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Brandon turned to me. “Walk me out?”
“I’ll be right back,” I assured Dad and followed Brandon to the elevators.
“I’m sorry I have to leave,” he said as he pressed the down button. He pulled me back into his arms. “I really did want to stay.”
“I know you did,” I said. “But you’ve done too much already. I’ll be back as soon as Dad’s through his next surgery and on the mend.”
Brandon smiled ruefully. “Hopefully it won’t be too long. I’m not sure I’ll survive without you for two weeks.”
It was meant to be a joke, but his tone made my chest constrict—the idea of being without him for more than a few days caused a massive cloud of dread to hang over my head. I was so in love with the man.
The realization had my heart skip once, twice. Wasn’t it too soon to be thinking such things?
“Skylar, I—”
I looked up to find Brandon’s eyes wide with vulnerability. The hum of the hospital ward faded away, the voices and beeps muted as we stared, lost completely in something neither of us were ready to name yet.
“Skylar,” he said again, softly. “I…I—”
The elevator bell interrupted us. As the people filed off, Brandon kissed me, quickly but intensely, lifting me up so my toes hovered over the floor. Just as quickly, he released me, breathing heavily.
“I’ll miss you,” he said as he stepped into the elevator.
“Call me when you’re home,” I replied with a feeble wave. Just his brief kiss had managed to knock the wind out of me.
Brandon gave me a sly grin, and my knees weakened just a little bit more. “Bye, Red.”
The elevator doors closed. I turned around to find two of the nurses watching with twin expressions of pure jealousy.
“Girl,” said one of them. “I don’t know what you are doing there. If that was my man, I wouldn’t let him out of my sight.”
“No doubt,” agreed the other one. “He looks like trouble. The good kind.”
“You have no idea,” I replied.
They laughed as I walked back to my dad’s room.
“He’s off?” Dad asked as I slumped into the chair beside him.
I nodded and looked at the TV, afraid of what my expression would betray.
“He’s a good man, Skylar.”
I turned to Dad curiously. He didn’t usually say much about the men I dated. Even when I’d dated Patrick and Robbie and had come home crying, he’d left the interfering up to Bubbe. Dad was usually the quiet, watch-and-see kind of parent, content to let me make my own mistakes while he loved me no matter what.
“I’m glad,” he said, fighting to get the words out of his still-hoarse throat. I started to speak, but he held up his good hand in protest. “No, I am. You deserve better than an old man who’s going to ruin the family. He’ll take care of you, Pips. And I’m glad to see it, ’specially since I can’t.”
I swallowed. This was the moment, if ever, that I could talk some sense into him.
“No one has to take care of me, Dad. I want to take care ofyou.”
His mottled features spread into a wistful smile at the words. “Oh, kiddo, you already do.”
“Dad.” I cleared my throat. I might as well get it over with. He needed to know he didn’t have to worry. “I went to Nick’s yesterday.”
“You did what?”
“Victor was there,” I continued. “We came to an agreement about paying your debt.”
