Page 41 of Tough Luck

That night was a massive milestone. We were leaving early to head down to Denver for an official meet-and-greet dinner with my parents. It was the first introduction—the moment Rick was going to meet the family as my boyfriend.

I was adjusting my mirror, checking my lipstick, while Rick started the Audi. The late summer evening air was still warm, and despite the lingering worry about Leonard, a nervous, happy flutter was building in my stomach.

“Do I look okay?” Rick asked, tugging slightly at the collar of his button-down shirt. “Your dad isn’t going to grill me too hard, right?”

“You look perfect.” I laughed, reaching over to smooth down his lapel. “And don’t worry, my mom will love you, which means my dad will have to behave,” I joked.

He smiled, leaning over the console to kiss me, but just as his lips touched mine, the sharp, demanding ring of his cell phone cut through the quiet cabin of the car.

Rick sighed against my mouth, pulling back with a small groan. “I should ignore it.”

“Check it first,” I whispered. “If it’s Marcus about the last app updates, I want to know.”

Rick pulled the phone from his pocket, his brow furrowing as he looked at the screen. “It’s Jax.” He swiped the screen and brought it to his ear. “Hey, Jax. We’re actually just heading out to dinner with Sofia’s parents⁠—”

He stopped.

In a fraction of a second, the easy, relaxed warmth drained completely from Rick’s face. His eyes went wide, turning a stark, piercing blue as the color vanished from his cheeks. His grip tightened on the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white.

“What?” His voice cracked, dropping into a hollow, breathless whisper that made my stomach instantly drop. “When? Jax, slow down. Where is he?”

I froze, my hand hovering over his arm, my heart suddenly hammering in my throat. I could hear the faint, frantic sound of Jax’s voice buzzing through the receiver, tight and laced with pure panic.

“We’re on our way,” Rick choked out, his voice thick with a sudden, suffocating weight. He hung up the phone, his hand trembling as he dropped it into his lap.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, terror gripping my chest as I looked at him. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

He turned and looked at me, his expression completely fractured. “It’s my dad,” he whispered, his chest heaving as he struggled to find his breath. “He was out on the course for a sunset round of golf. He… he had a massive heart attack. They’re rushing him to St. Anthony’s right now.”

Chapter 17

Rick

The drive to St. Anthony’s was a blur of flashing brake lights, screeching tires, and a suffocating, heavy silence that pressed down on my chest until I could barely breathe. Sofia sat beside me, her light touch on my arm the only thing anchoring me to the earth as I pushed the Audi through the evening traffic.

When we burst through the sliding glass doors of the emergency room, the sterile smell of bleach and isopropyl alcohol hit me like a physical wall.

“Rick!”

I turned to see Jax standing near the triage desk. I had never seen my brother look like this. His hair was completely disheveled, his shirt was untucked, and the raw, unadulterated panic bleeding from his eyes made my stomach violently drop. Standing right beside him, her hand resting firmly on his arm to keep him upright, was Nova. She looked pale but fierce, holding him together by sheer force of will. Much like Sofia was doing to me at the moment.

“Where is he? Where’s Mom?” I demanded, my voice cracking as we reached them.

“They took him back to the cath lab,” Jax choked out, his voice thick and trembling. “Mom went back with them. He… dad’s friend Bill said he just collapsed on the ninth green, Rick. One second they were laughing about a putt, and the next…” He couldn’t finish the sentence. He shook his head, burying his face in his hands.

Bill Frisco was one of my father’s longtime friends, and he was a doctor. At the moment he was standing at the nurses’ station, talking on the phone.

Nova immediately stepped into the space, her voice calm but tight with emotion. “The doctors are working on him now. Your mom is with him. I was at the office helping Jax finish up the retail spreadsheets when we got the call. We got here as fast as we could.”

Before I could even process her words, the sliding doors of the main entrance opened again. I looked up and was surprised to see a couple rush into the waiting room looking anxious and out of breath. Sofia let out a soft, sharp breath beside me and moved toward them. Instantly, I understood that this was her parents. Sofia had texted them from the car, and they had come down here to be with us.

Her father wrapped Sofia in a massive hug, while her mother walked straight over to me, her eyes filled with a deep empathy. She placed a gentle, warm hand on my shoulder. “Hi, I’m Lisa, Sofia’s mom. We figured we’d come down and be here, for whatever you and your family needed.”

“Thank you,” I muttered, the words feeling hollow and heavy in my throat.

Nova walked over and gave Sofia’s parents a hug and started talking to them.

For the next forty-five minutes, the waiting room became a purgatory of ticking clocks and low murmurs. Sofia’s parents sat quietly with her and Nova in the corner, giving my family space but staying close enough to offer silent support. Sofia kept her eyes locked on me, her gaze a steady, comforting anchor while I paced the floor. My mind was racing through a thousand memories of my dad. The arguments we’d had, the advice he’d given, the way he laughed. God, I couldn’t lose him. Jax sat frozen in a plastic chair, staring blankly at the floor. My youngest brother, Chris, had arrived sometime shortly after I had. Since he was currently going to med school and knew most of the nurses, he often disappeared and came back with as many details as he could get.