But she turned at the last minute, looked back.

Danny was still there, watching after her. She carried that image with her as she walked onto the plane, found her seat. And, when the plane took to the sky, she imagined him watching her fly off.

“Vietnam,” she murmured, and it was a promise to herself.

It, however, ended up a broken promise. Clive suffered a massive heart attack a week before she was meant to fly out to meet Danny. Dropping everything, she booked a flight to Sydney, Australia, where he was currently in the hospital, and took a taxi directly from the airport to the hospital.

A hollow-eyed Gloria sprang up from the waiting room chair where she’d been slumped. “Oh, Catie!” Tears waterfalled down her face as she threw her arms around Catie.

Panic was strangling hands at Catie’s throat. “Is he okay?” If she was too late…

But the other woman nodded. “I’m just—” Gulping in air, she wiped her face. “I’m so sorry. That was terrible of me. But I’ve been alone all this time, and I—”

“Shh, it’s okay.” Catie hugged the distraught woman, well able to understand her fear and panic. As with Clive, Gloria had no family in Australia. She was only here because Clive was here, their relationship having lasted far longer than Catie thought even Gloria had expected.

Gloria squeezed her tight, then drew back. “Come on. I’ll show you his room. I just came out here for a bit because the doctors were doing their checkup.”

Her father’s room proved empty of anyone but an unconscious Clive when they entered. He’d been put into a medicated sleep after his emergency surgery. Catie fought off her panic at all the wires coming out of his body, at all the machines to which he was attached.

Gloria touched her arm. “I think the doctor should still be here. I’ll go find him so you can talk to him directly. I barely heard most of what he said.” The kind woman then left Catie alone with her dad.

“Hey, Daddy,” she said, her voice shaking as she bent to press her lips to his cheek. “Still sleeping in, I see.”

Dropping her small daypack to the floor, she took a seat at his bedside. The daypack just held emergency supplies in case her luggage failed to arrive with her in Sydney. She’d prepared for a long stay and brought a full suitcase—it had landed safely and was now at the nurse’s station not far from Clive’s room. The nurses had been kind when she’d explained she’d come directly from the airport and had made room without hesitation.

As she took his hand, her heart got all tight and cold. Clive might be an unreliable firefly of a father, but he was still her father. She wasn’t ready to lose him.