Before You (Before You #1)(23)
Clenching her cup of burnt coffee, she watched Sara pace back and forth across the length of the waiting room. Sara’s bubbly, excitable personality never leant itself to patience. Fortunately, Bre wasn’t having the same problem. She wasn’t in any hurry to talk to the doctor. Once she talked to the doctor, she could no longer pretend her grandma wasn’t dying, because based on every conversation she had with the hospital on her drive back to Colorado, she knew it was only a matter of time.
Covering her yawn, Bre leaned her head against the back of the stiff chair. She had hardly slept since her mom called her three days ago, and other than texting the name and address of the hospital, her mom had been on complete radio silence, not that Bre expected anything else. It just confirmed what she had always known: her mom didn’t care about anyone or anything unless there was something in it for her, and sitting at the hospital waiting for her unconscious mother to die clearly didn’t make the cut in her mother’s eyes.
The door to the waiting area flew open, and a man in his mid-forties with graying hair walked in the room.
“Miss Keaton?”
Bre stood up and walked toward him. “I’m Aubrey Keaton, Olivia Keaton’s granddaughter.”
“Miss Keaton, I’m Dr. Hollingsworth. Please join me in the hospital conference room down the hall.”
She nodded at Sara and Cam’s parents and started following him down the hall.
“Wait, Bre,” Ellen called after her. “Todd and I want to come with you. You shouldn’t be alone.”
Bre released a sigh of relief. “Thanks. I’d appreciate your company.”
Bre sat near the end of the conference table, flanked by Todd and Ellen and Dr. Hollingsworth sat at the other end. Dr. Hollingsworth folded his hands in front of his body on top of the table, a dire expression on his face.
“Miss Keaton, based on your conversations with the nurses and other hospital personnel, you probably are aware that your grandmother suffered a serious type of stroke called a malignant middle cerebral artery infarction, in which the blood flow to a significant portion of the brain is cut off.”
“Yes, I am aware of this. What’s her prognosis?”
“Well, there’s not much we can do other than make her comfortable at this point.”
“What do you mean?”
“After the initial stroke, her brain was further damaged as a result of swelling and the blood flow to her brain was diminished even further. Sometimes we can put a patient through an aggressive surgery where we remove a portion of the skull temporarily to limit damage to the brain, and then the piece of the skull is replaced a few months later. Given your grandmother’s state of health prior to the stroke, her chances of surviving the surgery were slim. For that reason, your mother opted not to pursue the surgery.”
Bre’s vision blurred and she feared she might faint until Ellen grabbed her hand and squeezed it.
“How much longer?” Ellen asked the doctor.
“Days or hours. I can’t say with complete certainty,” Dr. Hollingsworth said. “I’m sorry.”
Tears fell down Bre’s face and her stomach rolled. “Can I see her?”
“Of course.”
***
Less than twenty-four hours later, her grandmother had passed away and her mother still hadn’t bothered to answer her phone or respond to a single one of Bre’s texts. She sure hoped Charles was worth it because there was probably a special place in hell for a daughter who decided that a vacation with a new boyfriend was more important than her mother’s death and funeral.
The remainder of the week passed in a haze as Bre went through the motions of planning a funeral for her grandmother. She couldn’t recall if she actually spent a moment processing her grandmother’s death. Instead, she busied herself ordering flowers, selecting a casket, and other mind-jarring things that would’ve threatened to steal her breath if she actually let herself think about what she was doing rather than just going through the motions.
Without Sara and Cam’s parents, she didn’t know how she would have made it through the week. Sara scheduled every appointment with military precision and Ellen attended every appointment, making decisions when Bre couldn’t bring herself to do so. Between the madness of the drive home, the hospital vigil, and the subsequent funeral planning, Bre barely had time to think about Cam other than to text him the date and time of the funeral.
She hoped that would be enough because she didn’t want to have a conversation with him over the phone. She needed him to be there so he could comfort her in person, especially since she knew her mother wouldn’t bother. Other than Ellen and Todd, Cam was the only person who understood the inner workings of her family, and for that reason she needed him with her on the day of the funeral. Ellen and Todd had always supported her, but Cam was her lifeline.
Chapter Eleven
“So where’s Bre? She hasn’t showed up to surf for a week,” Jax questioned Cam as he walked into their practice studio thirty minutes late.
“Wait. You’ve been meeting Bre to surf?” Cam said, looking confused.
“Yes. You didn’t know?”
“No. She never mentioned it. I mean… I know she went surfing a couple mornings, but I assumed she went alone. That’s strange. When did that happen?”