Four days later, on Saturday, Elise was just getting home from a stressful day of looking at homes and coming up empty. It didn’t help that she hadn’t been in the mood to look at homes at all today, and she’d had to go all alone.

Friday at work had started out bad and ended worse.

Her first patient of the day had been an elderly patient who was learning to talk again after having a stroke. Her patient was used to being independent and was mad and bitter at the world for her current circumstances. She had taken her resentment out on Elise. Her patient hadn’t wanted to do the exercises Elise had given her to do in between sessions, and when she’d shown up, she’d fought Elise on every little thing. Elise had been exhausted with the beginning of a headache after that patient left, and it had only been nine a.m.

Then, her last patient of the day had been a spoiled brat who needed to be punished but never was. She had actually heard the father tell the little boy that, if he cooperated with his session with Elise, he would let the boy punch him in the stomach. Sometimes, you couldn’t make that stuff up. Of course, her patient hadn’t done anything she’d asked of him. He’d run circles around the room, knocked the binder to the floor…more than once, and kicked his chair over…repeatedly. When he’d gone home, she’d never been happier for the weekend to come in her life because her headache had been in full force by that time. She’d gone home and gone to bed at eight that night. She didn’t care if that made her some sort of loser or not.

Thankfully, she’d woken up, refreshed, but all she’d wanted to do today was relax. No patients. Nothing stressful. She’d actually forgotten all about looking at homes until Cara had texted her the night before to remind her. Elise had wanted so badly to cancel, but she had known Cara had put in a lot of work to set up the showings. Maybe, if Elise had found something to buy, it would have been worth it, but, alas…no.

Maybe she was too picky. She needed to reevaluate what she wanted, but tonight was not that night. Tonight, she was going to run the bath, grab a good book, and relax.

Unfortunately, life had other plans.

She entered through the garage door and into the kitchen. “Mom? Dad?”

“In here,” her father called out.

Elise walked to the den. “Hey, Dad. You here alone?”

Her father winced as he adjusted himself in his seat. “Yes. Your mom had her Bible study group.”

“Dad, are you okay?”

He waved her off. “Yes, I’m fine.”

She inspected her dad better. He was pale and looked to be in pain even though he was trying to hide it.

She stepped closer. “Dad, please. I know something is wrong.”

“It’s no big deal, peanut. Just some leg pain, and now, I feel some pressure in my chest.”

“Dad! We are going to the hospital right now.”

“Calm down. I looked up heart attack, and I don’t have any other symptoms.”

Elise fought the urge to roll her eyes in exasperation. “Dad, other things can cause chest pain. Like a PE, which sounds like what you might have because you have pain in your leg. We are going to the hospital.”

“What’s a PE?” her father asked, all the while still sitting in his chair, not moving.

“It’s a pulmonary embolism. Get. Up.”

“Huh?”

“It’s a blood clot in your lungs. It can kill you. Now, will you please get your butt off the chair, so we can go to the hospital?”

Her dad finally, blessedly, scooted to the end of his chair. “Jeez Louise, you don’t have to yell. Just ask nicely.”

She gritted her teeth. She’d already asked nicely, and that hadn’t worked.

Her father stood and shook his head, as if she were the annoying one in this conversation. If her father wasn’t already dying, she might just kill him.

After what seemed like a year later, her dad had his shoes on and was ready to go.

“Oh, I forgot my car keys,” he said as he patted his pockets.

Elise squeezed the bridge of her nose. Her headache from the day before was coming back.

“Dad, you are not driving to the hospital. I am driving you.”

He frowned.

“You wouldn’t want something to happen and for us to get into a car accident, would you?”

“No,” he answered reluctantly.

“Okay then, let’s go.”

She got her dad in the car, but he grumbled the whole time.

“We’re going to Southdale, right? Your doctor still practices out of there?”

“Yeah, fine. Let’s get this over with.”

When they got to the hospital, Elise checked her father in and then set out to make phone calls. Her mother didn’t answer, but that wasn’t a surprise. She was forever putting her phone on silent and forgetting to turn the ringer back on. Next, she called her sister, who also didn’t answer, so Elise left a message for her. Then, she called her mom one more time before leaving a message on her phone also.

Elise texted Rachel just to let her know what was going on. They were supposed to have brunch the next day, and she didn’t know if she’d make it now.

After texting her friends, she scrolled through her messages until she landed on Luke. She hadn’t seen him since the Fourth of July, despite their promises to get naked again. She’d thought that maybe they’d see each other this weekend, but Luke had begged off, saying he had to work. She didn’t know what kind of work he had to do on the weekend. She’d never asked him what he did, but she assumed he had some office job at the mall. But what if there was somebody else, or he just didn’t want to see her again?

Elise looked up at her father.

Why was she ruminating about Luke? She should be worrying about her dad. She knew part of it was because she was trying to take her mind off her father. But another part of it was because she wanted to see Luke. They had been texting back and forth, so she didn’t really think he didn’t want to see her again. She was just trying to find another problem to focus on even if it was a made-up one. The truth was that she wanted to talk to Luke. It seemed silly. After all, he wasn’t her boyfriend, which was why she fought the urge to text him about her father. She didn’t want to scare the guy off by being too serious.

After what seemed like forever but was probably only forty-five minutes to an hour, they were called back. The triage nurse asked her father a list of questions. When they got to the medication question, her father shrugged.

“Oh, Dad. You seriously don’t know?”

“Peanut, they put me on this and that every time I go to the doctor. I can’t keep that stuff straight. That’s your mom’s job.”

Elise explained to the nurse how her father had colon cancer and was going through chemo at the Mayo Clinic down in Rochester and that she would call her mom and ask her to bring her father’s meds.

Of course, her mother didn’t answer again, so Elise left another message and an update to tell her that they were getting a room.

Just as they were being led back to a room, her sister called.

Elise stayed a few steps back to answer. “Kristen?”

“Elise, what’s going on?”

“We don’t know yet. We’re just going into a room. I think Dad might have a blood clot in his lungs though. If he does, they’ll have to admit him.”

“Oh God.”

“I know.”

“We’ll be there as soon as possible. I’m about an hour away, but I’m coming.”

“Okay. If we’re not in the ER when you get here, I’ll let you know. Otherwise, just go to the front desk and ask for Dad.”

“Will do.”

“Oh, and try to get ahold of Mom. I’ve called her several times, and she hasn’t answered.”

“Phone on silent?”

“Probably. But I’d really like to hear what the doctor has to say and stuff, so if you could work on finding Mom, that would be great.”

“I’m on it.”

“Thanks, sis. And make sure she brings Dad’s meds or a list when she comes.”

“Got it. See you soon.”

Elise hung up just as a new nurse walked in.

“Hello, Mr. Phillips. I’m Amy, and I’ll be your nurse this evening.” She was young with dark hair and blue eyes and a bright smile.

Elise liked her immediately.

“Hi, Amy. You can call me Ward.”

Amy smiled. “Sounds good, Ward.” She looked at Elise. “And is this your daughter?”

“Yes, she made me come tonight. I think she’s overreacting.”

“Dad, I am not overreacting. I’m Elise,” she told the nurse.

“Well, Ward, we’re going to run some tests to see if we find anything. If this is a false alarm, I give you permission to tell your daughter, I told you so,” Amy said with a wink.

“Ha,” her father said.

Elise snorted.

After her father removed his shirt and shorts and put on a gown, Amy took his vitals. “Your heart rate and respirations are a little fast, and your blood pressure is a little low,” she told him. “I’m going to put this information in your chart, and then I’m going to let Dr. L know that you’re ready for him. Sound good?”

Her father nodded.

Amy did her stuff and exited the room. As they waited for the doctor, Elise’s phone rang. It was her mom.

“Finally!” she exclaimed.

“What’s finally?” her dad asked.

“Nothing.” She hadn’t told her dad that she hadn’t been able to get ahold of her mom. She hadn’t wanted to worry him. “I’m just going to step out into the hallway.”

She left the room and stepped far enough away so that her father wouldn’t overhear before answering, “Mom, where are you?”

“I’m on my way. And I have your father’s meds. Have you found out anything?”

“Nothing much. His vitals are off, but we’re still waiting for the doctor to come in.”

“Well, what’s taking them so long?”

“Mom, the nurse just left a few minutes ago, and Dad is not the only patient in the ER.”

Her mom huffed. “I suppose.”

“Just concentrate on driving. We don’t need you getting in a car accident, okay? I’m watching out for Dad until you get here.”

“Thank you. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Elise hung up and turned around to go back into her father’s room. She saw a glimpse of a tall male with broad shoulders in light-blue scrubs. This must be the doctor. Thank heavens he got there before her mother arrived. She didn’t need her mom yelling at the ER staff.

She could hear the doctor and her father speaking to one another, and Elise thought the voice sounded familiar.

But…she thought…

Suddenly, she realized that she had made the wrong assumption and was immediately embarrassed. When Rachel had said Southdale, Elise had assumed Southdale Center, but Rachel had actually meant Southdale Hospital.

Elise stepped into the room, and the doctor turned around.

“Hi, Luke.”