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Chapter 96: Book Club
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2022-11-24 14:32:55Related chapters
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 97: News
EMMA"Thanks for throwing me under the bus." I pinched her arm. "Hey, did you really want to sit there and listen to that boring discussion?" she shot back. "Because I know I didn't." She opened the fridge and pulled out a huge bowl. "And I did need to come and get this. Nico made it for tonight because he is a sweetie and wanted my friends to enjoy some seriously delicious food." "He's so wonderful." I gave her another hug, this time squeezing extra tight. "I'm so glad for you both, Jen. No one knows more than me how much heartache went ahead of this happily ever after." "Right?" She leaned a hip against the counter and nibbled on a chip. "Which is why I hope you're also going to be understanding of my next news-which I wanted you to hear first."A trickle of foreboding ran down my spine. "Okay. That sounds ominous. What's up?" She sucked in a deep breath. "This proposal wasn't as out of the blue as I made it seem. Nico and I have been talking about it for a while-about gett
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 98: Music therapy
DEACON"Emma? Do you have a minute?" I stuck my head into our naturopath's small office. She was sitting at her desk, frowning at her desktop computer. "Ummm . . ." She blinked at me as though disoriented. "Deacon. Did you need something?" I smiled. "Sorry. You look like you're in the middle of a project. I'll come back.""No!" She almost cried out the word, and I paused, stepping into the room. "I mean, you don't have to go. I was just reading reports of a new study on metastatic breast cancer and the use of phytochemicals." "Ah." I nodded. "Mrs. Dulinkski?" "Yeah." Emma pushed back from her desk and let out a long sigh. "I don't know why I bother, because when she sees me coming, she gets this look on her face . . . like I'm going to wrestle her to the ground and make her meditate or something. The first thing she always says to me is that she doesn't hold with all that spiritual crap." She rolled her eyes. "I could help her, Deacon. I really could. At the very least, I cou
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 99: Goodbye, part 1
EMMA"Emma, I know I said this the other night when we had dinner together, but it bears repeating. I'm thrilled that you had a wonderful vacation, but we missed seeing your face around the farm." Anna beamed at me from her seat on the steps of her front porch, where she was watching me cavort with the baby goats . . . who weren't so much babies anymore."I can't believe how much they grew in just over two weeks." I caught one little girl and scooped her into my arms, nuzzling her soft head. "Thanks for covering my part of the care while I was on vacation. I thought about asking Jenny to do it, but I figured she might be more trouble than she was help." Anna chuckled. "She's not exactly farm-friendly, that one. Sweet girl, salt of the earth, but she doesn't know one end of a pitchfork from the other." "You're not wrong." I sniffed. "Did Deacon tell you that she and Nico are moving up north?""He did." Anna's voice gentled. "That's going to be hard on you, isn't it?"I nodded. "
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 100: Goodbye, part 2
EMMA"So that's it? You and Noah are done? Over? Finito?" Jenny reached to the side of the pool to pick up her beer. I nodded. "Yeah. In the end, it felt right, you know? It wasn't easy, and it wasn't fun to do, but it was right. It was what we needed to do. And we're still friends, which is the best outcome I could've hoped for.""That's so sickeningly mature and healthy." Jenny stuck out her tongue. "If Nico and I ever broke up, which of course we won't, I'd never be able to be friends with him. It would hurt too much to see him living a life without me in it." "I think . . ." I searched for words even as I clung to the side of the pool and lazily kicked my legs in the water. "I think going back to our old friendship is the goal. It's the perfect world ideal. I don't think it's going to be quite like it was, though. As much as we both say we want that, it's not realistic. We're both going to have some residual . . . feelings." "I get that." She nodded. For a few minutes, we s
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 101: Unwelcome interruption
DEACON"Hey. Are you busy?" I glanced up from my desk, well aware that I was already smiling just at the sound of Emma's voice. Dammit, I had it bad for her. Again. Still. "No more so than usual," I responded, leaning back. "What do you need?" "Nothing pressing, if you're up to your neck in something already. What are you working on?" "Reading resumes from nurse practitioners." I grimaced. "Whose bright idea was it to allow Jenny to move to Virginia, and Darcy to get both married and pregnant?" Emma dropped into the chair across the desk from me and laughed. "Well, Deacon, you know, Jenny didn't ask our permission. She made a choice. And Darcy did, too. But she's not leaving for good, at least as far as I know."I shot Emma a withering glare. "She's getting married to a football player who lives in Tampa, over an hour away from here. And she's having his baby. I can read the writing on the wall. Even if she doesn't put in her notice right away, I don't expect her to come ba
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 102: Not the guy I need to see
DEACONIf I needed one more reason to be pissed off for life at my father, he'd just given me one. Emma had been about to respond to my promise. She'd been close to saying something-and I clung to the hope that it was what I wanted to hear, not a regretful blow-off. But I'd never know now, because my father, the man who'd abandoned my dying mother and me, the one who'd never stuck around long enough to be more than a shadow in my memories, was a patient in my hospital. Emma trailed behind me as I stalked angrily down the hall with Mira toward the room she'd indicated. "Deacon, hold on. You need to know all this." I came to a sudden halt, and Emma nearly ran into my back. Out of instinct, I caught her arm to steady her even as I wheeled around to face Mira. Emma's hand slid down my forearm to folded itself into mine, a silent comfort that she somehow seemed to know I needed. "What?" I barked at Mira. "What else do I need to know? Did he tell you why the hell he came here of all
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 103: Decisions, decisions
EMMA"Night, night, baby boy! Blow Daddy a kiss! Daddy's blowing you a kiss. Kiss Mama for me. I love you, sweet boy. Daddy loves you so much." I stood in the hallway outside of George Brewer's room and listened to him talk to his baby son on video chat. I'd been working in oncology almost since my medical work had begun. Not only that, I'd also grown up hearing stories of both tragedy and triumph from my father's long career. By now, I should've been inured to the sadness that cancer could bring. But apparently not, because here I stood, tears in my eyes, listening to my patient love on his baby over video. George's news was good. He was continuing to respond to treatment, and the supplements that we'd added to his plan were doing everything we'd hoped. He was as healthy as a man his age with his stage of pancreatic cancer could expect to be-maybe more so. Even so, I knew the numbers. I'd read the statistics. The probability that George would be around to cheer in the audience wh
Last Updated : 2022-11-24Diagnosis: Love Chapter 104: Unexpected visitor
DEACONI'd grown up in the country and was accustomed to the noises of the farm. Bugs chirping, crickets singing, frogs croaking, the groan of tree branches in the wind-I was used to all of those sounds. When I went away to college and then med school and then my residency in Gainesville, I'd learned to live with the city's soundtrack: honking cars, the air brakes on buses, and people shouting in the street. Living in the town of Harper Springs was some kind of happy medium, I decided as I sat in the dark of my living room, shaking the glass in my hand to hear the ice clink. I had the bugs and crickets from the farm along with the distant noise of cars and the occasional siren. Tonight, even though my windows were shut and the air conditioning was humming, I could hear the sound of a baseball game. My next-door neighbor was an older gentleman who liked to sit on his front porch and listen to the games on his ancient radio. Since he was more than slightly hard of hearing, he had that
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
