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Chapter 111: Probably
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Diagnosis: Love Chapter 112: Bad penny
DEACON"Well, Ted, welcome back to the oncology floor." I leaned against the doorjamb outside my father's hospital room. He was propped up in the bed, looking much better than anyone in his condition had a right to be. After a week in the ICU during which we thought we were losing him more than once, Ted had taken a sudden turn for the better. His improvement had been rapid and unexplainable. "Sometimes it happens like this," one of the doctors up there had observed to me, shrugging. "They surprise us." Now whether this was a pleasant surprise or not, I hadn't decided. My father watched me with shrewd eyes as I came into his room. "I wasn't sure I was going to see you alert again. But here you are." Ted grinned. "Heaven won't have me, and the devil's afraid if I get down there, I'll take over and run the damn place into the ground." He coughed and adjusted the nasal cannula. "Guess I'm like a bad penny, boy. You just ain't getting rid of me yet." "Yeah, well, you're not ou
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 113: Relaxation
EMMAEverything was perfect in my cabin. I'd closed the curtains just enough to keep the light at a minimum. I had candles burning over almost every surface, and I was diffusing my favorite lavender oil through the air. Soft music played over my speakers, strategically placed around the cabin.Deacon had texted about twenty minutes ago that he was leaving the hospital. I'd rushed to finish the last-minute touches and then carefully dressed in my special outfit: a sheer, flowy dress that hugged my boobs and just barely skimmed the middle of my thighs, under which I wore exactly nothing. No bra, no panties . . . just me, carefully groomed and lotioned for the activity I'd planned for us. I heard Deacon's truck pulling up along my gravel drive, and my stomach flipped over into a series of somersaults. I hoped he was going to like this, but I wasn't sure. I was taking a risk. I stood just behind the sofa, listening to his footsteps on the porch. The front door opened, and he stepped
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 114: Busted part 3
EMMA"Well, I'm never going to forget this day, that's for sure." Standing in the kitchen with me, chopping vegetables, my mother reached for her glass of wine and took a sip. "I mean, honey, that was just . . . the look on your face when you opened the front door. And then poor Deacon comes out of your room, and there's the both of you, looking just a mess, and there's still candles and music and that table in the middle of the room . . .""You know, Mom, I was there." I closed my eyes, mortification still fresh. "And that happened, like, three hours ago. Believe me when I say it's too soon for me to laugh about my parents nearly walking in on me with . . ." With my knife, I pointed toward my back deck, where we could hear the men's voices. Deacon and my dad were manning the grill, because my father claimed that was a necessary part of male bonding, and he wanted to get to know Deacon. As he'd passed by me in the kitchen, picking up a spatula and oil, Deacon had murmured in my e
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 115: Back on the menu
DEACON"What do you think he's going to do?" It was early in the morning, and outside Emma's cabin, I could hear the sounds of the world waking up. The sun was rising, and birds were chirping. In the far-off distance, I heard a rooster crowing at a neighboring farm. Inside the cabin, though, it was quiet and peaceful. I lay in Emma's bed, my arms wrapped around her as my chest pressed into her back. "Who?" I asked, although I had a good idea about what she was asking."Ted." Emma rolled in my arms to face me. Her hair tangled and fell into her eyes, giving me the perfect excuse to brush it away and wrap one silky strand around my finger. "Mmm. I don't know." I stretched, dropping onto my back and easing her head onto my chest. "But I did what I did very intentionally. I followed the advice of a very wise naturopath who often tells me that giving patients a choice, even if it's between two things they don't really want, offers a sense of autonomy. Makes them feel like partners
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 116: Peace
DEACON"Gone?" I replied dumbly. "He . . . died?" I knew it was a possibility. He'd been in the ICU for a while, and there was always the chance of a pulmonary embolism, or something we hadn't picked up yet, or even a heart attack . . ."No. He left. There was some kind of kerfuffle with Mrs. Wilkie-it wasn't anything serious, just an alarm they couldn't get turned off-and then just now, Andi went in to take Ted's vitals, and the bed was empty. He'd disconnected all the IVs, the oxygen . . . his bag isn't in the closet." "Oh." I stood there for a few moments, frozen to the spot. "Okay. Well, I guess that was his way of giving me his answer on treatment, huh?" Darcy laid her hand on my arm. "I'm sorry, Deacon." Mira sighed. "I am, too. For all that I didn't want to hope Ted would do the right thing, I guess I did, after all. I wanted him to stick around long enough to give Anna and Jimmy some peace. But that's not going to happen." "It's okay." I managed a smile. "Really, Mira
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 117: Happily ever after part 1
EMMA"And now I'd like to say a few words." Standing on the front porch of Anna and Jimmy Girard's farmhouse, my dad grinned broadly at Deacon and me. Next to me at the small table for two we shared, Deacon snickered. "Is this where your father tells embarrassing stories about you?"I elbowed my new husband in his ribs, making him go ooof. "Behave yourself. There are no embarrassing stories about me. I've always been the model of perfection you see here before you." Deacon skimmed his lips down the side of my neck. "Em, I love you beyond the telling, and to me, you're perfect. But the rest of the world probably doesn't see either of us the same way.""Hmmm. Why is that, do you think?" I turned my head to smile up at Deacon. "Why can't they see that we're the smartest, the kindest, and the most amusing two people on earth?" "I guess they're just not looking with the same eyes we are." His arm tightened around me. "Now shhhh. Dr. Baldwin's talking."I rolled my eyes. "Suck up
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 118: Everything happens for a reason
NOAH"Good morning. Noah Spencer. Wow." The man standing behind the large oak desk wagged his head even as he reached across to shake my hand. "I have to admit, I can hardly believe I'm standing here in my office talking to you. I'm a big fan."I let him pump my arm a few seconds as I managed a smile. "Is that allowed? I thought guys like you had to be . . . you know. Neutral. No biases or anything like that." Father George rolled his eyes. "I'm a priest, Noah, not a saint. Also, there aren't any rules about cheering for our favorite teams. It's not like I have any special inside sway to make my guys win. It's all up to Spirit in the Sky." He grinned. "Now, that's not to say that I haven't lifted up my share of petitions for Tampa on big game days. But I'm comforted by knowing that there are lots of ministers, priests, rabbis and imams-among other clergy-asking for favor for their teams, too. It all balances out, I think. Someone's got to win, and someone's got to lose, and in the
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 119: Closure
NOAH"I can only imagine. How did you cope with that?" "The only way I know. I just keep on putting one foot in front of the other. I've buried myself in football. I work out every day. I do whatever the team asks of me. I smile in public. And then I come home to an empty house, to the place where I see my dead wife around every fucking corner, and I get through the night time hours until I can leave again." I rubbed my hand over my forehead, where the seed of a headache was beginning to blossom."Have you thought about moving? It might be the kindest option for yourself," Father George remarked."No." I shook my head. "If I move away, I lose the last piece of Angela that I have left. Sometimes I can still smell her perfume in the closet. Or I'll dig into the back of the freezer and find a loaf of banana bread that she made and froze for me before she went to the hospital. Or-" I choked a bit. "I go into the room that was going to be the nursery for the baby we never got to concei
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