Charlie steps between us and slips an arm around each of us. “I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed this. It’s like all is right with the world again. No more avoiding each other, okay?”
Chase pulls her into a bear hug. “You don’t have to worry about that.”
Pushing him away, she looks at him in horror. “How could you say that? You just jinxed it!”
Chase’s jaw drops as he staggers backward, the color draining from his face. On top of being an amazing quarterback, he’s a brilliant man. Not too many people realize how smart he is. He was carrying a 3.8 at Stanford when he left for the draft. So I’m always shocked that he’s so damn superstitious. He’s the son of a baseball player, so I suppose it’s to be expected to some degree. But seriously, the J-word stops him dead in his tracks. It’s like all those brains go out the window when a curse is involved.
I roll my eyes. “Charlie, we’re going to fight for the rest of our lives regardless of our relationship status. Nothing has been jinxed. Relax.”
They look at each other with deeply worried expressions. Thankfully a huge play on the field distracts them, and all is forgotten.
During halftime, I get a text from Dr. Barns to join him in the bathroom.
Chase reads the text over my shoulder. “What the fuck?”
I glower at him. “Don’t be disgusting.”
He points at my phone. “How else am I supposed to take that?”
“Daddy,” I mouth.
Anger melts into concern. “Let’s go,” he says.
“Let’s?”
“Whatever’s waiting for you in the john is probably not good. I’m not letting you face it alone.” He takes my hand. “We’re in this together, remember?”
I look at my hand in his. I should pull away. If someone saw this, they might get the wrong impression. Or right impression, as the case may be. But right now, all I care about is Daddy. “Let’s go.”
Chase leads me across the box to the men’s room. Pat’s standing outside the door, putting up orange cones and an out of order sign.
“Sorry,” he says to some guy walking by, “got a flood in this one. There’s another men’s room down the hall.” The guy jogs away, and Pat says to us, “Get in there. Burns is waiting for you.”
Chase opens the door for me, and I run in. Daddy’s on the floor with his shirt open, his shoes and socks off, and Dr. Burns is applying sensors to Daddy’s chest.
I rush to Daddy’s side and take his hand. “What happened?”
“He started wheezing, and I pulled him aside. That’s when I noticed his hands and feet are swollen. We need to get him out of here. He’s pushed himself too hard, and his heart is too weak.”
“They have an ambulance downstairs. I’ll call the medics and have them bring a stretcher up. We’ll go straight to the hospital.” I reach for my phone in my purse when Daddy grabs my arm.
“No hospital,” he whispers
I shake my head. “Daddy, you need to go to the hospital. Stop being so damn stubborn! I went along with this party nonsense, but Jesus, look at yourself! You’re half naked on the floor of the men’s room in a goddamn football stadium, struggling to breathe!”
“Doc? Does he need to go?” Chase looks at me and squeezes my shoulder. “If he needs to go, he will go if I have to carry him myself.”
Burns looks at his portable EKG machine that’s the size of a phone. “He needs to be monitored. Will he die if he doesn’t? No, probably not. His rhythm isn’t as bad as I expected it to be. He looks worse than he is. If we get him to bed and he actually stays there, he’ll be okay. We need to bump up that LVAD surgery. We have weeks if we’re lucky. Not months.”
“I need a straight answer here, doc. Are we going to the hospital or not?” Chase asks.
Dr. Barns shakes his head. “Aiden’s running a fever. Even if I could convince him to consent to the surgery, I can’t do it right now. Let’s get him back to the hotel and into bed. Then get him home. We’ll schedule the surgery for some time next week.”
Daddy coughs. “After the Super Bowl.”
“Are you freaking kidding me?” I shout louder than I should. “The Super Bowl?” I turn to Dr. Barns. “Does cardiomyopathy affect his brain too? Because the weaker his heart gets, the dumber he gets.”
“Arianna, let’s try to settle down.”
Really? Dr. Barns wants me to settle down? My fists clench as I’m about to eviscerate him.
Chase winces. “Yeah, that’s not going to work out well for you, doc. A piece of advice—never tell an angry woman to settle down.” He clears his throat. “Let’s focus. We need a plan for right now. The rest we can sort out as soon as we get Aiden back to the hotel. Now, do we need to get the stretcher up here, or can we walk him out of here? A wheelchair maybe?”
Daddy tries to sit up, but his arms are too weak. “I will not be rolled out of here in a wheelchair like a goddamn cripple. Can you imagine the field day the press would have with that?”
I scoot around so he can lean against me. “Your pride is going to kill you. You realize that, right? You’re going to die to protect your pride.”
“Aiden, you’re being a stubborn son of a bitch. We’re getting you out of here now. Fuck what the press thinks.” Chase looks at his watch. “Give me five minutes, and I’ll give you a diversion and some cover.” He walks toward the door and sticks his head out. “Pop, we need some help.”
Pat walks into the bathroom. “What can I do?”
In five minutes, Chase gets all the people in the room riled up by singing the Stanford fight song. While everyone’s distracted by Chase’s horrific singing, Dr. Barns and Pat prop Daddy up and walk/carry him to the freight elevator. Katie has made a few calls and gotten our limo to pick us up at the food service delivery entrance.
Once we’re driving away, I plead with Daddy. “Please, please go to the hospital. Even just for the night.”
He kisses the top of my head. “I’m feeling much better already, Snickerdoodle. I don’t need to be hooked up to all those machines. I just need a good night’s sleep.”
Dr. Barns checks Daddy’s pulse. “You need a hell of a lot more than that, Aiden, and you know it. No more work. No more parties. No more anything.”
Ignoring us, Daddy closes his eyes and goes to sleep. When we arrive at the hotel, Pat and Dr. Barns help me get him to his room. Dr. Barns shows me how to work the EKG machine and tells me what to look for, what to call his room for, and what to call 9-1-1 for.
“He’s in much better shape now, Arianna. I think we’ve seen the worst of it tonight,” he says before leaving.
A half hour or so later, I’m snapped out of my incessant worrying by a knock at the door. When I open the door, Chase pulls me into his arms.
“I’m so sorry it took me a while to get here. I got mobbed as I was trying to leave the game.” He pulls away to get a look at Daddy. “How’s he doing?”
I shrug. “Dr. Barns swears up and down Daddy seems worse than he is, but he also keeps saying we’re on borrowed time. I don’t know what to believe. Daddy’s so damn stubborn.”
He puts his arm around me. “What does your gut tell you to do?”
“Take him to the hospital at gunpoint.”
He smirks. “And when that doesn’t work?”
“Take him back to the Bahamas until this surgery. He’s contained there. He can’t work; he can’t run around going to parties. It’s the only place I don’t have to worry about him getting into too much trouble.”
Chase kisses my forehead. “Then that’s what you should do. You have good instincts. Don’t be afraid to use them.”
He makes it sound so simple, but I’ve never experienced anything so complicated. I don’t understand my father’s behavior. I wish he’d play it safe for once in his damn life, but that’s not how he’s wired. I don’t want to spend what little time I have with him fighting constantly. But I don’t want to lose precious time because he’s flexing his muscles to prove he’s still
in control.
I lay my head on Chase’s chest. “Thank you for being here.”
He rests his chin on my head. “Wherever you are is where I’m going to be.”
Chapter Five
Chase
Missing the first practice after the break could be considered career suicide. If we come up short in the playoffs, it’ll all be blamed on the fact I didn’t show up for this one practice. But some things are worth the risk.
I didn’t go completely AWOL. I let Coach know I had a family emergency and I would make it when I could. He chewed me out for a bit until I laid it out for him that if he wanted me to keep my spark for the playoffs, I needed a day.
Once I hit the ground in SFO, I drive straight to my lawyer. I need to sever ties with Jenna as cleanly as possible. Extricating her from my life while she’s this delusional will get messy, and I simply don’t have room for messy right now. I need to focus all my attention on the playoff games and rebuilding my life with Ari.
Carmen Silverstein is hell in heels. I would not want to cross this woman in a courtroom or a back alley. Tough as nails doesn’t do her justice. I’m apprehensive about going to her since sensitivity isn’t what I pay her for and this scenario might require a gentle hand. I want Jenna off my bankroll and out of my life, but Carmen will go about it in the most direct way possible. I could see her calling Jenna in for a meeting and having movers pack her up and move her out while Jenna sits in her office.
Carmen has a spread of breakfast foods and associates waiting for me when I arrive. I pull her aside and let her know this is delicate and she can dismiss the troops for the time being. My accountant is also waiting in the lobby, but I want to get Carmen’s take before we bring in anyone else. Over bagels and lox, I give her the rundown.
She carefully takes notes and doesn’t speak until I finish. She throws her legal pad on the table and leans back. “Well, you’ve gotten yourself into quite the mud pit of shit.”
She pushes the intercom button and calls in Lance, my accountant. We agree we need to do a forensic breakdown of my accounts as well as close all accounts Jenna has access to. Carmen will send her written notice today that her access to funds has been terminated and she has forty-eight hours to turn in the car and ninety days to vacate the condo. It won’t be pretty, but it needs to be done.
While I’m finishing up the paperwork with Carmen, Spencer calls me. “You need to call Jenna’s folks—pronto. I was just in a meeting with Donald, and he thinks the wedding is on. All the bigwigs at my firm got an invite. It’s all anyone is talking about around the office.”
I lean back in my chair. “They were my next call.”
“Go gentle. This is going to hit them way out of left field.”
“No more than me, brother. We’re all on this boat to Crazytown together.” I hang up and call Donald immediately.
Thankfully, he’s free for lunch, and Maris can join us as well. He insists we meet at his club, but I talk him into meeting at my house. The last thing I need on the day I’m skipping practice is for them to make a scene.
Do I really need to provide lunch? I can’t imagine after I drop this bomb that anyone’ll be hungry. I text Mom, wondering what proper etiquette is, and she says alcohol and appetizers. I stop at Trader Joe’s and get everything I need for my spinach and artichoke dip. If I were getting bad news, that’s what I’d want served.
An hour later, they ring my doorbell. I give them a quick tour of the renovations, and they ooh and ahh over the decorating. I lead them back to the living room and bring out my dip. Maris snubs it at first, but after she tries it, she can’t get enough.
While their mouths are full, I begin. “I’m not going to beat around the bush. Jenna and I aren’t getting married.”
“What?” Maris shouts, spitting a hunk of pita chip across the room. Embarrassed, she wipes her mouth. “The invitations just went out.”
“We broke up four months ago. I don’t know what possessed her to do that. In fact, I’m quite concerned. She showed up at a reunion event in Phoenix two days ago, and she seems to be in complete denial that our relationship is over. Has she mentioned any of this to you?”
Maris pushes her plate away. “She told us about your affair, but she said you two have worked through it. My daughter is very forgiving.”
Wasn’t expecting that one. “I’ve never had an affair.”
She gives me a condescending look. “Now, Chase, you don’t have to be embarrassed. Jenna told me how you begged for her forgiveness. We understand sometimes even the strongest men make poor decisions.”
“I’ve never cheated on anyone in my life.” Contrary to popular opinion.
“I saw it on the internet.”
I sit up a little straighter. “And thus it must be true?” I look away and gather my composure. “The God’s honest truth is Jenna and I had been growing apart for some time. In September, I ended our relationship. I saw her in December and reiterated that we would not be reconciling. Then I came back from a family vacation to find out everyone I know will be attending my wedding in seven weeks.”
“Chase, I just don’t understand,” Maris says, looking completely lost. Like mother, like daughter, I guess.
Donald taps her arm. “Maris, just listen to the man.”
He nods, and I continue. “Myself, my mother, and my sister tried to talk some sense into her this weekend, and she seems to be in complete denial. It’s beyond denial actually—she seems downright delusional. I’m actually very concerned about her mental state. I was going to wait until the end of the season to separate us financially, but based on her recent behavior, I feel I have no choice but to take more formal action now. Jenna will be served with papers this afternoon explaining everything.” I give them a brief rundown of how things would play out.
“Certainly it hasn’t come to that,” Maris says in shock. “You kids just need some time to work it out. Maybe we can postpone the wedding until you sort things out.”
“Clean out your ears, Maris, and listen to what the man’s saying. There isn’t going to be a wedding.” Donald walks over to the bar and picks up a bottle of scotch. “May I?”
“Only if you pour me one,” I reply.
He pours two glasses. “As you can see, the women in my family can be resistant to change.” He brings the glasses over to the coffee table. “This isn’t the first time we’ve had this problem. Her sophomore year in high school, she didn’t make the field hockey team, but she showed up every day for practice anyway. Eventually, the coach took her on. It was the worst thing he could have done. It just reinforced her behavior. Her senior year, she lost the race for student body president. She’d listen to these self-help tapes and daily affirmations that would tell her to seize the day and ‘Don’t let rejection slow you down’ and ‘Everything you want is waiting for you, you just have to take it.’ She kept showing up to meetings and insisting she’d won. It got so bad she and Maris spent her senior year of high school in Paris.”
“She’s just passionate.” Maris’s face is flushed, and she looks close to tears.
I pick up my scotch and take a sip, praying it will work quickly. “This goes beyond passionate. She needs help.”
“She was seeing someone for a while,” Donald explains. “I’ll make sure she gets back onto her schedule again.”
Tears stream down Maris’s face as she excuses herself to the restroom.
“I understand you’re in a difficult position, but I ask you to please be compassionate about this. Allow her to preserve her dignity,” Donald pleads.
I feel horrible for him. He’d walked into the house so lively and joyous, but now he looks crushed. It’s not just Jenna who will feel the blowback from this. Socially, this will reflect poorly on Donald and his wife. Social standing means everything to them.
“I care for Jenna. The last thing I want to do is hurt her or your family. I want to see her get well.” I put my scotch on the table. “How would you like to go about retracting
the invitation?”
“I’ll take care of everything. Please, ask your lawyers to hold off on sending formal documents. It will only upset Jenna, and I worry about how she will react. I’ll have the car returned to the dealership tomorrow and get her moved out of the condo by the end of the month. Please, just let me handle it.”
As the words leave his mouth, I know agreeing would be a mistake. Donald has never been able to say no to his daughter. The man turns spineless the second she walks in the room. Having said that, my heart goes out to him. Jenna’s clearly having some sort of a breakdown and has an unpleasant road ahead. Maris, who has returned but looks completely checked out, won’t be any help to Donald. Someone has to cut the guy a break.
“I’m not trying to be heartless, but I am trying to move on with my life. As long as you stick to the deadlines, I’ll call off my lawyer. Jenna’s cards are cut off as of today. That I will not bend on,” I say.
He lets out a sigh of relief. “Thank you. I bet once she and her mom start looking for a new condo, I’ll have her moved out in just a few weeks.”
“Take care of the retraction and get her help. I need her to understand this is over. She can’t show up at any more of my family events or, for Christ’s sake, my hotel room. This is a crucial time for me, and I need to be focused. I hate to sound like a jackass, but I can’t afford this kind of distraction. If she doesn’t start respecting my decision to terminate our relationship, I’ll have no choice but to take action.”
Maris just stares out the window, not even acknowledging what’s going on.
Donald stands and extends his hand. “I’ll do everything I can. I’m sorry it has come to this.”
I stand to shake his hand. “Just get her help. I only want the best for her.” I show them out and breathe a sigh of relief once they’re gone.
Love To Hate You Page 4
