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Should be at the hospital by three p.m., sweetie.
I turned to Talon. “He’ll be here in a couple hours. He’ll meet us at the hospital.”
He shook his head. “I have to get back to the ranch, blue eyes. I wish I could stay.”
My stomach dropped. “Please. I can’t be alone.”
“You won’t be alone, Jade. Your father’s coming. I’ll stay until he gets here.”
Tears clogged my throat. “No. I need you, Talon. You.”
He sighed and pulled me to him, stroking my hair. “All right, blue eyes. If you need me to stay, I’ll stay for a little while.”
“Thank you.”
“I want you to take a shower. I’m going to get us some food, okay?”
I shook my head. “No, we have to get to the hospital.”
“I told you, there’s been no change. She won’t even know you’re there, baby. Please, you have to take care of yourself too.”
He was right. I nodded against his shirt. “All right. But it will be a quick shower. I want you back here in fifteen minutes.”
He mock saluted me. “Yes, ma’am.”
After Talon left, I started shaking, my nerves overcoming me. No, Jade, keep it together. I shed my lush robe and took a quick shower, letting the tears fall. I probably looked like shit anyway from crying yesterday, so what did it matter? Talon would see me at my worst. I’d obviously seen him at his worst, and I still loved him more than anything.
I hadn’t brought a change of clothes, so I had to wear the ones I’d worn yesterday. Icky, but I had no other option. Once I got dressed, I went back to the bathroom and combed through my wet hair, deciding against the blow-dryer. I’d let it air dry. Then I grabbed my purse and put on a little bit of lipstick. That was it. I didn’t have the energy for anything else.
Talon returned on schedule with burgers and fries. They tasted like sawdust, but my stomach appreciated it.
As much as I wanted to grab him and take him back to bed, lose myself and escape reality, I held myself in check. I had to get to my mother.
Once we got there, though, I found that Talon was right. She was stable, and there’d been no change. The most I could do was sit with her for a few minutes. They wouldn’t let Talon in with me, so I sat alone, holding her hand that had a pulse oximeter clipped to it.
I wanted to say something to her, even though I knew she couldn’t hear me, but I didn’t know what to say. We’d never been close. She’d never cared enough to be close to me. The one time she’d come back, when I was fifteen, her second husband had cheated her out of her entire fortune from her modeling days. She came back to my father and me stone broke, and neither of us wanted anything to do with her.
I’d never regretted that choice. She hadn’t been there for me during my formative years when I needed her. She had chosen her career over me, and that still burned. But she was my mother, and I did not want her to die.
So that’s what I would say. I took a deep breath and squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry this happened to you, Mom. I really am. But I’m here. Dad is on his way. Nico had to fly to Des Moines. I’m sure he’ll be back soon.” Somehow, I knew that wasn’t true. Nico wasn’t coming back. But I couldn’t say that to my mother, even if she was unconscious. “I know we were never close, but you are my mother. And in my way, I do love you.”
A nurse came in to check her vitals.
“How is she doing?” I asked.
“She’s doing as well as can be expected. I heard you talking to her. I think that’s good.”
I bit my lower lip. “She can’t possibly hear me or even know I’m here.”
The nurse smiled at me. “I’ve been working ICU for fifteen years, and I’ve seen a lot of patients like your mother. The ones who do the best are the ones whose family members sit with them, hold their hands, and talk to them, just as you’re doing now. She knows you’re here. You can bank on it.”
Did she? Did she care? A couple of weeks ago, she had invited me to have dinner with her and Nico. I’d figured she was making an obligatory gesture. Had it been more than that? Now that I was an adult, did she want to try to repair our relationship? Better question—was I open to that?
My once-beautiful mother, now bruised and battered and fighting for her life, lay in silence. And the answer emerged in my mind. Yes. I did want to mend the relationship if possible.
The nurse finished checking my mother’s vitals and went on to the next patient. I closed my eyes and sat quietly, still holding my mother’s hand.
“Hey, sweetie.”
