The doctor looked at Elizabeth. “I’m Phillip Close,” he said, extending his hand. “Edward’s physician. You must be Birdie. He talks about you all the time.”
Elizabeth imagined her daddy, sitting on the edge of an examining table, boring this stern-looking doctor with proud-father stories. It wounded her, that image, brought tears to her eyes. She stood up and shook his hand.
Phillip bent over Daddy, checked a few of the machines, then straightened. “It’s still a waiting game. I wish I could do better than that.”
“He could be fine, right?” Anita said.
“I’d never bet against the Colonel. He could wake up in ten minutes and ask for a shot of Maker’s Mark,” Phillip answered.
Elizabeth had to know the truth; it was the only way to prepare. “Or he could never wake up, is that what you’re saying?”
“Yes,” Phillip answered. “There are a range of possibilities right now. It’s really better not to anticipate too much, just to wait and see. As I told Anita earlier, the longer he’s unconscious, the worse it looks, but he’s always been a strong man.”
“Anita tells me he might be paralyzed on one side,” she said slowly.
“Yes. And it took the paramedics quite a while to revive him. He may have suffered some brain injury. But, as I said, we won’t know much until he wakes up. The biggest concern now is his heart. Frankly, it’s pretty weak.”
“Thank you, Phillip,” Elizabeth said, although it seemed ridiculous to thank someone for giving you more to worry about. Still, it was good manners. The way things were done.
“I’ll give you two some time with him,” he said, then left the room.
Paralyzed.
Brain injuries.
Weak heart.
The words didn’t follow him out; they stayed in the room.
Elizabeth stared across the bed at her stepmother. All that pancake makeup couldn’t conceal Anita’s pain.
“He’ll make it,” Elizabeth said. “He’s too ornery to die.”
Anita looked pathetically grateful for that small bit of comfort. “He is ornery, that’s for sure.”
“I … am … not.”
Elizabeth and Anita gasped. They leaned down at the same time.
Daddy’s eyes were open; one side of his face remained pathetically slack.
“We can hear you, Daddy,” she said. “We’re both right here.”
“I … am … not … ornery.”
Anita took his motionless hand, squeezing it hard. Tears bubbled along her lashes. “I knew you couldn’t leave me.”
He reached across his own body and touched Anita’s face. “There you are, Mother. I’ve been looking for you.”
“I’m right here, Daddy,” Anita said breathlessly, crying softly. “I wouldn’t go anywhere.”
Elizabeth knew it was childish, but she felt excluded by their love. She always had. There was something special between Anita and Edward, so special that everything around them paled in comparison.
“Our Birdie is here, too. She hopped on a plane the very second she heard,” Anita said, smoothing the hair away from his eyes.
Slowly, he turned to look at Elizabeth. In his eyes, she saw something she’d never seen before—defeat—and it scared her. “Hey, Daddy,” she whispered. “You’ve got a hell of a nerve scaring us this way.”
“Give me just a moment with m’ little girl, won’t you, Mother?”
Anita leaned down and kissed his forehead. When she drew back, the bright pink lipstick print of her kiss remained. “I love you,” she whispered fiercely, then left the room.
A second later, the door opened again. White-coated nurses bustled into the room. They shoved Elizabeth aside—politely—and busied themselves around their patient, checking machines, taking blood-pressure readings, listening to his heart. Phillip was the last to arrive. He rushed into the room, a little breathless, then saw his patient and smiled. “So, you decided to quit playing possum, huh? You had two beautiful women mighty worked up.”
Daddy’s smile was sadly lopsided. “Just wanted you to earn some of that hellacious bill you’re gonna send me. It’ll probably stop my heart right then and there.”
Phillip listened to Daddy’s heart, frowned briefly, then straightened. As he made a notation in the chart, he said, “I earn every penny putting up with your sorry butt, and you know it. I suppose I’ll have to let you win at golf for a while.” He turned to Elizabeth. “Make the old coot take it easy. I’ll be back in a little while to check on him. We’ll want to run another EKG.”
Phillip herded the nurses out of the room and closed the door behind him. Through the glass wall, Elizabeth could see that he was talking to Anita.
“Damn doctors,” Edward said, breathing hard. “They won’t leave a man in peace.” He tried to smile.
All the way down here, Elizabeth had been rehearsing what to say to him, and now nothing came to her. She was afraid that if she said a word, she’d start to cry.
“Where’s golden … boy? And my granddaughters?”
“Jack is in the waiting room. Stephie and Jamie will be here in a little while.”