“Looking good, bro,” I say, peering over the bed until I catch his eye.
“Get lost,” Tony says, coughing out a laugh and rolling his eyes.
I take a seat beside his bedside, resting my bag on the floor.
“Thanks for coming,” Tony says. “I’ve had an itch on my nose that I’ve not been able to scratch since Kaia left an hour ago.”
I dutifully lean over and rub his nose. “What would seventeen-year-old us think if we told them that one day we’d be comfortable enough to scratch each other’s appendages?”
Tony snickers. “Why do you have to make everything weird all the time?”
I sit back in the chair with a shrug. “It’s just who I am.”
“How’s the job?”
I rub my hand over my beard. “I uh…” I start. “I’ve paused the stunts for a while.”
Tony peers at me from the corner of his eye, but says nothing.
I lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees. “I just—Rosie and the baby, y’know.”
“I get it.”
I hear Tony’s rattling breath. “I like to think if I could go back in time, I would’ve walked away the minute Kaia asked me to, but I don’t know that I would. I think I’d somehow end up convincing myself that I was invincible and that I could somehow still do the job, keep my family and not end up,” he sighs, “here.”
“Tony,” I say, reaching my hand to his bed but not wanting to touch him in case it hurts.
Tony takes a deep breath, but I can see the tear roll from his eye. “This is my wake up call, Jackie. I’m not giving up on my family, or my life. I’ll do what the doctors order and do all my rehab andlive.And somehow make it up to Kaia.”
I laugh. “Good luck with that one.”
“He’s already working on it,” I hear from the doorway. I rise to my feet as Kaia crosses the room, but she leans down to press a kiss to Tony’s temple.
“Dad, look what I got from the gift shop!” Masen barrels into the room behind his mother. “It’s a book about aerospace dynamics.”
“Wow,” Tony says earnestly as Masen crowds his bed and holds the book perpendicular to his dad’s head so he can see.
Kaia crosses to my side and I pull her into a hug. “Hey Jackie, thanks for coming. And thanks for…everything.”
I loop my arm over her shoulder. “Nothing to thank me for,” I say gruffly as she gently wipes a tear from her cheek.
I nod my head to the tote bag resting beside my chair. “Rosie sent me with some supplies. I hope you like cookies because there’s a lot of them in there.”
Kaia laughs softly. “She seems lovely.”
“Yeah, when are you going to introduce me?” Tony says as Masen lowers the book an inch. “Are you worried she’ll realize she got the worst looking guy out of the bunch?”
“You wish,” I retort as Kaia snickers. “She couldn’t come today, anyway. It’s her baby shower.”
“Why do you sound miserable about it?” Kaia asks.
I sigh. “I just have a bad feeling. Her mother’s hosting it for her.” I wave my hand. “It’s a whole thing, but I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
“Go show Uncle Jackie. Helovesaerospace dynamics” I hear Tony say before Masen rushes to my side to show me his encyclopedia.
The hospital is close enough to our house that by the time I get to Danny’s house for the match, it’s only been a few hours since Rosie left. I check my phone as I walk up to his door but there’s no messages.
No news is good news,I remind myself as I knock on the door.
