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Chapter 85: The morning after
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2022-11-24 14:32:55Related chapters
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 86: Final farewells
DEACONIt was only just nine o'clock by the time I arrived at the hospital, but I already felt as though I'd lived through an entire long day. I was exhausted and grieving, a particularly nasty combination; I knew I had no business thinking about practicing medicine today, not in my present state of mind. Still, I didn't want to go home to my empty, silent house, nor did I feel like driving out to the farm to be with Gram and Pop, both of whom were heartbroken over the loss of their long-time friend. Neighbors and friends would flock to be with my grandparents, and the idea of sitting around for hours while they all reminisced and offered up their casseroles, cakes and cookies didn't appeal to me. Even if I didn't see patients, at the hospital I could be around people who would understand my need to keep busy. And then there was Emma, who I knew had jumped in to cover for me but who was also mourning our friend, I was certain. As I'd stood in Miss Sissie's kitchen early this morni
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 87: Outed
EMMA"I am the luckiest man in this whole place." I glanced at Noah over the top of my menu. He was looking mighty fine, this man who sometimes I still struggled to believe was my boyfriend. Dressed in khakis and a light green dress shirt open at the neck, the cuffs turned up to display his broad forearms, his hair newly cut and his shave fresh, he was so damn sexy, he hurt my heart. "Oh, you think so? Why?" I closed the menu and set it down in front of me. "Well, duh, babe. Clearly, it's because I'm with the most beautiful woman in the world. The one who also happens to be the most intelligent, the kindest and the . . ." He grinned. "The spunkiest." I laughed. "Wow, someone's a charmer tonight. I'd ask you what you want, but I think I already know." In the ten days since Miss Sissie had died, I'd been crazy busy, trying to fill in at the hospital so that Deacon had time to work on funeral details, spending time with Anna and Jimmy, who were understandably still very sad, an
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 88: Sick
EMMAWe ate in silence. Or rather, Noah ate, and I poked at the food in front of me, which included breaded eggplant, despite my request. At least there wasn't any cheese on top, so I was able to try some of the pasta and sauce. My stomach was rebelling, though; between the audience around us, the tension of our conversation and the food issues, I wasn't feeling well at all. I'd just managed to choke down a few bites when Noah tossed down his fork onto his plate with a clatter."Fuck!" he muttered, staring out the window. "I was afraid of that." "What is it?" I was afraid to look outside. "What's wrong?" "That woman from the bar-she said she saw us on social media. So did some reporters, I guess, because there's a group of them at the door to the restaurant." Any appetite I'd had disappeared. "What are we going to do?" Noah shook his head. "I guess we'll have to just get through them and say no comment. Once we get home, we'll be all right. I think so, anyway." He was quiet f
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 89: Updates
DEACON"Deacon! Just the man I was hoping to see." I turned in mid-stride, my professional smile already in place as I extended my hand. "Raul! Great to see you. What brings you to my neck of the woods?" Raul Zamora gripped my hand and shook it firmly. "I had a check-up downstairs, and I thought as long as I was at the hospital, I'd come over and say hello. Maybe see how things are going on our shiny new wing." Checking up on me, I thought, but my expression didn't change. It wouldn't be a good idea for me to piss off the vice president of the board of directors. The hospital's governing team had been supportive of my project from the beginning of my tenure here, but I was well aware that I'd tested the board's tolerance when I'd abruptly left the country for a year. I was doing everything that I could to make up for that. "Of course." I regarded Mr. Zamora carefully. "I hope everything's okay with you." "Oh, yes, yes." He waved his hand. "Just my annual tune-up. Check the t
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 90:Restless
EMMA"I always forget how beautiful the sunsets are here." I sighed a little and wriggled down in my Adirondack chair, bunching the cushion behind me to get more comfortable. "Or maybe more accurately, I think I remember how amazing they are, and then I come back and realize my imagination doesn't do them justice.""This is an especially pretty one," my mother, sitting in the chair next to mine, agreed. "But I'm fairly sure they have sunsets in Florida, too.""True, but not over the mountains," I countered. "Florida is flat." "I'll give you that." She paused. "But the day we were at the beach on the Gulf last year was pretty damn amazing, if I remember correctly.""It was. I'm not arguing with you. I guess there's just something about this place, though, that holds so many fun memories . . . it feels like everything here is better than anywhere else." I drew up my feet to tuck them under me, hugging my knees to my chest. "I was thinking the other day about what Nana used to say-t
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 91: History
EMMAMy mother didn't answer right away. The twilight was falling all around us, and crickets were tuning up for their evening concert. The tiki lamps that burned oils to keep away the mosquitos crackled and blazed."Did you know that when I met your dad, I was dating Uncle Cal?" My mouth dropped open. "No. I did not know that. Are you serious? You and Uncle Cal?" Calvin Allan was not my blood uncle; he was a friend of my parents who'd been part of my life as long as I could remember. He'd always been a little bit of an absent-minded professor type, and in fact, he was now the English department chair at William and Mary. I'd always assumed he was my dad's friend more than my mother's, so this was a shock. "Yes. Cal and I met during our undergrad days, and we were friends for a long time before we started dating. Like you, I thought we made sense. It just seemed right, you know? We had a love of words in common. We could spend hours talking about books and history and things that
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 92: Dinner at the farm
DEACON"Gram, that was the best fried chicken you've ever made. I don't know how you manage to top yourself week after week." My grandmother shot me a skeptical glance as I passed by her, clearing the table after dinner. At the sink, Pop snickered. "The both of you are full of blarney." Gram eased back her chair slightly and folded her arms over her chest. "One of you is worse than the other.""It was all that early training I gave you." Pop elbowed me in the ribs when I set down a pile of plates. "You make me proud, Deacon." "And the two of you give me a headache," Gram grumbled. "These are the days when I wish I had a granddaughter who might take my side on occasion. Or at least I wish there was another woman in the family who would commiserate with me." She leveled a particularly pointed stare my way.I chose to ignore the reference to Emma. Conversations about my ex-girlfriend who was also a close friend to my grandparents never ended well. Nor did I necessarily want to th
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 93: Surprise or set-up?
DEACONGram was right; her directions to Emma's cabin were so accurate that I didn't have a problem finding it. I aimed my truck down the newly graded gravel drive, coasting along until I came to a stop in front of a cabin. For a moment, I stayed put behind the wheel, just gazing out the windshield at the place. It was a surreal experience, seeing the plans that Emma had shared with me now fully realized. Since I hadn't been around to see the process-the preparing of the land, the building of the house-it was almost as though she'd spoken her dream into being. The cabin itself was made of split-logs. It sat pretty high on the ground, giving her a decent-sized crawlspace beneath the floors. I wondered if she had gotten the root cellar she'd talked about once upon a time. Colorful plants and flowers decorated the front of the house, below the generous porch. A single rocking chair graced the porch itself, and I smiled a bit, imagining Emma sitting there at the end of a long day. T
Last Updated : 2022-11-24
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Diagnosis: Love Chapter 193: As long as we both shall live
NOAHNoahIt was a beautiful day for a wedding. We gathered at mid-morning under the covenant oak on Jimmy and Anna Girard's farm. Alison and I had decided that since Emma and Deacon's wedding had been the start of our love story, we should say our vows under the canopied branches of that same steadfast tree. We hadn't wanted anything grand or involved, but it was important to us that the special people in our lives were present. So when Alison and I joined hands and made our vows, among those surrounding us were Emma and Deacon, Darcy and Jackson, Jenny and Nico, Mira Hoskins, and all of the people who worked with Alison in her practice. Maggie Corning, the midwife, and Brooke Slater, Alison's therapist, were there, too. My family had flown down en mass from Wisconsin and other key points around the country. My mother couldn't stop smiling, and my dad looked proud. Even my brothers and sisters and their families were behaving themselves. And then of course, there was the Tam
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 192: Happily Ever After part 3
ALISONA human being can accomplish almost any task while sobbing her eyes out. I'd known this from experience in my past life, but after Noah left that afternoon, I went about proving it all over again.I cried as I wiped the table and counters. I wept as I took out a frozen macaroni and cheese to eat for dinner. I sobbed as I climbed the steps and listened at the baby's door-she was still asleep in the crib. I sniffled as I switched a load of newborn clothes from the washer to the dryer.He was gone, and I was alone. Again. Naturally.The hell of it was that even as he'd pleaded his case to me, even as he'd told me that he loved me, I'd known he was telling the truth. I believed him. But I couldn't trust what he thought he felt, not when people changed their minds about being in love all the damn time. People claimed to love a friend or a child or a lover, and then they changed their minds. It happened. I knew it first-hand. I'd experienced it over and over again before I was t
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 191: Break
NOAH"Where's the baby?" Alison walked into the kitchen, her face etched with fatigue. We'd had a long and trying few days as Evangeline had apparently been going through a growth spurt: she nursed almost constantly and was difficult to console the rest of the time. She'd fought sleep, and she'd cried piteously no matter what we'd tried to do. The pediatrician had assured us that this was normal and we'd get through it, but privately, I thought he was a heartless imbecile who clearly didn't understand that our daughter was advanced and needed more attention than the typical newborn. But finally, today we'd caught a break. Alison had gone upstairs to take a shower-her first in three days-and somehow, I'd managed to get the baby to sleep without the benefit of a boob. More than that, I'd actually laid her in the crib without waking her up. I was pretty satisfied with myself, all in all. I was also crossing my fingers that she'd stay asleep long enough that her mother and I could d
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 190: Parenthood
NOAHParenthood was amazing, fulfilling, beautiful, awesome . . . and exhausting. The first few weeks of baby Evangeline's life at home were a blur, a constant, never-ending whirlwind of feeding, and changing, and washing, and catching whatever small bites of sleep we could whenever she slept. People came to visit and brought gifts and food, and I was pathetically grateful for that, because I didn't have the energy to cook, and both Alison and I were tired of takeout. The one factor that made everything survivable was the baby herself. God, I hadn't known how much I was going to love this ten-pounds of tiny, perfect human. I'd never anticipated that staring at her sleep for an hour was better than four quarters of football. Or that catching what might have been a smile could make me feel as though I'd just witnessed greatness. What was some missing sleep compared with noting how well my two-week-old daughter could lift up her head?Even so, as much as I was ga-ga over my baby gir
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 189: New life
ALISON"Congratulations, mama! You're at six. I think it's time to break your water and get things really going." It sounded like a great idea to me, but I saw Noah's lips go white. "Are you okay?" I asked, rubbing my fingers over the back of his hand. "You look a little green." He swallowed, his throat convulsing. "This is the only part I'm a little, uh, squeamish about. I watched that birth online, and breaking the water looked-intense." Maggie chuckled. "Stay up there by Alison and keep your eyes on her face. We don't need papa hitting the floor and suing the hospital." Noah did as he was told, watching me intently as if waiting for me to show some sign of distress. "Does it hurt?" he asked quietly. "The water part, I mean." I shook my head. "It feels a little weird, but not-oooooh!" I gasped as I felt the gush hit my inner thighs. "Okay, then. Eyes here, Noah. Come on. We're in this together." After that, it felt as though everything got a lot more serious. The con
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 188: Giving in
ALISON Spoiler alert: having sex with Noah did not start my labor.But it sure was worth the effort. Two days after that monumental night-and after we'd given it the good old college try several more times-we went to Maggie's office. I was in a rotten mood-being a million years pregnant can do that to a person-and poor Noah looked a little haggard. He'd been sleeping with me in my bed (we both clung to the excuse that if I went into labor, I'd want him closer than across the hall), which meant that he woke up whenever I had to climb out of that bed to pee. He thought I'd been exaggerating about how often I had to go. He was quickly disabused of that notion. After a quick exam, Maggie made some notes on her tablet and then turned to the both of us. "So listen," she began. "Do you want to have this baby?" I stared at her as though she'd lost her mind. "What the hell do you think I've been trying to do for over three weeks now, Maggie?" I bellowed. "Of course, I want to have th
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 187: Finally, at last
NOAHNow I got it. The night we'd first had sex-the night after Emma and Deacon's wedding-we'd challenged each other to come up with the sexiest, most outrageous names for cocktails. Alison was playing the game again."Ohhhhh." I grinned. "I still don't believe that last one is legit.""It totally is. The bartender confirmed it." With a smile that was deceptively seductive for an extremely pregnant woman, she reached down to grasp the bottom of her oversized T-shirt-which was not so oversized just now-and lifted it over her head. I helped just to make sure she didn't topple over in the process. It was the first time I'd really seen her without a shirt in many months. My first few impressions were awe at the size of her swollen middle. I knew she was huge, but damn. The skin was stretched as tight as a drum, and her belly button looked like a cork just about to give way. And her boobs-they were incredible. Within the utilitarian maternity bra, they were still the sexiest breasts
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 186: Things you shouldn't ask
NOAH"What's the world record for the longest pregnancy ever?" I glanced up at Alison from the book I was reading. We were both lying on her bed while a movie that neither of us was very invested in played on the TV. The couch downstairs had become too uncomfortable for her over the past week or so, so we'd begun hanging out here in her room. It was strictly for comfort, though; we stayed on top of the covers, with Alison on one side while I stuck to the other. It was a king-sized bed with plenty of room for us. But while we hadn't hesitated to cuddle and kiss on the sofa, something about being on the bed made us more cautious. I didn't know why, exactly; Alison was so tired of being pregnant that she wasn't up for much of anything other than television lately. She'd stopped going into the office after her due date since she'd already arranged with Dr. Johanson to cover her hours. So we were both at home now all the time . . . just waiting.She really was huge. While the ultraso
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 185: Trust love
ALISON"Read me that last part again?" Noah and I were sitting in the nursery, surrounded by boxes, gift bags, and about a million pieces of a pine crib. He had spent the last two weeks focusing on the nursery. He'd painted the room a lovely pale yellow color, insisting that I stay with Emma and Deacon at the cabin for the two nights after he'd completed the first and second coats so that I didn't have to inhale the paint fumes. Together, we had selected the crib and the dressing table. Noah's mother had sent us the cradle that all of her children had slept in, and that was already set up in my bedroom.Now, with my due date less than ten days away, we were finally tackling the project of building all of the furniture that hadn't come pre-assembled. I squinted at the paper in my hand, trying to decipher the words."I'm pretty sure that this was translated directly from Swedish by someone who didn't speak English," I commented. "It doesn't seem to make sense.""Does it say at wh
