“Need help?” Greaser asked. “Never mind, why don’t you give us her address and key and we’ll move it for you.” He didn’t wait for a response, he held out his hand for the key, and Lincoln passed them over, along with the slip of paper with her address.
“You’re not going to like what you see.” Lincoln sighed and rubbed his face. “She lives in this one room studio. Hell, the whole thing is smaller than the bedroom we shared at the house. I stopped there on my way here to get her a couple changes of clothes. I have my own bag packed and in her truck. Could you take my truck to my house?” He passed his truck keys to his best friend. “You know the code. I’ll have to talk to you later about the business.”
“Not your problem now. We can continue as we have been. You’ve got more important things to worry about. I wish you luck and if you need anything call. And you can bet your ass I’llbe stopping by at least once a week after she’s home. I would say once a day, but I know you’re going to have to get into a routine. Once a week will be fine for now.”
“Will you call one of us to give us the results of the biopsy?” Jackson asked. “We can relay the information to everyone.”
“Since you’re my lawyer, I’ll call you.”
“Fair enough. Good luck, my friend,” Jackson said and stood beside Abe and held out his hand. When they shook, he got a man hug and a slap on the back. Every woman hugged him and kissed his cheek, while every man gave him the same type of hug Jackson had. Burt was the last one left in the room.
“You might want these.” He held out his hand and Abe saw Addison’s wedding rings in them.
“I thought she threw them away. But thank you.”
“Naw, she only threw them at you that night, but you were so drunk you didn’t realize it. I’ve had them locked in the safe with her vest since that night. Now’s the time for you to have them back.”
Abe took them and studied them. Then slipped them on his little finger on his left hand, right next to his own wedding ring that he had found in the drawer at his house when he stopped for some clothes. Maybe if he’d worn his ring, he wouldn’t be having the problems he did. “Hell, she’s lost so much weight I don’t think they’ll fit her anymore. But thank you, Burt.”
Burt gave him a hug and held him a little longer than everyone else, then he slapped him on the back and gave him a nudge. “Go be with Addy.”
A little over an hour later, Lincoln crawled into the extra wide hospital bed behind his wife and wrapped his arms around her. She only rolled over and snuggled up to him. He felt like he’d come home from a long, hard ride. “You’re here,” she whispered.
“I am, I will always be here for you,” he said, and without any words, slipped her wedding rings back on her finger, closedher hand and his over hers. Making sure she saw that he had his wedding band on. “Sh,” he said, and kissed the top of her head. It wasn’t long before they were both asleep. Early the next morning they were woken by a nurse and it seemed like things went fast after that. Lincoln felt like he was going to spin out of control when Addison was taken away for her surgery and he was directed to a waiting room. After only being there for five minutes he began to pace. He didn’t hear the door open, and turned and saw his brothers and sisters from the club standing there. Greaser walked up to him and handed him a coffee. “Deal with it,” he said, and went and sat down across the room.
Three hours later the door opened and Dr. Knight walked in. He looked around and when he spotted Lincoln in the corner he approached him. “Mr. Murphy?”
Lincoln jumped to his feet and looked at the doctor, and everyone crowded around them. “Mrs. Murphy’s in recovery. We’ve taken a biopsy of each mass on each breast. Everything went well, unfortunately at this time, it’s going to be a waiting game, until we get the results from the lab. But there is one thing that I don’t like.” He looked around at everyone and remained silent.
“They’re with me. You can say anything in front of them. If you don’t, I’ll just turn around and tell them. They’re Addison’s and my family.”
“Okay. But if we have to start chemotherapy, I’d like to do it as soon as possible. However, Mrs. Murphy has to be a certain weight before we can begin. Right now she’s five pounds under. She’s going to have to gain at least seven to ten pounds to be eligible for chemotherapy. Fifteen would be ideal, but I know that’s impossible, so until she gains seven pounds, we can’t do anything.”
“And she needs the chemo to get better faster?” Lincoln asked.
“Yes, but I have to warn you now. She’ll be sick for a long time, throwing up, weak, if not throwing up, then feeling like she wants to. Shaky, I can go over more when we get the results. You can go see her in half an hour, she should be back in her room by then.”
“How is she?”
“Sore. And she will be for a while. I had to take more than I anticipated. So she’s going to be extra sore.”
“She’s always had trouble with mammograms, Doctor. I mean after having one she’d be so bruised and sore that she couldn’t even wear a bra. Not to get personal, but during sex she never had a problem, it was only the mammograms.”
“A lot of people have that problem, but I’ll talk with Dr. King to see if he noted it in her chart.”
“Thank you,” Lincoln said, and watched the doctor. leave. He turned to his friends and frowned when they were all huddled on the other side of the room.
“Abe,” Mary spoke for the group. “Do you know what Addy’s favorite foods are? We’re going to make meals and take them to your house and bring them here to the hospital. There’s no possible way she can gain weight eating hospital food. We just need a list of what she likes and doesn’t and if she has any food allergies.”
Greaser looked at Lincoln and they both burst out laughing. “That’s easy,” Greaser said. He saw the outraged and confused looks on their faces, so he explained, “When I was going through my divorce, I practically lived at Abe and Ad’s house. One day I was really depressed, we were getting ready to watch a game and I wasn’t into it. She patted me on the knee and said she was going to make comfort foods for me. Said it got her through bad times. I didn’t think much of it, you know, thinking mac and cheese or pot pie, but not our Ad, oh no.” He laughed.
“Addison is a junk food junky.” Lincoln laughed along with Greaser. “I mean fatty junk food. Wings, nachos, pizza, mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers, those fried vegetables, onion rings, French fries, those types of fatty junk food. At one time we hadn’t bought groceries for the week so I told her to order take out and have it delivered. She ordered from our favorite place, but she ordered every appetizer on the menu, nothing else. Mozzarella sticks, wings, fingers, pizza rolls, onion rings. Anything fried that was bad for her she ate and loved it.”
“That’ll work while she’s in the hospital for the next couple of days, and at home, but once the chemo starts, if it does, she’s going to need different foods. You’ll have to talk with the doctor or nurses to see if she’ll have any restrictions. Does she have any food allergies?”
“No. She likes all food. But for meals, she’d cook well balanced ones, meat, potato and veggies and a salad with it. Like steak, baked potato, corn, salad, and bread. Pork chops, mashed potatoes, green beans, and salad. Spaghetti, meatballs, bread, and salad. Hell, I don’t think I’ve had a salad since she left.”
“So, no allergies?”
