This night that started so promising has quickly gone to hell.
Chapter 20
Gage
Everything happens so quickly. I call for the ambulance and try to get my dad as comfortable as possible, grabbing a pillow from the office couch to put under his head. Then I call Wayne, followed by my cousin so she can let my aunt and uncle know what’s happening. She’s also thankfully able to come in and take over for me while I go with my dad. When I emerge from the stockroom to let Iggy, the other bartender, and the servers know what happened, Celeste rushes up.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, her eyes wide with concern as she takes me in.
“Dad fell in the stock room right on his hip, along with who knows what other possible injuries. The ambulance is coming,” I explain in a rush. Noticing I’m upset, Iggy comes rushing over also, so I repeat the explanation and ask him to spread the word to the rest of the staff.
“What do you need?” Celeste asks.
“I’ve got to get back to my dad. Come with me?”
“Of course.”
I lead her back into the stock room. My dad is facedaway from us, still splayed out with his head on the pillow. He looks over his shoulder when he hears us and grimaces.
“This is so embarrassing,” he grouses. “I don’t need an ambulance or a fuss made over me.”
“Dad, stop. Things happen, and you do need an ambulance in case you broke something,” I say.
“I’ll be fine, I just fell. It’s not the end of the world,” he says, trying to get up.
Celeste moves to kneel beside him, smoothes his hair, and kisses his cheek.
“If you’re badly injured, and don’t get properly checked out, how will you run around after Ava and Braden?”
Her light admonishment gets him to pause. Oh, this brilliant woman goes right for his achilles heel. His shoulders droop in defeat.
“You play dirty, mija,” he grumbles.
“Only when I have to,” she retorts.
The ambulance arrives less than ten minutes after I called them. Those amazing paramedics expertly transfer my poor dad onto the stretcher, and wheel him out of the room into the main space. Everyone in the bar is subdued, the vibrancy of just a few minutes ago gone as people murmur their well wishes when he goes by. So many of the patrons here know him, and I know they must be worried. Iggy catches my eye and gives me a nod, letting me know he’s got this under control until Diana gets here.
“You go with him, and I’ll follow in my car?” Celeste asks from my side once we get outside.
“You won’t mind being there with me?”
It sounds like such a childish, insecure question once it’s out of my mouth.
“We have each other’s backs, remember? I’ll be there with you,” she asserts.
I pull her into a fierce hug.
“Thank you,” I whisper in her ear, with all of the feelings that I can’t say imbued into those two words.
“I’ll see you there,” she responds.
My dad is getting loaded into the back of the ambulance now, so I let Celeste go and hop in there with a final wave to her.
We pull into Princeton-Plainsboro hospital quickly, even though it seems like it took a lifetime, and my dad is wheeled immediately into the ER to get triaged. Celeste isn’t far behind, coming through the doors as I finish checking us in and sit in the waiting room to fill out the paperwork.
“They already took him back?” she asks, flopping into the seat next to me.
“Yeah, we can go sit with him as soon as this paperwork is done.”
