I haven’t allowed myself to get too excited, but all I want to do is smile. I could burst with excitement. I’ll do anything for Dad. I just want to see him.

Dr. Peterson said Dad would be able to speak with me. He said he called me as soon as he woke up, and Dad asked for me right away.

If I were driving alone, I’d have sped to the hospital. But I can’t; not with Kayla in the car with us. I check the rearview mirror a few times to see her. Sean reaches over and takes my hand a few times during the drive.

I pull up to the parking lot and find a spot near the entrance. I tell Sean to go on ahead as I gather Kayla from her car seat. My fingers tremble as I undo all of the straps and buckles, and once I have her, we make our way quickly through the sliding doors.

Just inside, I find Sean waiting for me. He must see the puzzled look on my face.

“I told them we were here, but I couldn’t go up without you. You should be here. We should do this together.”

I can’t wait to see him, and my body is flooded with nervous adrenaline. We take the elevator to his floor and as soon as it dings, I dash through the door with Kayla and rush down the hall.

“Dr. Peterson,” I say, struggling to catch my breath as I spot him. “Where’s Dad?”

He looks up from his clipboard and gives me a tight-lipped smile. My heart drops. I didn’t want myself to become to hopeful. This is why.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he says, slipping his pen into his pocket and holding the clipboard to his chest. “Follow me.”

He takes his little girl’s hand as I put her down, and I follow him down the hall. My chest feels tight and my lungs feel cold from breathing so fast, but my mind is swimming with heat.

“Is he okay?” My frantic questions spill out of my mouth. “Is he awake? Can I talk to him?”

“He’s a little bit disoriented because he just woke up about an hour ago, but he’s cogent. He can speak.”

“Dr. Peterson,” I say, looking at him with my eyes wide. I want to beg him to make Dad better. To do anything to make him okay. “Is he gonna be alright?”

“Cherry, I don’t want to say too much right now, but…”

He puts one of his hands on my shoulder and looks down at me sympathetically.

“All signs say he is going to be okay. His vitals look good right now, and we will continue to monitor them. But Cherry...he’s going to be okay.”

The words wash over me like a tidal wave that’s sucked me under the surface of the sea is spitting me back out on shore just before I’m about to drown. I feel like I can finally breathe again, really breathe.

“Oh my God.” My hand comes to my chest and I hold it there, warm tears beginning to roll down my cheeks. “I can’t believe it.”

Sean comes up to me and puts his arm around my shoulder, and I turn and collapse into his chest as his hand comes to the back of my head, enveloping me, holding me close.

“Thank you,” I cry into his chest. “Thank you.”

I don’t know what I would have done if I’d lost Dad. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d been taken into Sean’s world, if he hadn’t saved me. Who would have cared for Dad? Who would have mourned for him? And would anyone have really cared that I was gone, either?

“Do you want to see your father now?” he asks gently, stroking my hair, running his fingers through it.

“Yes,” I say. “Yes. And Dr. Peterson,” I add, turning to him and shaking his hand, “thank you so much for helping Dad.”

He smiles softly and nods, guiding me into Dad’s room where the curtains over the window to the hallway are shut tight. I step in slowly, cautiously; it’s almost as though I don’t believe he’s finally okay. That I finally know he’s going to be fine.

The room is filled with vases fresh flowers: tulips, daisies. There’s even a few small potted cactus plants, which are his favorite.

When we turn the corner and I see him, my heart swells and I feel a lump rise into my throat. Dad’s sitting up on the bed with his glasses on and a newspaper on his lap, but he isn’t reading. He’s looking straight over to the door, like he’s been waiting for me this whole time.

“Dad…” I rush over to him and throw my arms around his neck and sob into him. I can’t help myself. I didn’t know if I would ever be able to do this again, and now that I can, I don’t want to pull myself away. I know I’ll lose Dad some day, but not today; he’s still too young. It isn’t his time.

“Sweetheart, I’m so sorry,” he says, wrapping his arms around me. I sit on the edge of the bed and put a kiss on his cheek and he presses it into his skin like he did when I was little.

“I’m so happy you’re okay.” I look around the room at all the machinery he’s hooked up to. It’s still beeping in the same way as it was before, and it’s still working to help him, but it doesn’t portend death anymore. Now, I see it as optimistic. It’s helping him to live. And it’s really working.

“I wasn’t going to leave you, Cherry. I wasn’t going to leave you.” He takes my hand and kisses it, and holds it to his cheek. His eyes drift from me over to the door, and I turn around to see Sean standing there. I look back to Dad and see a suspicious glint in his eye.

“Sean? What are you doing here?” He looks back to me and his eyebrows knit in the center.

“Dad, it’s okay,” I say, smiling and stroking his hand. “He isn’t here for that.”

“I...I don’t understand.” His words come out like tiny pebbles skipping across a pond. He doesn’t grasp what’s going on. I don’t blame him. I can barely understand all of it myself.

“It’s okay, Mr. Davenport. She knows.” Sean shifts into the room and comes next to me, putting his hands on my shoulders. Dad’s eyes grow wide and a bemused smirk plays at the corner of his mouth.

“Dad…” I don’t know how to say what I’m about to tell him. I don’t know what this is, anyway. A week ago I was at an off-limits strip club on Sean’s arm pretending to be his fiancee, and now I have real feelings for him. Feelings that I know won’t go away. Feelings that I don’t have to push away for the first time in a long while.

“Mr. Davenport, your debt is cleared. I’ve taken care of it.” He glides his hands down my shoulders so he’s gripping my arms. My skin begins to prick up with goosebumps beneath his touch. “And…”

Dad’s eyes brighten as his gaze shifts from Sean down to me. He brings his hands together in a silent prayer and squeezes his eyes shut, shaking his head from side to size.

“Sean, what is it? What’s the matter?” Dad asks, bringing his hand down onto mine.

He steadies himself behind me and rubs my arm with his thumb gliding smoothly against my skin.

“And I’m in love with your daughter.”

My heart flutters and I turn my head to look up at him. He flashes his gorgeous smile at me and pulls me off the bed, taking me into his arms.

“What? How did this happen?” Dad asks in disbelief, taking his glasses off and putting them on the nightstand.

“I’ll tell you everything, Frank, but the important thing for you to know is that I’ve left behind the life I knew. I don’t want it anymore. I don’t think I ever really did. But now I know for sure. Cherry made me see that.”

Sean shift his focus from Dad to me and looks down into my eyes. I want to get lost in them, but I no longer need him to save me. He’s already done that.

“Cherry, I love you. I can’t live without you. I feel like all the bullshit we’ve been through has been worth it because it brought us together.”

My eyes are already filled with tears, but they’re the good kind. They’re the kind you feel when you finally get what you’ve been running toward. Sometimes you find it when you’ve been running away from something. But isn’t running away from something and running toward something really the same in the end?

“I love you too, Sean. And thank you for what you’ve done for me. I owe you everything.”

“No, Cherry. I don’t know what I was thinking that day, but I knew I had to save you. What really happened was you saved me. From the life I had, from the life I wanted to get out of. You’ve given me the future I wanted to look forward to, but never thought I could.”

I turn to Dad and he nods approvingly before Sean wraps me in a tight embrace, and I feel full with all the love in the room. Sean saved me, but I didn’t know I was capable of saving him, too. I didn’t think I would be capable of saving anyone. But he’s proven me wrong. Maybe in the end, we came out even.

But it doesn’t matter now. The scales have finally been tipped in our favor.

“Sean,” I say, sighing deeply into his chest. Breathing. Feeling myself inhale and exhale and having the release I haven’t felt in so long...in too long. “I love you too.”