“Yep. Thing was, I didn’t know. I hadn’t felt it. If it weren’t for the accident, they would have caught it too late, and I would have died.”
Kendra propped her chin on my chest. “How can you remain so positive about this?”
I shrugged. “Lots of therapy. Physical therapy and mental health therapy.”
“Sounds healthy.”
“More like - necessary. I was so angry for the longest time. Why me? What did I do to deserve this? I spent a lot of time with my therapist learning that nothing I did or didn’t do led to the cancer,” I sighed. “We also worked on gratitude for what I did have.”
“Tell me the bad part that you’re leaving out,” Kendra said.
I tapped her nose with my finger. “You’re too perceptive. I was married at the time of the accident and surgery. At first, my wife promised to be by my side no matter what happened. She pledged to be in the hospital every day until I could get out ofthere and go home. But that kind of surgery and recovery takes months. And it turns out my wife didn’t want to wait months.”
Kendra’s face turned red. “That bitch.”
“I was mad, especially when I learned she was sleeping with my best friend. I had known him since my first year in the Navy. He introduced me to my ex-wife. And when I look back on it now, I know there were signs that I missed. I kept thinking they were the same people as when I met them and not who they became. So, what could I do about the infidelity? What can you do if someone wants to be with someone else? I didn’t want to fight him for her. No one wins in that situation. Plus, I was pretty sure they’d been having an affair long before my accident, so maybe this was another blessing,” I said. “Cut out three types of cancer in my life.”
Kendra rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. “I can’t imagine what that was like, what you went through. Was your dad helpful?”
I sighed and reached for Kendra’s hand, resting it on my chest. “He probably believes he was being helpful.”
“How so?”
“He offered me a desk job at his company.”
Kendra smiled. “That monster!”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Hey, lady. When you’re used to being out on a boat or working on boats, the thought of a desk job inside a stuffy office was the last thing I wanted to do in the world.”
“I get that.”
“Thought you might.”
“So, you divorced, moved to Florida, and bought Pegleg Pete’s?” She clapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh, shit. Now I get?—”
I smiled at her. “It goes back to addressing that one-legged elephant in the room. Although, I’m not a fan of the fictional arsehole.”
“When you said I could ask you anything, did you mean it?”
I nodded.
“How do you have sex without the prosthetic?”
I huffed a laugh. “Well, I know what guys in the online support groups suggest, but I haven’t tried it out myself.”
Kendra sat straight up in bed, the covers falling from her generous breasts. “Then we have to remedy that right fucking now.”
Chapter 27
Captain Kendra’s Log: Brown chicken, brown cow
(Say it out loud. We’ll wait.)
“What did they say?Lay on your back and let the woman do the work?” I guessed.
“Some of them like that. Cowgirl, and they mentioned reverse cowgirl,” he answered.
“I do like how that feels, but I’d be afraid of breaking your dick,” I admitted.
