“Yeah, sis?”
“I never want to do CPR on Dad again.” She broke into tears. He overheard Amanda say, “Oh, baby, you’re a hero.”
“Zac?” Taylor said into the phone. His youngest sister was ten but, like Lucy, more mature than she should be. “Is he going to be okay?”
“He’ll be fine thanks to you and Lucy. You guys are both heroes.” Zac loosened his tie. “I’ll be there in a bit, okay? Just keep your mom calm.”
“Okay. Love you.” Taylor hung up before Zac could respond.
He set his phone on the table and bent over. His dad. His rock. His hero. He couldn’t lose him. Not now. It was too soon. He needed to get to the hospital, but he couldn’t move. He didn’t want to see his father with tubes and wires coming out of him and an oxygen mask covering his face. He didn’t want to see his father on death’s door. He didn’t want to watch his dad take his last breath.
He’d done that with his mom. That was all he could really remember about her. He didn’t want to go through that with his father. Not today. Not ever. His little sisters needed him, and he had to get to the hospital. He glanced down at the tie he had on, his dad gave it to him the day before. It was a simple navy blue silk, but the addition of the tie tack his father had worn at his own graduation was the real gift. It was a tradition. His grandfather had worn it, too. Zac touched the silver and sighed. He needed to get to the hospital.
He grabbed his phone and sent Ford a text.
“I’M SO PROUD OF YOU,” Macie’s mom said as she wrapped her arms around her daughter.
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Now, how do we celebrate?” Mary Regan smiled as she held Macie by the shoulders. The mother-daughter team were often mistaken for sisters whenever they went out together. Both had the same dark hair and olive skin, but Macie had her father’s eyes. Not that he would’ve even known it. Her mom had Macie when she was seventeen and still in high school. Macie’s dad never bothered to stick around and her grandparents helped Mary where they could, but they were old school. Once Mary became a mother, Mary became an adult. She started waiting tables and dropped out of high school. Macie became her life. Even though they didn’t have much, they always had each other.
“By sleeping? I have to be at work in the morning.” Macie lifted her hand to cover the yawn, but it was too late. “Sorry, Mom.”
“I can’t believe they made you work this morning.” Mom scowled and crossed her arms.
“You know it was a last minute thing. I’ve only been there a week. I have to prove myself.” But Macie agreed with her mom. Nancy knew it was graduation day, but that didn’t stop her from demanding an immediate revision on a sales graphic that morning. Macie went in without complaining, did the graphic, emailed it and left. If Nancy didn’t like it, she could have someone else fix the damn thing. In her email, Macie reminded her of the ceremony and informed her Macie’s phone would be off the rest of the day. She still hadn’t turned it back on. “I want a nap.”
“Nap later. Dinner first.” Mom checked her watch. “And drinks. I could use a whiskey sour.”
“How about margaritas and Mexican food?” Macie threw her arm around her mom’s shoulder.
“That works, too.”
Lauren ran up to them with Ford trailing behind her. “We did it,” she shouted as she pulled Macie into a big hug. “We made it, Mace. We actually made it.”
Macie wriggled out of her friend’s embrace. “Yeah, we did. Where’s Sylvia?”
Lauren shrugged, but Macie knew that look all too well. Sylvia was a no show. Was she even going to make her daughter’s wedding?
Ford reached for Macie and yanked her into an awkward hug. “Congrats, Macie.”
“You too, Ford.” She pulled away and glanced between them. Despite Sylvia’s absence, there was a twinkle in Lauren’s eye also appeared in Ford’s. “What’s going on?”
The couple shared a glance, then both of them started giggling. It wasn’t unusual to see Lauren break into giggles, but Ford? That wasn’t right.
“Tell me or I might think the worst.” Macie didn’t want to hear the words ‘We’re pregnant’ because it was way too soon for that in Macie’s opinion, which didn’t mean much.
“We reached a deal with MatchInHeaven, LLC.” Lauren beamed. “They’re buying Blind Friends and... well, I won’t have to take one of the job offers for a while.”
“That much?” Macie’s jealousy soared. She stomped it back down and forced herself to be happy for them.
Lauren nodded. “It’s enough. I’m going to work on the development for them as a freelancer after I’m done working for Mom this summer. That way I can keep my options open and work on other stuff, too. Plus...” She giggled again. “Now we can start a family like we really want to.”
Macie hugged Lauren again, letting her jealousy slip away. It was stupid and childish to turn green over this anyway. Lauren worked her ass off on that app. It was fantastic and had brought her together with Guy. Well, sort of. “Wait, when will it go offline?”
“Not until the deal is settled.” Ford wrapped his arm around Lauren’s shoulder. “It’s a tentative agreement, but we’ve made it clear that there are still some things to work out and we’re in the midst of graduation and a wedding. After the dust has settled and things are ironed out, it should be done by the end of August.”
“Plus, there’s your role.” Lauren’s grin grew.
“Mine? What’re you talking about?” Macie’s eyes widened. She didn’t have anything to do with the sale of the app.
“The graphics. They want to buy some of them.” Lauren’s grin stretched across her entire face. “They’re going to contact you. I mentioned you might do freelance work,
