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I ran through the hallways of the hospital, nearly tipping over a gurney at the nursing station, narrowly missing an orderly, and then actually tripping over a wheelchair someone had left in the hallway.
I scrambled to get back on my feet, my heart beating a frantic tattoo against my ribs. I had to get to her. I couldn't lose her.
My cousin's words on the phone still rattled around my brain. 'She's in the hospital. You need to come quickly.’ I took the stairs two at a time to the fourth floor, where they'd directed me to the main reception desk.
Oh, God, please let her be okay. Please, please, please, let her be okay.
My Grandma Lucy was the only person on the planet who understood me. Well, besides my best friend, Alexandra, who I affectionately called Alex. But Grandma Lucy, she was my heart. She was the sole reason I was where I was today, even when no one else believed in me.
Growing up, she'd been my rock. She'd scolded me when she needed to, hugged me when I needed it, and always told it to me straight. She was outrageous and always said the most inappropriate things. But man, she was fantastic.
Grandma Lucy had been the one to tell me to stop trying to seek my father's approval and follow my own path. She was the sole reason that any banks would even talk to me when I wanted to build a boutique hotel.
My family was known for their hotels the world over. But investors didn't want to get in bed on the first solo venture from the prodigal son. But my grandmother had made sure that several banks knew that, while a separate venture, I was backed by the matriarch of the family.
As family went, the only one I ever counted on was my grandmother. The rest of my relatives I could take or leave. My mother hadn’t come from money and had left me with my father when I was eight because the old man could provide a more stable environment for me. Most of my family never approved of her. As an adult, I could see how being around the Morrisons was very difficult for her. But as a child, I’d just missed her. She died in a car accident just six months after she left. A part of me had never recovered. As for my father, well, Jack Morrison wasn’t exactly warm. But up until the reading of the will, I would have said we got along well.Boy was I wrong.
My cousin Martin and I had both interned at the flagship property on Catalina Island. My father had always made it clear that I should be the one eventually running Morrison Hotels, but somehow Martin had shoved me out of what should have been my birthright.
The knowledge that my own father wouldn't trust the Morrison legacy to me still burned like a fire in my gut. It was what spurred me on.Prove the old man wrong.I'd always thought my father loved me.Then why cut me out?The fact that he could do that to me, shut me out without a word so that I had to hear about it in the reading of the will, was a special kind of hell.
I tugged open the door to room 406. I found Martin, my Uncle Jake, my Aunt Mary, and a few of the household staff that had been with my grandmother for years gathered all around my grandmother's room.
Grandma Lucy tried to push herself to sit straighter, but when she winced, I ran for her side. "I don't think you're supposed to move." I turned my attention to Martin. "What happened? What did you do?" I yelled.
Martin rolled his eyes. "I didn't do anything. I'm the one who found her collapsed in her office. I called an ambulance to get her to the hospital. Then I called you, her precious grandson." The note of jealousy rang clear as a bell.
From behind me, a voice said, "If I were you two, I'd keep it down. Your grandmother needs rest. If you can't give her that, I will have security escort you out."
I turned to find a petite woman in a white lab coat. Her dark hair was pulled back off her face into a bun, her expression stern. Her name tag read Dr. Jesslyn Wells.
"Are you my grandmother's doctor?"
She gave a brusque nod. "Yes, I am. Now can you and the rest of your family please give me some space so I can check my patient?" Her voice was stern, clipped. It told me that she was well-versed in dealing with difficult people.
"I'm sorry.” The group backed away, but I moved to the foot of the bed. “I just don't know what happened."
Grandma Lucy waved her hand. "What happened is your cousin overreacted. My blood pressure's just low, that's all. I'm fine. I do not need to be in this hospital. Matter of fact, if you can get these IVs out of me, I'll be on my way. I feel like a damn pin cushion."
Dr. Wells clucked as she checked my grandmother's vitals then wrote something on her clipboard. "Now, Lucy, we've had this conversation already. I am not unhooking the machines. You need to stay for observation for at least a couple of days. You're slightly dehydrated, and I'd like you to start eating a little bit more. Your blood pressure is low, and you’re fatigued. You really need to rest."
My grandmother was having none of that. "Listen up, young lady, I've had three times more years on this planet than you have, and I know how I'm feeling. I was a nurse when I was young, so I know that I'll be fine. You don't need to keep me in here. You just want to bill my insurance."
Dr. Wells’s lips twitched. "Lucy, we've already had this conversation. This is my area of expertise. I want to make sure you stick around to see any future great-grandchildren you may have, so I'm going to need you to listen to me right now."
I had never seen anyone handle my grandmother so effectively, and Grandma Lucy did not offer an argument. She frowned, closed her mouth, and sat back. Dr. Wells had used the magic word.Babies.
My grandmother had been after me, Martin, and our other cousins to procreate as quickly as possible. I was in no hurry. Hell, I was only twenty-five. Martin was older by a couple of years. She needed to direct her energy on him.
The rest of our cousins were scattered in age, but there were some who were over thirty, and Grandma Lucy really should have been focused on them doing the marriage and kids rodeo. Not me,neverme. I wasn’t going to mess up some poor kid like my father had screwed me up. No way, no how. Plus, children involved settling down, and that was certainly not going to happen. I liked my women available, flexible, andtransient.
Except Alex. Alex was different. She’d been my best friend since college, and possibly, besides my grandmother, the most influential female in my life. And Ilikedher. There had never been anything romantic between us, that one kiss notwithstanding. Which was our saving grace. Not that she wasn't hot. She was. Alex was gorgeous. With those big brown eyes and her dusting of freckles on her nose. In the beginning, I'd flirted mercilessly with her, but I’d been honest and told her I was a fuckboy.
One day years later, she’d told me she was glad we were just friends because she couldn't take me seriously. It was the best thing we could've ever done for the two of us. We were closer now than we would have been if I hadn’t pushed her away and shehadtaken me seriously. I'd have messed that right up. Slept with her then run… very far away.
"Dr. Wells, can you tell us what happened or what's going on?"
She sighed as she clicked her pen and tucked it back in her pocket. "Your grandmother is suffering from exhaustion. She's been doing too much and taking on too much stress. Her blood pressure is all over the place. It was low and that's why she collapsed, but since she's been here it's spiked up then shot down. I need to take a look at her medication. She will be fine, but she has to cut back on her daily activities and relax. That’s very important.”
