AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER 37
Cheyenne
Outside the tinted windows familiar scenery passed by. Trees, shops, parks, all of the places I’d grown up around but didn’t have a single square inch of emotional real estate in my heart. Coming back “home” was a surreal feeling. This town, this place didn’t feel like home.
“I know your grandmother is going to be so happy to see you.” Franklin, who had been my grandparents’ driver for decades smiled as he looked at me through the rearview mirror.
I smiled back even though we both knew he was just being kind. My grandmother didn’t like me. In fact, I wasn’t even sure why I had come.
She hadn’t spoken to me since she threatened to disown me if I moved down to Firefly Island. From what Colleen told me, she’d done the exact same thing to my mother and they hadn’t spoken for the last twelve years before her death.
When we pulled up to the hospital, I was really wishing that I’d allowed Cash to come with me. I almost felt more nervous than when I’d gone down to Firefly after learning that my father, or the man that I thought my father was, had died.
As I entered the double doors of the hospital my nerves were on overdrive, not because of the unknown but because of the known. I knew for a fact that I wasn’t going to be welcome here, yet I had still felt that it was my duty to come.
I checked in at the information desk and the woman instructed me to go to the fourth floor. The elevator doors opened and I made my way down to the corridor to the room number that the nurse at the desk had given me.
When I reached it, I took a deep breath and pushed it open. Inside I found my grandmother lying with tubes sticking out of her arm and nose, alone. Her eyes were closed. I was struck by just how tiny she looked in the bed. She was a petite woman, but her strong personality had always made her seem intimidating to me. Now, she just looked old and weak.
The door opened behind me and I turned expecting to see my grandfather, but instead it was a nurse.
“Oh, you must be Cheyenne. Your grandfather said that you would be coming.”
“He did?”
The nurse nodded as she went over and changed one of the IV bags.
“Do you know where he is?”
“I think he went home to shower.”
He knew when I’d be here because Franklin had picked me up.
“Do you know how she’s doing?”
The nurse gave me a sympathetic smile. “Sorry, you’re going to have to talk to Dr. Merrel for an update.”
“Okay, thanks. Is there somewhere I can wait?”
“You can wait here.”
I glanced over at my grandmother. “Um, is there like a waiting room?”
I honestly didn’t want to be the only person in the room when my grandmother woke up.
“Sure, sweetie, just down the hall. Come on, I’ll show you.”
I sat down on the padded chairs in the family waiting room and texted my grandfather that I was here even though I knew he knew I was since he’d sent Franklin to come get me from the airport.
After scrolling through social media mindlessly. I felt like my entire timeline was just filled with people I knew from college and high school getting married and having babies. I was happy when I heard a familiar theme song playing from the flatscreen in the corner. After two episodes of Friends, I pulled out my phone to see if there had been any word from my grandfather. He still hadn’t responded. Without even thinking about it, I started scrolling through my pictures. I realized then that half my camera roll were pictures of Cash. Most of them were taken at Southern Comfort but there were some I’d taken on our trip.
My heart broke as I scrolled through them. Maybe I was being dramatic, which the woman lying down the hall in the hospital bed would be more than happy to point out, but it felt to me like everything was different now.
He was a father. He had a daughter. He had a baby mama.
Tears that I hadn’t been expecting started flowing down my cheeks, and I stood up to find a bathroom to clean myself up before my grandfather saw me. Emotional outbursts were not permitted in public.
I was halfway out of the waiting room when I realized I hadn’t grabbed my purse. I turned back to get it and when I turned back around I saw the last person I would ever expect to see standing in front of me. Hank.
