“Give me a minute.” She kissed my cheek and then left the kitchen.
“Congratulations,” Steve stood from the table and slapped my back. It took me a minute to figure out why he was congratulating me. After learning my mother had cancer, I’d forgotten everything else.
“Thanks,” I muttered. “Listen, I mean it. I’m going with you on Friday and to any other appointment she has. We leave no stone unturned. There are a ton of options out there, and we don’t take any no’s for an answer from anyone if it’s something that can help.”
“Of course,” he said, shutting his eyes as he nodded. They’d known all this time while I’d been living it up in the Keys with Thea without a clue. While they’d been right, knowing then and knowing now didn’t make much of a difference, I still felt like the worst son on the planet. Instead of bringing her all those stupid exotic teas to help her throat, I should have pushed her to go to the doctor sooner.
“Here it is,” Mom sang as she came over to me and planted the box into my hand. “Take it to a jeweler and have it cleaned before you give it to her. All the carvings on the band catch a bit of dust and the diamond is a bit dull.”
She opened the box, and my grandmother’s ring shone back at me. It had a nice-sized diamond and an old-time, intricate band surrounding it. I remembered the story she always told about the village in Italy my grandfather bought the ring from.
I smiled thinking of slipping it on Thea’s finger, but when I spotted a tear snake down my mother’s face, anything that wasn’t about my mother being sick faded into the background.
Even the woman I wanted to marry.
I stuffed the ring into my pocket and told them both goodbye, heading to my car with a broken spirit and heavy legs. My head fell back before I started the engine as I wished it was still a half an hour ago and everything seemed too good to be true. That’s because it was.
Still unable to drive away, I grabbed my phone and dialed Thea, needing to unload this before the bile in the back of my throat came up and did it for me.
Thea’s gasp on the other end made me feel ten times worse.
“I’m so sorry, babe. Linda is tough. She’s going to be fine. I know it. I’ll be over in a little while.”
My thumb drifted over the fuzzy box in my hand. If things happened like I’d thought they would, like they were supposed to, I would have been headed to the florist to buy the biggest bouquet of flowers I could find, and dropped to my knees to ask Thea to spend her life with me the second she opened her front door. I would’ve had the ring cleaned after because there would have been no way I could’ve waited.
Now, asking her to marry me on the same day I found out my mother was sick seemed all kinds of wrong. The guilt over having a good time while my mother was making oncologist appointments gnawed at my gut and wouldn’t let me sit still.
Until my mother was better, everything else had to go on hold.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart, but I need to be alone right now. I’m not good company, anyway. I’ll come by tomorrow.”
“Whatever you need, babe. Let me know if you change your mind, no matter what time it is. I can sneak into your bed at all hours of the night if you need me.”
The side of my mouth ticked up for a moment. I didn’t want to push her away, but I didn’t know how to be around anyone right now. I knew I’d be running worst case scenarios in my head all night long alternating with being pissed at myself for being so damn distracted to not realize what was going on.
“I love you.” I hung up before she could say it back, not able to handle anymore guilt about anything today.
It was amazing how life, as you knew it, could derail with a single conversation.
15
Dominic
Present
The wood wallswere the only thing I’d call close to complete, but that one addition made all the difference. Gazing around the still mostly empty area picturing what it would look like when it was all done, and knowing it would be mine to manage when it was complete, made my skin prickle with goosebumps.
It’d been a long time since I’d had news this good, and despite how long she’d been gone my first instinct after any rush of excitement was still to call my mother. A smile snuck across my lips as I imagined her bringing her friends all the way out here for a day just to brag about how well I was doing.
“Not bad! I can’t believe you guys did this in a couple days!”
I was so into my own thoughts, the sound of Thea’s voice made me jump. She smiled at me from the doorway when I turned to face her, the gorgeous sight of her at that moment was a sucker punch in the stomach. She was the last piece of good news I’d brought to my mother, and mom would have hated the fact that because I couldn’t handle her death we hadn’t stayed together.
“Getting there.” I made my way over to her and leaned against the wall.
Thea moved next to me, taking the same stance. Another strong urge that never went away was the urge to touch her. I put my arm behind me as I leaned back to trap it against the wall, the need to snake it around Thea’s waist and pull her to me so strong I couldn’t trust myself to resist.
“Do you know what this reminds me of?”
