Page 54 of A Love So Sweet
The edge in Savannah’s voice pulled him back to the call. “Yes, sorry.”
“You have to come home. Dad’s having bouts of dizziness and chest pains, and I’m scared.”
His gut wrenched at the position he was in, but Max had made her choice, and his father may not have one. “Get him to the hospital. I’m on my way.”
Cursing under his breath, he called and left Max a message telling her he was heading home, and then he called his buddy Brett Bad, owner of Elite Security, and arranged for an investigation into the man who had hurt Max, as well as a private, plain-clothed security professional to watch over her in his absence. She might get pissed at that, but he wasn’t taking any chances with her safety.
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Chapter Twenty-Six
THINGS BECAME CRYSTAL clear to Treat as he sat by his father’s bedside in the hospital. It was time for him to come home and put down roots, and he wanted to do that with Max. He had built his empire based on his keen negotiating skills and his belief in personally being involved with every transaction. He’d entrenched himself so deeply that when it came to acquisitions, partnered with his legal and financial advisers, there was never a need to look outside of his own abilities. Now he was seeing another side to what he’d always done. He’d been hiding—from the guilt of leaving his family, from commitment, and from love. For the first time in his life, he cared about someone enough to want to stop hiding.
He took his father’s hand in his own, hoping it wasn’t too late for him to make up for all the years they’d missed.
“Do you want to go to Dad’s and put your stuff away? Relax for a little while?” Savannah asked.
“I’m not leaving,” Treat insisted. “But you can. I’ll be here when he wakes up.”
“I’m not ready to leave. Rex is coming back after he takes care of the evening chores. I’m sure it’ll be fine if you want to take shifts.”
“Savannah, I’m not going anywhere.” He didn’t mean to sound gruff, but seeing his father in the hospital bed brought painful memories of his mother’s last months. She’d been in and out of the hospital too many times to count, and though his father was much bigger, the hospital had the same effect on both of them, making them look diminished and weak beneath the sterile sheets.
“Okay. Dane finally got my messages. He’s in Australia and he’s taking the next flight home.”
“Did you reach Hugh?”
“He’s on his way, and before you can ask, Josh is on his way, too. He had to move his schedule around before he could leave,” she said. She moved to the seat closer to Treat. “Do you want to talk?”
“No. I want the doctors to finish the frigging tests and tell us what’s wrong with him.”
Their father stirred.
“Dad?” Treat rose to his feet as Hal blinked the sleep from his eyes.
“Treat? What are you doing here?” He looked around the room, confused. “What the…?” He looked down at his gown. “Aw, come on.” He frowned at Savannah.
Treat breathed a sigh of relief to see their father hadn’t lost his spunk. That had to be a good sign.
“You weren’t able to breathe, Dad. What did you want me to do, let you die right there in front of me?” Savannah asked.
“Wait.” It suddenly struck Treat that Savannah was supposed to have been back home in New York when this happened. “Why were you at Dad’s? I thought you went back to the city.”
His father’s low, rumbly voice answered him. “Turns out Connor Dean’s more than a client, and your sister here seems to have had a falling out with the man who isn’t good enough for her family to meet but is apparently good enough for her to jet all over the world with.”
Treat lifted his brows in Savannah’s direction.
Savannah half shrugged, then turned away—her familiarI can’t talk about it right nowmannerism.
As much as Treat wanted to find out what was going on with his sister, he couldn’t focus on her love life right then. Not while Max was across the country preparing to face down her nemesis and his father was lying in a hospital bed. “Dad, you should probably settle down. They’re running all sorts of tests to see what happened, but they think it might have been your heart.”
“Pfft.” Hal waved a hand as if that were absurd. “I saw your mother again, that’s all. Your sister overreacted.”
Savannah and Treat exchanged a worried look. Treat thought back to when he’d first arrived at the bungalow. He’d sworn his mother was nearby, and even now he wondered if she had been.
Their father pushed the button on his bed, raising it so he could sit up properly. “Don’t think I didn’t see that look, you two.”
“Dad,” Savannah began. “We’re just worried about you.”
