Coming Home(143)

But all Danny heard was that she was giving up on Bryan because of him.

It took Leah hours to convince him otherwise. But she was patient, and she was gentle. She let him rant. She let him yell. She let him pace. And she let him fall apart.

And then she lay with him until three o’clock in the morning, despite having to get up for work the next day, talking him off the ledge and helping him understand what it was really about.

Helping him see that Gram was right.

She offered to drive them to the hospital when it happened, knowing how difficult it would be for either one of them to make the drive back.

He never would have asked her to do something like that—to subject her to something as morbid as saying good-bye to someone who had spent the last year of his life in the ICU. She’d had enough of hospitals and good-byes. But he was selfish enough in that moment to accept the offer. And as they pulled into the parking lot of the hospital and he caught her eyes in the mirror again, he forgave himself for the decision.

Because there was no way he would have been able to do this without her.

They walked up to the building in silence, Leah a step behind Gram and Danny as he traversed the corridors with ease, bringing them to the elevators that would take them up to the ICU. He’d done this so many times, his body could complete the task without the help of his mind.

But this time it felt foreign.

Every sound was amplified. The clicking of shoes on the linoleum. The squeak of wheels as machinery and beds were moved from place to place. The chatter of people. The delicate beeping that meant someone was surviving.

He wanted to plug his ears.

Gram had gone to the hospital earlier that week to complete all the paperwork, which meant the second the elevator doors opened, there was nothing left to do but go through with it.

There was no time to buy. No excuses to use. No reason to delay.

It felt like the walls of the elevator were closing in, and Danny reached out and put his hand on the wall to his left, pushing his weight into it, trying to keep it at bay.

He felt a hand on his back then, the feminine fingers splayed out as she applied gentle pressure, and he closed his eyes, concentrating on the feel of it until his arm finally went slack and fell from the wall. A few seconds later, the doors dinged open, and she kept her hand on his back, grounding him as they approached the nurses’ station.

When the woman behind the front desk saw them approaching, she stood and smiled gently at Gram.

“Mrs. Giordano. If you’ll have a seat right over there, I’ll have Dr. Racine paged for you.”

Gram nodded but didn’t move; she seemed frozen in place, and in that moment, something in Danny’s chest shifted slightly, just enough to remind him that he wasn’t the only one suffering.

“Come on, Gram,” he said softly, wrapping his arm around her and walking them over to the seating area. He felt Leah’s hand slip from his back, and a jolt of panic went through him, but he concentrated instead on the feel of Gram beneath his arm, thin and frail and trembling.

You’re not the only one. Don’t leave her alone in this.

They sat in two of the chairs, and Leah stood a few feet away, her arms folded over her chest and her eyes scanning the area. He could see she was trying to hold it together, and he felt the shift in his chest again.

He needed to be present now. He needed to shoulder this. For both of them. Because he’d be damned if he had to watch the women he loved take on any more of his burden.

A woman approached them then, dressed in lavender scrubs. She had one of those friendly faces that made Danny feel like he’d met her a thousand times, even though he’d never seen her before today.