Chapter 27 #2
She placed two fingers across his lips while shaking her head. “Adam, you were so torn up about what my son said to you that your entire mood changed. It changed, because you were actively contemplating whether we were a good idea or not based on a fifteen-year-old’s desires.”
He swallowed, unsure of the darkness clouding her bright brown eyes. “Janae. Are you saying I shouldn’t have considered James’s perspective valid?”
“No,” she whispered. “That’s not what I’m saying at all.
” She stepped away from him and the distance, while only a few feet, felt like an uncrossable chasm.
“I’m saying you should have listened to James, then brought his concerns and yours to me so the two of us could discuss it together and come to a mutual decision about what would happen next. ”
He tried to find an argument to defend himself, but when she laid things out so plainly, it was impossible to find any justification for the way he’d handled this situation. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t try, though.
“Janae, I remember what it was like when the adults around me refused listen to me, to take me seriously.” He stretched his hands out to his sides then let them drop, effectively surrendering.
“This is your son. I’m only trying to do what’s best for him.
I don’t want to do to him what was done to me. ”
Her eyes were filled with sadness, like she’d witnessed the death of something or someone she loved. It made him uneasy, made him step toward her. But when she was only a few inches away, she stepped back, widening the gap between them again.
“So you’ve already made up your mind? No matter what I say, you’re just gonna walk away?”
Cold spilled down his back and panic rushed through every cell in his body, tightening up his muscles as he stood there in agony.
“Janae, it’s not about what you want. It’s damn sure not about what I want.
What I want is to keep you at my side, to turn over in the middle of the night and find you.
What I want, every moment I see you, is to bury myself so deep in you I can’t tell where you end and I begin.
That’s what I want, Janae. But the joy and hope in your son’s eyes cut me.
I couldn’t live with breaking his heart like that. ”
“I am grateful that you care so much for my son’s well-being. I can see it in your eyes that this is coming from a place of sincerity. But you are an absolute fool to walk away from me without considering what I want.”
“Janae—”
Adam’s phone rang, interrupting them. He was about to ignore it until he recognized his mother’s ringtone.
The sound of it was like a splash of cold water to the face. It was past nine at night, and her very strict sensibilities would never allow her to call anyone, even her son, unless there was an emergency.
“Mama.” The single word came out ragged and sharp, the fear in his voice creating jagged edges. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry to call you so late, baby.”
“Mama, never mind that. What’s wrong?”
“I had to call an ambulance and the EMTs are here and ready to take your father to the hospital.”
“For what?” Adam’s tone was still sharp. He’d apologize later for not being as gentle as he should’ve been. But if EMTs were involved, and Grady Henderson was willingly going to the hospital, there had to be something wrong.
“That old fool wanted something from the top shelf of one of the kitchen cupboards. Instead of asking me to get it, or waiting until tomorrow for you to come over and get it, he climbed on a stepladder, lost his balance, and fell on his bad leg. The EMT says it might be broken again.”
“Where are they taking him?”
“Monroe Hills Medical Center.”
Adam raked his hand through his locs as his eyes fell to Janae. She’d somehow managed to walk around the counter so that she was standing next to him.
Instead of the anger of a few moments ago, he could see concern glimmering in her expression.
“I’ll meet y’all there.”
He hung up the phone and Janae put a hand on his arm.
“Is your mother all right?”
He nodded, pursing his lips and breathing out slowly to try to calm himself. There was no use in him getting so excited that he wasn’t able to function. His parents needed him to be able to step up right now.
“My father took a nasty fall on his bad leg from a stepladder. EMTs think it could be broken again. They’re taking him to your hospital right now. I … I—”
“You need to go upstairs.” Her voice was both reassuring and calming at the same time. He imagined how her patients must feel when she spoke like that to them.
It quelled some of the panic sitting like a knot in the middle of his chest, and actually gave him room to breathe and think.
“Go and get dressed,” she continued. “Then I’m going to drive you to the hospital.”
Running solely on instinct, he did exactly as she said and within minutes they were on the road, taking the short drive to get to his parents.
Adam waited on one side of his father’s ER stretcher with Janae standing next to him while his mother stood on the other, holding his father’s hand.
He’d been given some meds to help with the pain that made him sleepy.
As Adam was watching the rise and fall of his chest, counting each breath to make sure there was no cessation, a Latinx man with salt-and-pepper hair and a clean-shaven face opened the curtain and stepped into the stall, closing the curtain behind him quickly to maintain his father’s privacy.
“Hello,” he greeted them each with kind, yet professional, eye contact. “I’m Dr. Coronado. I’m the ortho consult on tonight.”
He turned toward his father to find him waking up from his brief nap.
“Mr. Henderson, is it all right if I discuss your care plan with you while your family’s here?
” His father said yes, and they all waited for the doctor to continue.
“I’m afraid you’ve refractured your leg.
It’s a nasty break and this time, I’m going to recommend putting some metal pins in it to stabilize it and give it a chance to heal properly. ”
“My father’s in his seventies. Isn’t operating on someone his age risky?”
“With the exception of his leg, your father’s in great health. There’s always a risk with surgery. But I can promise you, we will monitor him very carefully to give him the best care possible. If we don’t do this, your father may never gain full mobility in his leg again.”
“Then I’m doing the surgery.”
All eyes were on his father. Adam, quite frankly, was shocked the old man wasn’t ready to sign out against medical advice at the mention of surgery.
“I wanna walk again. I don’t want you and your mama having to treat me like I’m some frail invalid for the rest of my life. Gimme the papers, Doc. I’ll sign ’em.”
As the doctor left to get the consent forms together, Janae squeezed Adam’s arm and began to step away.
“Where are you going?”
“To make sure your dad has people on his OR team that I would trust to take care of me.”
Adam’s vocal cords seized, and he couldn’t seem to voice what was in his heart at that moment. Even after their fight, she was helping his father, which showed him what a great person she was.
The tenuous bond he’d felt growing between them since his return to town seemed to solidify into something concrete, strong and visible.
She was taking care of his father, yes, but she was doing it because of Adam.
That fact made him grateful. But it also made his heart tighten and his need for her crystallize.
As clearly as he saw her standing at the foot of his father’s stretcher, he could see her and why she was so perfect for him, and why he could never let her go.
Janae walked into the shift supervisor’s office, finding her colleague, Christian Greensburg, standing there.
Christian had been her mentor in the department, and had trained her to hone and use her skills to bring the best possible outcomes to her patients.
He was smart, supportive, and direct. If you messed up he let you know in no uncertain terms, but if you needed him, he always, always had your back.
She needed him now.
Grady Henderson wasn’t a man she knew very well, but he was Adam’s father. Even though Adam had pissed her off tonight, something they’d have to address later, her focus was on relieving Adam of some of his worry about his father.
“Hey, Sanders. I thought you were off for the next few days.”
“I am,” Janae replied.
One of the perks of her job was that she worked three twelve-hour shifts per week. Granted, she usually picked up an extra shift or two on her off days to meet her present financial goals, but this week, she’d opted out of overtime because of the fashion show.
“Christian, there’s a patient by the name of Grady Henderson who’s being prepped for surgery.”
Christian quickly took his seat behind the desk and immediately began typing on the keyboard.
“Yeah, I’m about to start assigning staff to his case now.”
“Yeah … about that.” Janae exhaled, trying to gather her thoughts.
“What, you wanna clock in?”
“I’d love to, Christian. But I can’t. I’m involved with his son. It would be a conflict of interest. But I trust you. Can you take his case and handpick the nursing staff for his procedure?”
Janae could see Christian’s eyes dim with sympathy. “You got it, Sanders. We’ll do our best to keep him safe.”
He stood up and gave her arm an understanding squeeze before he left the room.
Seeing Adam so obviously worried about his father had done something to her. In the flash of a moment, her justifiable anger had melted when seeing the heavy concern that weighed on him, drooping his strong shoulders, and aging his smooth skin by decades.
It hurt, seeing Adam this way. Yes, his father was the one undergoing surgery and she was concerned about the man’s well-being. Surgery, under the best circumstances, was always a risk to even the healthiest patients. However, her most pressing concern was that Adam was in pain.
That should’ve frightened her. It should’ve made her give herself a mental shake and get her mind right. But instead, the only thing she cared about was giving him this small assurance, that whoever was in there with his dad, would treat him well.
“You’ll worry about this noise in your head later, Janae.” She whispered the words to herself so that even she could barely hear them. “Right now, go on upstairs and support your man.”
She turned on her heels, her brain shouting at her to stop and think about what she’d just said.
And her answer was a resounding no. Maybe later she’d admit how ridiculous it was to claim a man who might’ve been on the verge of breaking up with her before the call from his mother.
Maybe then she’d have a complete meltdown.
But right now, Adam needed her, and claiming him as hers made perfect sense.