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“I know,” she repeated, walking to the windows and adjusting the blinds. “Don’t tell me—you want out of the prison and expect me to help you escape.”
He chuckled, then stopped abruptly, as if the pain was too much. “Look, I’m about to go stir-crazy around here, but the doc, he thinks I need to stay another couple of days.”
“I’m on his side. Don’t even argue with me about it.”
She leaned over and kissed his forehead. “So tell me—and I want the truth—how’re you feeling?”
“Like I was dragged through a knothole one way, then pushed back through the other.”
“I thought so. You’re better off here, Dad.”
“But I’ve got things I gotta do.”
“Oh, quit whining,” she said with a grin. “Whatever it is, believe me, it’ll keep.”
As quick as a cat pouncing, he grabbed hold of her hand and wouldn’t let go. “No, honey, this time, I’m afraid it won’t.”
“Oh, Dad—”
His lips compressed thoughtfully for a second. “There’s something I’ve got to tell you, Bliss. Something I should’ve told you about a long time ago.”
For the first time since entering the gleaming room, Bliss felt a premonition of despair. An unidentifiable urgency etched the contours of her father’s face and his gaze was steady and hard as it held hers. “Oh, God,” she whispered, suddenly weak in the knees. Tears, unbidden, formed in her eyes. “The doctor found something else—”
“No, no,” he was quick to assure her. “I’m gonna be all right, just gotta take care of myself.”
“Then what?” Her shoulders sagged in relief.
He hesitated, muttered an oath under his breath, then said, “I’m gonna get married again.”
“What?” She stiffened. Surely she hadn’t heard correctly. “Married? You’re joking.” He had to be.
“Never been more serious in my life.” His expression told her that he wasn’t pulling her leg.
She steadied herself on the rail of his bed, clutching hard enough that her knuckles showed white.
“Now, wait a minute—”
“I’ve waited too long as it is.”
She was missing something here. Something important. “But Mom—”
“Is gone.”
“Oh, Lord.” She swallowed back the urge to argue with him and told herself she’d better hear him out. Maybe he was hallucinating from the drugs, maybe he’d grown attached to one of the nurses attending him and had developed a silly, dependent crush on her, or maybe—could it be?—he had a lover. No way.
“Sit down.” He waved her into a chair.
Gratefully, she sank into a chair wedged between the bed and the window. “I think you’d better start at the beginning,” she suggested, though she knew she wasn’t going to like what she was about to hear. “Who—who is this…this woman?”
“Someone I love very much.” His smile was weak, but the set of his jaw was as hard as granite, and while the sportscaster on the television spoke in hushed tones as a golfer approached his tee shot, Bliss felt a welling desperation.
“I—I don’t understand.”
“I know. Trouble is, neither do I, and I’ve had a lot of time to think about it.” His lips, dry and chapped, curled in over his teeth in a second’s indecision, and with his free hand he tugged on the crisp white sheet covering his body.
“Is she someone you just met?”
“No.” The words seemed to ricochet off the stark hospital walls and echo dully in Bliss’s heart. “I’ve known Brynnie for years.”
