The Commitment (13 page)

“Yes,” my mom says, standing immediately to face who I’m assuming is my father’s doctor.

“Should we speak privately?” she asks, glancing toward Sophie and me.

“No, these are our children,” my mom says. “I’d like for them to stay. Did you find out what’s wrong with my husband?”

“Very well,” the doctor says with a small nod of understanding as she faces me and my girl. “We’ve not met. I’m Dr. Puskas, I’m the on-call cardiac surgeon.”

“Hello,” we say in unison as she faces my mom again.

“Mrs. Mitchell, when your husband was admitted this afternoon, we did a few preliminary tests. Blood work, EKG, cath lab...” she lists off. “Ben’s troponin levels were high, so we went in through the right groin and placed a heart catheter to locate the blockage,” she continues. “Sometimes, we’re able to clear the blockage while we’re in there, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case with your husband.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, typically the next step would be angioplasty to put in a stent,” she starts. “However, when the interventionalist attempted that, it wasn’t successful. The next step is going to be prepping his for a coronary artery bypass graft to bypass the blockage. Although Dr. Costello and I will both be overseeing your husband’s care for the remainder of his stay, I’ll be performing the procedure and we’re going to get him prepped shortly.”

“Okay, thank you,” my mom says, her shaky voice prompting Sophie to wrap her arm around her shoulders consolingly.

Sophie

Shortly after the doctor leaves, another woman comes in to discuss payment options. While Ben has insurance, it seems that it won’t cover all of the expenses of his care.

“We do have a really great program through the hospital that I encourage everyone to try and take advantage of,” the woman, Janet, starts. “You can apply for assistance and if you’re approved, it helps cover the remaining twenty percent. If you’re interested, I’ll get you the forms, but I should warn you upfront that unfortunately, there’s a low acceptance rate with this type of insurance.”

“Okay,” Renee nods, letting out a small sigh. “And if we’re not approved, you’d bill us, is that right?”

“Yes ma’am. Would you like me to grab those forms for you?”

“Yes, please,” Renee says.

“Okay,” she says with a smile. “I’ll go get the forms and be back then.”

Once she leaves, Renee takes a deep breath and releases it, gently resuming her spot on the edge of the bed. Although I try to give them privacy to discuss things, the room is very small so I overhear most everything. It doesn’t take long before it’s obvious that paying for this procedure is possible for them, but would clean Chase’s parents out of the majority of their retirement.

“Do you have that much?” Chase asks quietly.

“Barely,” she admits. “And it’ll take me some time to get it all together. I’m going to have to call your cousin to see if he can do it now and I’ll write him a check once I get everything in order. If I have to take out a second mortgage, then so be it. All I know is he’s got to have it done. Another episode like this and it could take him from me,” she says, her voice breaking. “That’s just… That’s not an option.”

Her words both warm my heart and make me want to cry for her. As I glance over at Chase, his large arms around her small frame, I completely understand what she means.

I could never live without him.

“I’ve got some money saved up,” he whispers. “I can help, too.”

“No, you will not, Chase Benjamin,” she argues, swiping her cheeks. “You’ve got to save that for our grandbaby. I can handle this. It won’t be easy, but nothing worth fighting for ever is. You should know that.”

As she lovingly pats his cheek, she glances over at me and gives me a warm, teary smile.

“I need to call and check on JT,” I say quietly after a moment.

“You want me to come with you?” Chase asks.

“No,” I say, grabbing my purse. “I’ll be fine on my own, Lovebug. You stay here with your family. I’ll be right back.”

“Alright,” he says, kissing the side of my head and watching me go.

I search the halls, thankful for the lack of activity when I spot the door I’m looking for. I know I’m taking a risk by doing this. Chase will likely be upset when he finds out I’ve gone behind his back, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my short life, it’s that the last thing you want in your heart is regret. I know not trying my best, regardless of how upset my fiancé gets later, is something I’ll regret. Knocking gently on the frame of the open door to her office, I wait patiently for her to look up from the paperwork she’s putting together.

“Yes?”

“Hi Janet,” I say, giving her a small smile. “If you have a moment, I had a couple questions regarding the billing?”

“Are you related to the patient?”

“I’m his daughter-in-law,” I nod.

“Oh, okay,” she says. “Well, what questions did you have?”

“You said the acceptance rate for Ben’s insurance is pretty low,” I start, watching her nod regretfully. “What do you think the chances are of him getting approved?”

“Well, anything is possible,” she says. “But unfortunately, for his type of coverage, only about a twelve to fifteen percent are accepted. Now, we can try smaller resources if he’s not approved,” she offers.  They won’t cover very much unless the household is very low income, but I’m happy to help with any of the forms.”

I didn’t know much about their situation, but they clearly weren’t at a low enough income to be approved for anything like that.

“Would you be willing to help me with something else?”

“If I can,” she smiles sweetly.

“Is there any way you’d consider telling them they’d been accepted?” I start, holding her curious eyes. “If someone made an anonymous donation, you could say that, right? That they’d been accepted.”

“I supposed I could do that,” she says, her eyes softening in understanding.

“Okay, thank you,” I say. “I just need to make a call.”

She nods slowly and I make my way out of her office and down the hallway. Taking a deep breath, I pull out my phone and search my recent calls, knowing the decision I’m making might be a mistake. As I hit the call button though and I hear the voice on the other end, I know I’ve done the right thing.

“Soph? You okay?” he says into the line.

“Hey Jack,” I start, clearing my throat and preparing myself to jump. “I… I need your help.”

Chase

My dad’s procedure takes forever, it seems. By the time Dr. Costello comes out to tell us everything was a success, with the exception of Sophie who’s fallen asleep after spending the past few hours staring at her phone, we’re all pacing the floor. Since he’d been under anesthetics for so many hours, she said it would be many more before he woke up and was coherent.

After some coaxing from my mom and making sure she had plenty to eat, Sophie and I headed to a hotel less than a half mile from the hospital. While she’d refused to leave herself, my mom promised to call us if he woke up before we returned.

Once we took a quick shower, we climbed into the bed and I swear, we fell asleep before our heads hit the pillows. A few hours later, I wake to find Sophie’s eyes gazing into mine, still puffy from sleep.

“Good morning, Baby,” I whisper against her lips.

“Good morning,” she says, kissing me gently. “How did you sleep?”

“Like a rock,” I ask her with a yawn as I sit up slightly on my elbow to check my phone. “Did anyone call?”

“No, not yet,” she says, mirroring my yawn.

“It’s early,” I say, wrapping my hand around her waist and pulling her closer. “What are you doing awake so early, Beautiful?”

“Peanut woke me up,” she says with a smirk. “Apparently, he’s getting a head start on his World Cup title.”

Running my hand over her bump, I can’t stop the smile from creeping over my face as I rest my lips into the crook of her neck.

“Well, she’s not going to become the next Laila Ali if she doesn’t start early, Sweetheart.”

“I guess that’s true,” she agrees, letting out a soft sigh of pleasure as I begin to gently run my lips over her bare skin.

I know we should skip what’s become our morning routine and go directly to the hospital to check on everyone. However, no one has called and after everything that happened yesterday and the unknown we’ll be facing today, I want nothing more than to bury myself inside her right now. I just need to selfishly drown out the rest of the world, if only for a little while.

As I lower my head to pull her nipple into my mouth, her breathing becomes heavy beneath me, sending a jolt of need through my veins. Holding myself up on my elbows, I hover over her as I continue making my way down her front.

“Chase,” she says in a breathy voice. “Lover, we don’t have to…”

“Hush baby,” I answer her, meeting her eyes.

“Okay,” she says quietly, running her fingers through my hair as I lift myself to her lips.

“I just need to be with you before I face this,” I whisper against her mouth as she searches my eyes. “Is that fucked up?”

“Not at all,” she says immediately in a soft tone, resting her hands over my jaw before pulling me gently to her. “Come here.”

When I make it to her mouth, she parts her lips immediately and grants me entry. Dipping my tongue inside, I stroke hers gently at first, tasting her as I run my fingertips down the side of her ribcage. When I reach her hip, I begin to take her mouth with more force, squeezing her ass as she winds her legs around my waist. As I slowly push my way inside her, she lets out a small gasp, gripping my shoulder with one hand, the back of my hair with the other.

Her blonde hair is down, spilling all around her shoulders and onto the pillow. Pushing deeper, I run my eyes over her greedily, leaning down to kiss the freckles on her shoulder and pulling a soft whimper from her. As I move faster inside her, I watch the way her heavy breasts bounce against my chest. Bending down, I run my tongue over her peaks and slip one arm under her, holding her as close as I can and push into her harder, stretching her, filling her.

“Chase,” she pants, her voice pulling my attention to her lips as I suck her lip into my mouth, swallowing her moan.

When I pull away slightly, her breathing begins to quicken as she grows wetter around me. I can’t help but stare at her swollen, parted lips as she digs her fingers into my arm. Meeting her eyes, my favorite sea of green is behind her thick lashes, heavy in arousal as she climbs higher.

“God, Sophie,” I pant as I run my lips over her jaw. “You’re so fucking perfect.”

Turning her head to face me as her breathing hitches, she pulls my lips back to hers and kisses me deeply, tightening around me. As I return her kiss, I feel her reach her climax, immediately pulling me over the edge with her.

As we catch our breath I rest inside her, loving the taste of her lips on mine. Moving her hands up my chest, she gently pulls away, searching my eyes as they find hers.

“I love you so much, Baby,” she whispers after a moment as she traces the edge of my mouth with her fingertips.

“I love you like crazy, Princess,” I answer her, giving her a soft peck on the lips, holding her gaze. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she says quietly. “Just a little tired.”

“Do you want to stay here and sleep?”

“Are you nuts?” she asks immediately, bringing me silent relief. “I’m coming with you.”

“Okay,” I say, hugging her in my arms and pressing my lips to her cheek. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Bunny Rabbit,” she says, putting a smile on my face. “Let’s go take a shower so we can check on everyone.”

“Okay,” I say with a long sigh, unsure if I’m ready for whatever is coming today.

Lifting her into my arms, I carry her to the shower and we prepare for the day. She doesn’t force me to make small talk, which I appreciate. Instead, we wash each other as we hold a comfortable silence, something I’ve always been grateful we could do.

Since we’d left Rockport in such a rush, we didn’t have any clothes with us. Luckily, Emily lives close enough that Brad was able to bring us a few things from their house to wear until Drake and Ana’s flight landed with a bag for us.

I feel weird in the foreign clothing, but as I look over at Sophie pulling Emily’s fitted T-shirt on over her head, I can’t stop the smile.

“What the hell was your sister thinking?” she blushes, a combination between embarrassment and amusement crossing her features as she struggles to pull the cotton over her front. “The girls are way too big for this shirt.”

“Baby, she hasn’t seen you since we found out about Peanut,” I chuckle, honing in on her chest, loving the way she’s straining against the fabric. “For the record though, your tits look
amazing
. Emily isn’t getting this shirt back.”

“Well, I’m glad they look it because they don’t feel amazing.”

Taking the couple of steps needed to close the gap between us, I lean down to press my lips to hers and gently tease her chest with my hands.

“They feel pretty fuckin’ fantastic to me, Baby,” I smirk against her lips, causing her to roll her eyes.

“Yeah, I bet they do, you perv,” she laughs, giving me a chaste kiss and pulling away from me.

As we make our way out of the room, I lead us out to the rental and help her in. When I get to the driver’s side, I see her glance down at her phone and type something quickly before tossing it back in her purse.

“What’s up?” I ask.

“Nothing’s up. Why?”

“Just checking,” I start. “I noticed you’ve been on your phone a lot.”

“Oh,” she says, still not meeting my eyes. “Jack texted me, so I was just answering him.”

“Is JT alright?”

“Yeah,” she says. “And Ana and Drake are in the air, too. They’ve got a layover in Atlanta, but they’ll be here tonight.”

“Okay, good,” I nod, pulling out of the space and heading toward the exit before glancing back at her. It’s not uncommon for her to be quiet, especially in the morning, but something feels off today. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah,” she nods, giving me a small smile. “I’m fine, Baby.”

“Alright,” I say hesitantly. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Sweetheart,” she says quietly, leaning her head against the back of the seat, facing me before grabbing my hand over the console and holding it in both of hers. “We should stop and grab some breakfast for your mom. I’m sure she hasn’t eaten very much.”

“Yeah,” I agree, releasing her hand and rubbing my hand over her belly before turning onto the road and heading toward the McDonald’s across the street. “You need to eat, too. I’m sure Peanut’s not very happy with us right now.”

“He’s not fussing too much yet,” she grins as I pull up to the drive-thru.

Once we have our food, I give Sophie hers to eat on the way and immediately head to the entrance closest to my dad’s room. We still haven’t heard anything, so I’m nervous as we make our way down the hallway.

“No news is good news,” Sophie reassures me, kissing my arm as she takes my hand, resting the other in the crook of my elbow.

“I hope so,” I say almost silently as we make our way to his door.

With a deep breath, I slowly push the door to my father’s room open, revealing my mom’s exhausted frame in the chair beside his bed. Hovering over him and blocking my view is his nurse. My mom’s eyes are filled with tears and for a moment, everything comes to a stop, including me.

It’s only when I hear my dad’s weakened, baritone voice that I finally breathe in a sigh of relief.

“Thank God,” I say, the words staying jammed in my chest as I feel my girl squeezing my arm in reassurance. The relief I feel is so great, for a moment I’m forced to lean forward on my legs and catch my breath.

Pulling my attention to her, Sophie rubs her hand over my back and I turn my head to face her watery green gaze. She doesn’t say a word, but as our eyes meet, she doesn’t have to. Our silent exchange speaks volumes.

“Chase?” I hear my mom’s quiet voice from across the room where she’s just seen us come in. “Son, is that you?”

“You okay?” Sophie whispers, her voice barely loud enough to make out and I give her a subtle nod as I clear my throat.

“Yes ma’am,” I start, taking Sophie’s hand and squeezing it in mine in silent appreciation. “We’re here.”

“Look who’s awake,” she smiles through her tears, standing to make her way to us and pull us over to her side.

When I see him, I’m overcome with emotion again. Although I struggle, I’m able to hold it together until his eyes meet mine. He looks like hell warmed over. He’s weak and looks exhausted. One look at the way he winces slightly tells me he’s in pain, but he’s awake.

“Heya Kiddo,” he greets me weakly as he flashes me his warm smile.

That’s all it takes for the sob I’ve been trying so hard to hold back to escape me. On the outside, I’m a grown ass man, covered in muscles and hovering over the hospital bed of a middle aged man. In this moment, though, I’m just the kid who he threw the football to in the front yard. A scared little boy who’s just been faced with my hero’s mortality and it’s scared the shit out of me.

“Hey Pops,” I manage as I make my way to his bed, carefully reaching for his hand and bending to rest my head beside his.

“Hey, I’m okay,” he says quietly when he sees the emotion coming from me. “I love you, Son.”

“I love you, too, Dad. You scared the crap out of me,” I start, pulling away and wiping my eyes. “If you wanted us to visit, you could have just called.”

“I scared you? Your mother tried to get me to eat sushi night before last,” he says with a weak chuckle. “Never been so terrified in all my life.”

Calling Sophie over to his side, his smile gets wider when he catches sight of the bump adorning her typically petite frame. As she leans forward to kiss his cheek, he whispers something in her ear and she nods immediately, giving his hand a pat and smiling, her eyes moist.

“Yes Sir,” she says quietly.

“I have your word?”

“Absolutely,” she nods again.

“Okay,” he says, holding her eyes. “Love ya, Kid.”

“I love you, too, Pops,” she says in her soft voice.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” his nurse says, reminding us of her silent presence as she faces my mother. “I just wanted to let you know that everything is looking good. Now Mr. Mitchell, between the anesthesia and everything your body’s been through, you’re going to be real sluggish for a little while, that’s normal. I’ve just given you something to help manage your pain, but if you begin feeling too much discomfort, we need to make sure we tell the doctor. She should be in within the next hour or so, okay?”

“Okay thank you,” he says with a small smile.

After a few more instructions, she leaves us and my mom resumes her place beside my dad. I find the spare chair in the corner and take a seat, pulling Sophie onto my lap. As I watch my mom tend to my father, I let out another deep breath of relief and press my lips to Sophie’s hair, resting my hand over her belly.

“What did my dad say to you?” I ask in a hushed tone.

“What if I’m not supposed to tell you?” she says, her soft eyes taking on a playful gleam.

“It’s not nice to keep secrets,” I tease in a whisper, running my nose against her neck before finding her eyes. “Will you please tell me anyway?”

“You promise not to rat me out?” she asks, prompting me to nod. “He thanked me for coming with you. He also asked me to promise to take care of you the way your mama takes care of him. To love you the way you love me and never stop,” she whispers, running her hand through my hair and resting it on my neck as she meets my eyes and I let the words wash over me. “Of course, you already knew all of that, so it’s not a very good secret.”