She hurried.
She found her sisters in the hallway of the hospital, huddled together and talking in low voices. Gretchen looked up first and, Kendall knew in that moment that Ethan wouldn’t make it. Her sister didn’t look like herself. Pain was written over every inch of her face, her shoulders were stooped, and there was a numbness in her blue eyes that reached out and kicked Kendall right in the teeth.
Gretchen didn’t even smile. “You’re here.”
“I’m here.” She glanced at Marley, their little sister, the one who always looked like sunshine and rainbows. Her blond hair was pulled back into a simple ponytail and she had on jeans and a plain white T-shirt. More indicators of the severity of the situation, as if Kendall needed them. “What do you need?”
“We were just going to go home for a little while to rest.”
Gretchen shook her head. “I’m fine.”
“You are not fine.” Marley turned a pleading look at Kendall, and that was all she needed to snap out of her shock and into planning mode.
She stepped up and took her sister’s elbow. “Let’s get showered and eat something and we can come right back here. You have to take care of yourself, Gretchen.” Before her older sister could protest, she had guided them downstairs to the front door and out into the parking lot.
An hour later, she closed the door on her sleeping sister, her heart breaking at the way Gretchen curled around what was obviously Ethan’s pillow. Just as she’d hoped, exhaustion caught up with her sister the second she stopped moving. It wouldn’t slow her down for long—not knowing Gretchen—but it would help.
Kendall went and found Marley in the kitchen. “Tell me.”
“He had a stroke.”
“A stroke? Ethan’s barely thirty-five.”
Marley transferred scoop after scoop of coffee into the filter. “Yeah, I know. Kendall… It’s bad. Really bad. Like he isn’t going to make it bad.” She took a deep breath. “And Gretchen is pregnant.”
“What?” She twisted to look back at the room where she’d left her sister. “I didn’t know.”
“No one knew. They had a miscarriage a few years ago and so they weren’t going to tell anyone until she had her first ultrasound.” Marley gave a sad smile. “I only know now because she passed out and had to tell me to avoid me dragging her to a doctor, too.”
Marley had been here for days holding down the fort. Kendall pulled her sister into a tight hug. “You’ve done a great job, Marley.”
“There’s more.”
How could there possibly be more? She braced herself. “Okay.”
Marley didn’t release her. “She and Ethan scraped up everything they had to secure a loan. They bought Mom and Dad’s old restaurant. Construction is supposed to start the week after next.” She hesitated. “They put a lien on their house to do it.”
Oh, Gretchen. “We’ll figure it out.
“I’m scared for her.”
“Me too.” She gave her sister a last squeeze and stepped back. “I’m here now. You don’t have to do this alone.”
It was only later, when she finally got her bags into her old room to unpack, that she had a moment to mourn the loss of Alex. Because it was a loss. From what she’d been able to glean from the doctors, the chance of Ethan waking up decreased with every hour. The stroke had created a pressure in his brain that they weren’t able to release.
Gretchen was going to be a widow. A pregnant widow. A pregnant widow who had just risked everything to secure a loan to buy the old restaurant that had belonged to their parents once upon a time.
Kendall had thought she had a strong path in life. She’d worked hard in high school, gotten into the college she wanted, graduated with as little student debt as she could manage, settled into a job that was supposed to be her forever career.
It all felt like so much bullshit now.
She called the hotel, her heart in her throat. “Please put me through to Valerie.” She and the current general manager didn’t often see eye to eye, but surely they would on this. Family was everything.
A few seconds later, Valerie answered with a brisk, “Hello?”
“Hi Valerie. It’s Kendall.”
“Must not be enjoying your vacation that much if you’re calling work in the middle of it.”
She closed her eyes and strove for patience. “I was called away from the vacation because of a family emergency. That’s actually why I’m calling now. I need more time.”
“No.”
She actually took the phone from her ear and looked at it, sure she’d heard wrong. “What?”
“We can’t spare you. I haven’t had a chance to fill the sales manager position, so we need you here.”
Kendall could feel her patience slipping through her fingers, but she tried to keep her tone bright. “Valerie, I sent you a short list of the applicants.” Including hers. There was no reason Valerie shouldn’t have scheduled interviews for this week, even if she wasn’t going to give Kendall the job.