Page 57 of The Cowboy Who Stayed

“Uh… sorry… I… give me a second.”

I slide off him and go to climb off the bed. His hand catches me by the arm before I can.

“Hey,” he says. “Talk to me. Tell me what it is. What’s wrong?”

My throat tightens as a tide of complicated emotion swells inside. I’m back in a doctor’s office three years ago, hearing words that changed my life forever.

That put me through the most difficult period of my life. One I wasn’t always sure I’d survive.

I force a breath through my lungs as I finally meet his gaze, aware there’s no going back.

If I take this leap, then I’m trusting Rhett Dawson in a way I couldn’t even trust my own husband. In a way that he ended up failing me.

“I… I need you to take me to the hospital.”

SIXTEEN

Rhett

Tonight I sang karaoke, punched a man, sat in a jail cell, and now I’m in a hospital waiting room holding the hand of the woman I’ve fallen in love with.

…and it ain’t even Friday yet.

Vivica’s hardly said a word since we left her place.

She’s visibly shaken, her posture stiff and her gaze downcast. She has her arms folded defensively across her chest, the plain T-shirt she put on wrinkled. To an outsider, they’d say it’s standoffish.

But I know better.

I get why she’s covering her arms over her chest like a shield. As if she’s protecting herself.

Fifteen minutes ago she got done having a breast exam. Then came the ultrasound to look at the tender spot.

I can feel her knee quake beside mine.

My hand moves slowly as it scoops hers up and then gives it a reassuring squeeze.

They said we’d have results within thirty minutes. But even a half hour feels like an eternity when someone’s life is on the line.

Each minute we spend sitting in the waiting room stretches on with no end in sight.

This time of night, the ER’s filled with some interesting characters.

A man with a dislocated shoulder sits in a chair in the corner, a woman by his side scrolling listlessly through her phone as they wait for him to be called.

Before them, two ruddy-faced guys with a bloody rag wrapped around one of their hands came through. He left bloodstains on the floor that the overnight maintenance worker had to come mop up.

I let my thumb stroke the back of her hand. More small reassurances that it’ll be okay.

At first Vivica didn’t explain why she needed to come to the hospital so late at night.

We were both naked and breathless, right in the middle of having sex when she pulled away. I could tell instantly that something was up.

She had flinched when I touched her breast. Gasped as if I’d hurt her.

I had no idea what the hell was going on, but as we put our clothes on and headed out to the car, I realized tonight really was a point of no return.

In more ways than one we were taking things to the next level.