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Chapter 18
“Well, I have to get back, but I just wanted to check in and say hi and tell you that you are in good hands with Dr. Shaw. He is one of the most sought after cardiologists in the state,” Becca Sloan, Jessie’s youngest sister and a resident at this hospital, assured them.
“Thanks so much for stopping by,” Maxi said sincerely as Becca stepped out of the room.
Her eyes watered as a yawn claimed her. She’d gotten four hours of sleep last night before returning to the hospital today. Even though it had been four of the best hours of sleep she’d ever gotten in her life thanks to being wrapped up in the arms of the literal man of her dreams, she was still exhausted. This past week with Ricco had gone smoothly, thank God, but she’d paid the price, and that price was sleep and maybe a little sanity.
Whether it was the stresses of her job or the scariness of her personal life, she felt like she was one call, one incident away from a nervous breakdown.
“How many Sloans work here?” her dad asked after the door shut. “They’re coming out of the woodwork.”
Billy smiled and her stomach flipped at the sexy sight. “I think that’s all of them.”
She tried to ignore the havoc that his deep voice and bad-boy grin played on her body. That was a lot easier to do before she’d given into her greatest temptation and now had intimate knowledge of the person that voice and grin belonged to. She hoped that her dad wasn’t picking up on it. She had no idea what he would think about it, especially since he was always trying to hook Billy and Maxi up with different people. Thankfully, there’d been a lot of distractions.
Today there had been a constant stream of visitors and a good percentage of them had been Sloans. Jamie Sloan was first and she came in with her husband Alex Sloan, who technically didn’t work for the hospital, but explained that he was there because he was a firefighter/EMT. Next was Chelle Sloan a nurse who was married to Riley Sloan the second oldest Sloan brother. Then there was one of Jessie’s other sisters Krista who worked as a physical therapist in the PT department. And finally Becca Sloan who’d just moved back to Harper’s Crossing and was in her first year of residency.
They were quite an accomplished group. And in the immortal words of Zoolander, “Really, really, ridiculously good looking.”
And that wasn’t the end of the Sloan parade of well-wishers. Jessie and Zach had spent a good portion of the morning here. Then Seth had stopped by with his wife Amber. And before they left, Bobby Sloan, who worked at Elite Protection with Billy, stopped by with his wife Sophie, Grandpa J’s actual granddaughter.
The constant stream of people continued with Lloyd, who’d been there for most of the day, and six or seven fighters had come to by. The outpouring of concern and love meant a lot to Maxi, and even though he didn’t show it, she knew her dad appreciated it. She’d always wanted a big family like the Sloans, and it was nice to feel a part of it, even if it was just for a day.
But now they were finally alone and as far as she knew, not expecting anymore company. Maxi thought this was as good a time as any to bring up what had been on her mind even if the thought of doing it made her want to puke.
She scooted closer to the edge of her chair and rolled back her shoulders, to try to alleviate the tension in them. “Dad, have you given any thought about what Dr. Shaw said?”
Dr. Shaw had told them all, in no uncertain terms, that if her dad kept going the way he was, he’d have another heart attack sooner rather than later and next time he might not be so lucky. He not only needed to eliminate the stress in his life, he also needed to change his eating habits. He needed to exercise and take care of himself.
Charlie Rizzo always took care of his fighters, made sure that they were in peak physical condition and on a healthy diet. Back in the day, he used to workout with them, and eat what he prescribed for them. But over the years Maxi had noticed he’d picked up some very bad habits. Like having steak dinners a few times a week and burgers and fries on the other nights, staying up late even if he got up early, and smoking cigars.
“Yeah, I thought about it.”
“Annnnnd,” she prompted.
After sighing, he begrudgingly said, “And I’ll go see that nutritionist.”
“Good.” They’d just cleared one hurdle, now she just had to get over the next. This one was the one that had her palms dampening at the mere thought of broaching it.
Instead of dipping her toe into the cold waters of the butting-in pool she plugged her nose and dove right in. “He also said that you needed more rest and that you needed to eliminate stress in your life, so I was thinking that maybe you could retire.”
The silence that filled the room after she said the r word was loud. The only sound was coming in the form of beeps from the machine monitoring her dad’s heart rate.
“I’m buying the gym.” Her dad stated flatly.
Those were probably the last words she’d ever expected to hear. She was prepared for him to fight her on not retiring, but she hadn’t for a second entertained the notion that he’d actually be taking on more stress, more work, more responsibility.
“What?!” She and Billy spoke in unison.
“You heard me. I’m buying the gym from Lloyd. He’s moving out of state to be closer to his daughter and grandkids. It’s been in the works for a while. That’s why I decided to extend my fishing trip, because I wasn’t sure when I’d get another chance to do it. He’s retiring, not me.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Maxi asked with a much more accusatory tone than she’d ever taken with her dad before.
She half expected him to raise his brow and tell her to, “Watch it, young lady.”
But he didn’t.
“I was waiting for the loan to go through, which happened on Tuesday, but I wanted to tell you in person.” Her dad shifted in his bed and grimaced slightly and seeing him in pain amplified the urgency that she felt.
