One with bleach-blond hair and blue eye shadow directed him to sign in, gave him directions to the room and buzzed him through the double doors. Though the process took only a couple of minutes, each second dragged on forever.
The muscles in his shoulders and neck grew rigid as Jason strode down the wide corridor, checking each room number, his hands balled up at his sides. At last he reached room 115. He fully expected to see a flurry of nurses shouting out lifesaving orders, but instead the lilt of laughter echoed through the doorway. Kara was laughing?
He stood there in the hallway, breathing a sigh of relief. Little by little, his body began to relax. His father had to be okay or she wouldn’t be laughing.
Suddenly he was caught up in a wave of second thoughts. Neither Kara nor his father knew he was standing just outside in the hallway. He could easily slip away and nobody would be the wiser. He’d be back...soon. Once he gave this reunion some thought and planned out what to say. Somehow “Hey, Dad, how’s it going?” didn’t quite work in this case.
His gaze swung back to the double doors leading toward the parking lot. It’d be so much easier, and he had so much work to do at the resort.
He’d stepped back when he heard someone say, “Mr. Greene, I see you found your father’s room. You can go ahead in.”
A pretty, young nurse with a brown ponytail was headed down the hall, carrying a white blanket. He vaguely remembered seeing her at the reception desk.
“Thanks.”
More footsteps sounded and then Kara stood before him, her face lit up with a smile. In fact, he’d say she was glowing.
“I knew you’d eventually find your way here. In your own time.”
His instinct was to deny he was here for any other reason than to check on her, but he couldn’t. The time had come to be truthful about the feelings he’d been running from for too long. As crazy as it sounded, if there was a chance to see the man who’d called him son, Jason wanted to take it.
“They said at the office there was an emergency.” He glanced into the room, but could only see the end of a bed and a couple of empty chairs.
“Everything is okay. Your father got worked up when a doctor he didn’t know tried to examine him. His doc went out of town for the holidays and the newest associate drew the short straw, pulling holiday duty.”
“You were able to sort it all out?”
She smiled and nodded.
Kara shouldn’t be here, dealing with his father and the doctors. She had enough on her hands being a single mother. It was time he started shouldering the responsibilit
ies where his father was concerned.
“Kara,” a gruff voice called out, followed by a string of coughs.
“I’ll be right there.” She moved closer to Jason and lowered her voice. “Prepare yourself. He’s a mere ghost of the man you left seven years ago.”
Jason nodded, still not exactly sure what to expect. He couldn’t imagine Joe as anything but six foot four, with shoulders like a linebacker and a stogie hanging out the side of his mouth.
“One more thing,” she said. “If you came here to settle up on an old score—don’t. He can’t take the strain. He isn’t strong enough.”
Jason nodded once more.
“I mean it.” Her tone left no uncertainty about her seriousness.
“I get it.”
First, he’d deal with his dad, and then he’d talk to Kara. He started for the door, letting her follow him inside. His steps were slow but steady.
When at last he saw his father’s face, he stopped. A word of greeting caught in his throat. He blinked, unable to imagine someone could physically change so drastically from a vibrant man to barely more than a skeleton with yellowing skin.
Jason choked down his alarm. The pitiful sight doused any lingering resentment inside him. There was nothing he could say to hurt this man any worse than he’d hurt himself. His father had suffered enough.
“Son, you came.” A round of hacking coughs overtook him.
For a moment, Jason stood frozen, bombarded by his dad’s appearance, from the oxygen tube aiding his breathing to the sunken eyes and the bony hand covering his mouth as he struggled through the fit of coughing. It was the distressed look on his father’s face that finally kicked him into action. Jason stepped alongside the bed and filled a glass with water.
“Yes, Dad, I’m home.”