Reborn to Love Mr. Right novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Two Coffees

The cardiologist found me in the hallway outside the cath lab at four in the afternoon, still in her surgical cap.

"He's going to be fine," she said first.

I sat down on the floor.

I didn't mean to.

My legs just stopped being legs.

She crouched in front of me, which I liked her for.

"It was a heart attack," she said. "A real one. One artery was mostly blocked."

"We put a stent in. He's awake and he's already complaining about the food."

"He hasn't eaten the food."

"He's complaining about it in advance."

I laughed, and it turned into something else, and I put my face in my hands.

"Here's the strange part," the cardiologist said.

"Your father called our office at seven this morning and booked an emergency scan for Wednesday."

I looked up.

"So when he came in by ambulance, we already had his history and a note about chest tightness."

"We went straight to the right artery. That saved us time. Time is muscle."

"Is that good?"

"Whoever nagged him," she said, "should keep doing it."

My father was propped up in a bed by the window, a blood pressure cuff on one arm.

He was reading the hospital menu.

"Bel," he said. "Do you know what they call meatloaf here? 'Heritage loaf.'"

I put my forehead against his shoulder and stayed there.

He patted my back with the hand that wasn't full of wires.

"I kept my promise," he said into my hair. "I booked the scan."

"For Wednesday."

"Wednesday was very soon."

"It was two days too late."

"And yet," he said, "here I am, insulted by meatloaf."

The last time, he hadn't known my name for two days.

This time he was making jokes about the menu.

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