He looked old.Frail.Sick.Much worse than he had just a couple of weeks ago.Worse even than a couple of days ago.Or maybe she hadn’t noticed.Hadn’t wanted to notice.He was lying in bed with his eyes closed, but he’d heard her come in.“I’m not having chemo.”
“It’s me.Aria.”
His eyes popped open.“Aria.What are you doing here?”
She walked to the bed.“Since you wouldn’t stay with me I came to you.You should have let me help you, Dad.”
Steven’s eyes filled with tears.“You called me Dad.I haven’t heard that since you were a little girl.”
“You’re my father.‘Hey, you’ didn’t seem appropriate.”She looked around and saw a chair.A recliner, which she decided to move closer to the bed.It weighed a lot more than she’d expected, but she finally pushed it nearer the bed and sat down.
“I didn’t expect to see you.I thought you were mad at me because I decided to stay here instead of with you.”
“I wasn’t mad.But I don’t understand why you wouldn’t let me help you.”
“You have a baby.You have a business.You have Ryan.The last thing you need is to have to take care of a terminal patient.”
“Ryan and I aren’t together.Not anymore.”
“Why?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I have time.”He smiled weakly.“At least for a while.”
She couldn’t have said why but she told him.The whole story from when she and Ryan met to the day Melvin told her about Ryan wanting to move to Idaho after his year was up in Marietta.
“What did he say when you asked him?”
“That it wasn’t true.He said he loved Sophie and me and had no intention of moving.”
“Do you believe him?”
“I want to.He… he brought me here.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.He thought we needed time alone together.”
“He’s here with you.That means something.”
“It means he’s a good guy.It doesn’t mean that he’ll stick around.”
“Don’t let what I did color what you have with him.”
“I’m not.It’s what Ryan did.He left me without a backward glance.And didn’t call for months.If I hadn’t moved and brought Sophie to see him I don’t know if I’d ever have heard from him again.”
“Why did he leave?Has he told you?”
She shrugged.“He said he was afraid he was falling in love with me.And he couldn’t deal with it.”
“Why?He’s dealing with it now, isn’t he?What changed?”
“Sophie for one thing.”She thought about it and decided that if anyone could understand how the war could screw with your head it would be her father.“On the way here he told me he had PTS.That he probably still did.From when he was a combat surgeon.He said he’d tell me about it after we leave here.”
Someone knocked on the door and a nurse came in.“Mr.DeLuca, it’s time for your medicine.”
She poured water into a paper cup and handed it and a paper holder for the pills to him.“Can I get you anything else?”
