“Want me to shave it again?” He asked gazing at her.
She saw the look on Kai’s face and laughed. “Once was enough. Thank you,” she told him. “I wouldn’t have made it through that without you doing what you did.”
He put his arm around her waist and hugged her. “No problem, Sophie.”
She went to Ally and tried talking to her about where she had been and why she was so late, but Ally stonewalled her. So, she left her daughter alone, letting her know how much she loved her.
She felt like something was wrong with Ally as she walked away from her. Something she wasn’t willing to share with her right now. Josh slipped his arm around her and tugged her against his body. It felt like it did the day she told him she had cancer or thought she did at least. A little lost still. A little better. A little bit stronger for what she had gone through.
After dinner, they went home. Sophie was more than ready. She snuggled in bed in her Hello Kitty pajamas while Josh watched television by her side. The puppies at the end of the bed between hers and Josh’s feet. They were getting big. Too big to be snuggled at the top if both adults were in the bed.
“I love you, Josh.”
He was popping chips in his mouth watching a movie. He glanced at Sophie. “Love you, too, babe. This was the best Christmas.”
She glanced up at him. “Why?”
“Church. Our dad’s singing together. The entire family at Hannah and Heath’s house. Seeing them so happy and doing well. Heath got a promotion that’s one reason why they are talking about her not working any longer,” Josh explained. “I think she’s going to give her two-week notice. Sophie, I feel great about the end of the line with your treatments and you being cancer free.”
She rolled over, so she could put her head in his lap. “I think everything is coming together, Josh,” she had to agree.
Chapter 21
Sophie
The first of January they all surrounded Micki supporting her at the funeral of her mother. She had a second heart attack that was fatal.
Camden lost in the championship game New Year’s Day, but Sophie didn’t think Ally had worked out too much with Brian now that the season was over. Her daughter was still miserable and living with Sylvia.
The second week of February Sophie had her last chemotherapy treatment. In March she would have surgery to remove her entire breast. They hadn’t discussed it with anyone. It was a decision she made with Josh alone. In her mind, it was the only way that she would be sure her cancer was gone. With the partial mastectomy, she wouldn’t require radiation. After that, a follow-up appointment six weeks later then she would be done for a few months.
Madge had already given her or rather Josh, her schedule for the next year. Follow-up visits. Six month, scans and blood work that would eventually become yearly until that five-year mark when she could breathe again. After three years, the visits could become once a year but after five years, the probability of Sophie’s cancer returning was much less likely. She could hardly wait for that important anniversary.
The third week into February Micki picked up Sophie on a Saturday afternoon. The twins who were now six months old and growing too fast were with John.
The something she wanted to show Sophie was a two-story with a wraparound porch. They parked in the driveway off the side of the house.
Sophie glanced up at the slanted roof that led to the bedroom window where once, she, Micki and Kai had slipped outside and smoked cigarettes thinking they were cool. They were thirteen. That lasted about two months when the pack of smokes ran out. They never picked up cigarettes again.
“Why are we
here?” Sophie asked Micki about her childhood home.
Her eyes were bright with happiness when she glanced over her shoulder at Sophie. Micki had a secret she was keeping from her. Her pixie cut was cute with longer bangs that lifted in the gentle breeze covering her eyes. “You’ll see,” she said blowing her hair out of the way.
Sophie followed Micki up the stairs that she had taken a thousand times in her lifetime when they spent the night at this house. Snatching the ring of keys out of her back pocket, she handed them to her friend. “You open the door.”
Sophie rolled her eyes and slipped the key in above the ancient doorknob. Then she opened the door and stepped back letting her friend go inside first. Micki smile at her. “No, after you.”
She sighed at Micki. “Okay.”
Inside the house, that once was decorated with antiques and old, flower patterned furniture everything was changed. Sophie’s hand went to her mouth as she fought tears. “What have you done?”
“This is for you,” Micki explained.
She took her hand and led her into what Micki’s mom once called the parlor. Sophie shook her head. Lining the walls were some works of the local artists in town including some works that Sophie had been doing for the last few months. In the middle of the room was a large, round table with blown glass from Cooper Glassworks.
Sophie lifted one of the beautiful little faded blue jars in her hand and gazed at it. She opened it and whispered in the jar, “This is everything I never dreamed of and everything I always wanted.”