have your arm x-rayed.”
“Stupid lawnmower. I told you to buy a riding lawnmower.”
“Our yard is the size of a postage stamp. We don’t need a riding lawnmower.”
“And you don’t need to be paying some kid to mow.”
“I am not doing this with you now, Dad.” I meet Lucas’s gaze. “Can you help me get him in my car? ”
“I got this,” he says before kneeling next to my dad. “How do you feel about a ride in a police car?”
“Haven’t been in a police car in ages. Will you put on the sirens and lights?”
“I can even put you in the back seat.”
“Deal.”
Lucas makes it appear easy when he picks up my dad, unlike the last time I tried to carry my dad and nearly gave myself a hernia.
I rush to follow them but Jade stops me with a hand on my arm. “I’ll put the lawnmower away.”
Only then do I notice the lawnmower laying on its side. “Thanks, Jade. And thanks for the call.”
“Of course,” she says before nudging me toward the police car where Lucas is setting Dad in the rear seat.
“Did you cuff him?” I ask Lucas.
Dad scowls. “No need to cuff me when I have one useless arm.”
I was joking, but Dad isn’t. He’s a proud man and not being able to work since his stroke doesn’t sit well with him. He doesn’t want to be a burden. He’s my dad. He’ll never be a burden. A pain in my ass, on the other hand? For sure.
I settle into the front seat. Lucas sits next to me before switching on the lights and sirens.
“Whoo-hoo!” Dad shouts from the back seat.
It’s been such a long time since I heard my dad excited about anything. I should have asked Lucas to give him a ride before now. Instead of waiting until he’s injured .
We weave through the tourist traffic in Smuggler’s Rest until we’re on the road toward Rogue’s Landing. The hospital is halfway between the two main towns on the island.
“You enjoying the ride, Dad?” I ask, but when I glance over my shoulder, I notice he’s slumped over. “Dad!” He doesn’t respond.
“Lucas!” I shriek. “He’s unconscious.”
“Hold on, Harper. We’re nearly there.” He alerts the hospital staff that we’re three minutes out and will be arriving with an unresponsive male.
An unresponsive male? I bite my lip and dig my fingernails into my palms to steady myself. I’ve been here before when Dad had his stroke.
Is he having another stroke? Can a fall cause a stroke in a stroke victim? All the knowledge I have about strokes disappears in a puff of air from my mind. I can’t remember anything.
Lucas pats my thigh. “Deep breaths, Harper. Deep breaths. I don’t need you passing out, too.”
I nod and force myself to inhale a deep breath. I hold for three seconds before letting it out. I inhale another breath but we arrive at the hospital before I’ve managed to calm myself down.
When Lucas screeches to a halt in front of the emergency room, I jump out of the vehicle.
“Help! I need help!”
Four people rush out of the emergency room with a stretcher. “ It’s my dad.”
Lucas lifts Dad out of the car and on to the stretcher. They wheel him into the hospital and I rush to follow. A security guard blocks me. He nods to the registration desk.
“But—”
Lucas steers me toward the desk. “Let them do their job.”
“But—”
“You’ll be in their way. They know what they’re doing. Your dad is in good hands.”
The receptionist hands me a clipboard to fill out. “You need to…”
“I know the drill.”
She pats my arm. “He’s in good hands.”
Lucas guides me away from the desk. “Do you need me to phone anyone?”
“There’s no one. It’s just me and Dad.”
“A friend?”
I shake my head. Who has time for friends when you’re operating a business and caring for your father? Not me.
“Do you want me to stay with you? My shift is almost over.”
I wave him away. “I’ll be fine. This isn’t my first rodeo.”
He frowns. “If you’re sure.”
I force a smile. “Thanks for your help getting him here. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
“You would have figured it out.”
True. I always do.
He squeezes my hand before making his way across the waiting room to the exit. Once he’s gone, I collapse in a chair and bury my face in my hands .
What am I going to do? I can’t live without Dad. I can’t lose another parent. He’s all I have.