Lupita arrived with a water bottle and that indefinable air that everything was going to be okay. In the days following my stroke, she’d been there in the hospital advocating for the best care for me. She’d never left my side, and I’d never forgotten how reassuring it was to wake up and find her there, day or night. I didn’t know when I’d hired her and Juan that she would come to mean so much to me, but she had. Lupita was the only person on earth who could mother me and I accepted it. I knew her concern was genuine, so I believed her when she reassured me that all would be well.

“You’re doing the right thing, Nick,” she said. She straightened the collar of my shirt and smoothed the fabric on my shoulders. “Family is the most important thing, and your sister needs you.”

I glanced down at her and nodded. She was right, I knew that. It was why I was going on this fool’s errand for a sister who suddenly wouldn’t take my calls. Stubborn brat. Sure, I hadn’t acknowledged any of her overtures, and it had likely hurt her feelings. Okay, I’d been a total jerk and I was sure she was paying me back, so mature, but she could have saved us both a lot of trouble if she’d answered any of my calls over the past couple of days.

Lupita stood beside me as I leaned against the wall, trying not to obsess about every little twinge in my leg. I am not going to collapse, I kept repeating in my head like a mantra. I began to sweat and my heart was racing. Somehow I had to get through this meeting without Lexi catching on to my true condition. Sure, it was a pride thing, and too much pride was bad, but when I’d been scrambling to survive on my own in the city, not even a legal adult yet, my pride had been the one thing that kept me going.

Jackson pulled up and I nodded at Lupita, hoping the next time I saw her, I was still walking under my own power. I climbed into the passenger’s seat, stored my water in the cup holder, and buckled up. I had left my house a million times to go to the doctor. Surely this would not be that different, or so I tried to tell my racing heart.

“So why the sudden change of heart about your sister?” Jackson asked.

I sighed. “Are we going to talk the entire drive?”

“Yes,” he said. “Come on, it’ll keep your mind off of things.”

I appreciated that he said “things” instead of the more accurate “being an anxiety-ridden basket case.”