*Pic to the side is of Tyler* Need help with photo for Johnnie and a cover for this book :)
" Dad would you please sit down!"
Justin Purcell glared from underneath arched white eyebrows, but he did slump back into the wealth of pillows stuffed against his headboard.
Tyler suppressed a sigh of relief and again rearranged the thick, flowered duvet and soft white sheets about his father's alarmingly thin body.
"I'm not that much of an invalid," Justin groused
"Whatever you say, Dad," Tyler groused back. He glanced at the nightstand set with a pitcher of ice water, a glass, six paperbacks, lamp, clock, and no less than a dozen bottles of pills. It was the last collection of items that broke his heart. He reached for one. "Did you take your medication?"
"Yes."
Tyler scowled, sure there had been seven of those horsepills in the bottle in the bottle when he'd been there to deliver Justin's breakfast. "Dad."
"Tyler!"
They glared at each other, and Tyler was sure he saw his own frustration mirrored in his father's lined face. He closed his eyes, prayed silently for calm, and put the bottle of pills back on the table. "Okay. Fine."
Justin fiddled with the duvet set about his hips. "Is everything set?"
Tyler crossed the room to open the drapes more to let in the spring sunlight. "All set."
"Are you sure?"
He tried to keep his tone light. "As sure as I can be."
"When do they arrive?"
Tyler sighed as he turned around, pushing a hand through his short blond hair. "Any moment now."
Alarm showed on Justin's face. "Shouldn't you be downstairs?"
"Yes, I should. And I will. Just as soon as Amy gets here."
"Stop fussing over me! I'll be fine. Go, you've got work to do."
Tyler glanced at his watch. Yes, he did, but he couldn't leave his father alone. Not lately. Although he denied it, Justin's condition had taken a downturn, and it looked like another round of chemotherapy was in the not-too-distant future. Another round of heartache and expenses. Expenses they couldn't really afford. Yet another reason he had to get to work.
He suppressed a sigh of relief when the front door of the suite opened. He hurried into the main room. Amy turned her very pregnant body to face him and smiled.
"Tyler, I'm sorry I'm late." She dropped her purse on the table. She spread a hand over her pregnant belly. "But we got caught in the mayhem downstairs."
He stepped behind her and took hold of her coat to help her out of it. "Are you all right?"
Amy waved his concern away, smoothing the glossy gold locks of her hair as she waddled toward the bedroom door. "I'm fine. Did Dad take his meds?"
"He says he did."
She nodded, eyes averted. They could hardly look at each other when they spoke of their father's illness. Since the loss of their mother when Amy was ten and Tyler was seven, their father had been the cornerstone of their life. Neither wanted to acknowledge the possibility of his being gone.
Amy snapped her head up briskly. She grinned sunnily, which made her big blue eyes sparkle. "Don't you have to be somewhere? The crowd is restless down there."
"Yeah. Hey ..."
Amy stopped at the door and turned to look at him.
He smiled. "Thanks."
