“Ray?” Addy calls, drawing my attention back to her. We’re sitting in the breakroom at work with a few co-workers who all wanted to stay for the big announcement.
I sigh, offering her a weak smile. She knowsKill, and I broke up, but nothing more than that. I had to tell her something so she’d understand that I needed to be left alone. Surprisingly, she’d been good about not digging for information. “What did you say?”
She tilts her head to the side and offers me a knowing look. “It doesn’t matter.” She looks down at her watch and grimaces. “You have to get going, girl. You’re going to miss your appointment.”
My heart sinks as I check the time on my phone. Shit, she’s right. I stand up and accept the hug she gives me, despite the way my skin prickles from the contact.She’s not the person I want hugging me.“I’ll call you later. Don’t forget I won’t be in for a few days.”
She gives me a sympathetic look. “Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you? You don’t have to do this alone.”
My stomach gives a painful squeeze. I wish I didn’t have to do this alone either, but again, Addy isn’t the person I want. She doesn’t have the reassuring touch I crave and need. I give her a big, fake smile and nod as I pull away. “Yep. No worries. I’ve got this. It will all be fine.”
“I know it will. You’re strong, Ray. I know I don’t say sweet things very often–” I scoff at that, making her roll her eyes. “Okay…ever.But I am proud of you and how you’re handling all of this. You’re one of the strongest people I know. You’ll get through this just like you have everything else. It’s just another bump in the road, you’ll see.”
I offer her a smile of thanks despite the fact that her words literally kill me inside. This isn’t simple, and it’s not a bump in the road. Nothing will ever be the same after this. All I can do is hope for the best possible outcome. I wave and say my goodbyes before practically sprinting from the room.
I stand outside the gray and white medical building, my heart in my throat and my stomach in knots. It’s a nice building. To the public, it’s unassuming. There is no description or obvious name. No decals on the windows explaining what they do here or what kind of people are inside. It’s just a plain building.
So why do I feel like I’m going to puke?
“Are we going in, or what?” Urma asks, her brows knitted together. “I know I don’t look it, but I’m old. I don’t want to spend my remaining years wasting away in a parking lot.”
I roll my eyes, but her easy humor has a small smile tipping up the corner of my lips.
“Yeah, Jaynie-Baby. Listen to the nice lady.”
Another piece of my heart fractures at hearing my dad call me his nickname for my mom. Jayne. My middle namesake. My momma. The person who my dad thinks I am more and more these days. His words solidify my resolve and I nod, knowing this is the right thing to do. I turn back and look at the sign one more time before stepping through the front door.
Remény.
The only Alzihemers trial accepting new patients and my dad’s last hope. Two weeks ago, we received a call from his doctors saying they’d been contacted by a company seeking patients who fit the criteria for their new clinical trial. His doctors assured me this place was the best of the best and that he’d be in excellent hands. It kills me to do this. To bring him here, to leave him. To not know if this drug will save him or–
Swallowing the lump in my throat at the thought of a world without my daddy, I push forward. A sweet nurse greets us and directs my dad and Urma to his new room down a long hallway. They both smile at me reassuringly before another nurse asks me to follow her so I can fill out his intake paperwork.
“I’ll catch up with you in a minute, dad,” I say, watching as he smiles and flirts with the nurse. “Be good!” He waves me off, ignoring me completely.
Thank God I’m not actually my mom. Geeze.
“It shouldn't take long. Your father’s doctor filled out most of it before you arrived and faxed it over. It’s mostly just the insurance paperwork.” She says sweetly and points to a hall going the opposite direction. “Billing and intake are right through that door and then you’ll meet with Mr. Nash for the tour.”
Right. Mr. Nash. The man who funded this company from the ground up. When my dad’s doctor had called us to arrange this whole thing, he’d told us Mr. Nash’s story. It broke my heart. I couldn’t help but feel for the guy and his heartbreaking story. To me, he sounds like a hero. I wish I would have had even half the courage and strength that he did when my dad was diagnosed.
Apparently, his mom got sick when he was still a teenager, and he worked his ass off to have enough money and clout to find investors and startRemény.I guess it was a last ditch effort to save her, and after ten years of battling the disease, she lost her fight just when they’d received the funding for the drug. I guess Mr. Nash has since sold the company, but he still comes in to help with tours and new client intakes for now until the new owners take over.
“Are you sure insurance covers all of this?” I ask, my eyes flying around the massive state of the art building. Her brows furrow in confusion, and she opens her mouth to say something but gets pulled away but someone wearing a lab coat. “Okay, guess I’m on my own,” I murmur, following the vague directions she’d given me.
I step through a set of doors and find myself in another clinical, sterile space, but there is something about it that tugs at my mind. Confused, I pause at the threshold. I know I’ve never been here before. What is it about this place that has me thinking of…home.
I inhale deeply and almost choke when I get a strong whiff of lemon and citrus. What the hell? I spin in a circle, my heart lodged in my throat. My skin prickles with awareness. That feeling I’d grown so used to sweeping over me like a weighted blanket.
I hear his warm, deep voice first. Then, his scent hits me. Smoke, motor oil,citrus.
What the fuck is going on? I charge toward the sound of his voice, finding him just inside the doorway speaking to another man. I don’t know what comes over me but suddenly, I’m stomping toward him as weeks of heartache crashes into me with the force of a freight train.
My hand flies out, meeting his thick, muscled bicep as I shove him to the side. Wolfe stumbles, his shocked eyes swiveling to find mine. I almost swallow my fucking tongue as I get my first full glimpse of him in the daylight.
No mask. No barriers. No hiding. Justhim.
My Wolfe.