I shrug.“Like every year,” I say.I don’t understand why it seems strange to him.
“And you want me there.Cheering for you?”
“Well, I hope so.Unless you’d rather cheer for the other team.I know work might keep you away, but whenever you can make it, if you want to…”
“I will turn the whole hospital inside out to miss as few games as possible.”
I smile.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t start.I have no idea what I’m doing, okay?”
Martin stands, walks around the table, gently touches my face, and looks at me with those wonderful eyes.
“I want you to know I’m serious.This isn’t a game to me.You’re not just a rule.There are no more rules.I let them go the day you came into my life, Martin Kane, even if I tried to tell myself otherwise.”
“I know.”
I stand too and gently take hold of his shirt, pulling him closer.
“You deserve to hear it from my voice and not draw your own conclusions.”
He rests his forehead against mine.
“And you deserve to know that I had never made love to a man before you.”
I see him shudder.
“And I’m sure you’ve figured that out,” I say, trying to make light of it because it makes me uncomfortable.
“Me?I don’t know what you’re talking about…”
“You can’t lie, Martin.”
He bites his lower lip.
“I never did it because I didn’t want anyone in my life or to feel tied down.Then you came along, my magic-handed, soft-hearted Doctor.I started wanting it, wanting you more than anything before.It was devastating.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You have turned my whole world upside down.”
“I didn’t want to create all this.”
“You broke down all my certainties, took me apart piece by piece.And you set me free.”
Now Martin is crying.I hold his face in my hands, my thumbs shaking as I wipe away his tears.
“You saved me, and you’re still saving me.”
He shakes his head and tries to pull away, but I hold him close.
“You really know how to work miracles, Dr Martin.”
“This is bullshit.”
“You are the smartest doctor around, and you are the best man I know.”
