First Real Kiss

Epilogue

Luke

I paced the waiting area outside the operating room. I’d never been on this side of the door. Not since Lance, and even then, I’d been a kid and not a doctor. This was nerve-wracking. How long had they said this surgery was going to take?

And did I really trust Dr. Chortle with my fiancée under her knife? Ugh. No, I couldn’t think that way. I had to be positive, confident, and have hope like Sheridan insisted.

As it turned out, Sheridan had needed that second opinion on her reproductive health after all. And the result hadn’t all been the roses and simple misunderstandings that her parents and I had hoped for.

Instead, it was somewhere in the middle: severe endometriosis, which created an environment impossible for carrying a pregnancy, but which could be treated. Not without pain or cost, but with a series of simple procedures.

Dr. Christine Chortall turned out to be as good as her word, and she took Sheridan on as her personal pro bono case. DadJoke offered to do x-rays and perform any remaining reconstructive osteopathic surgery on her hip bones, but Sheridan had deemed it unnecessary, so he offered to cover the peripheral costs of her care.

Good for him.

“Hey, Luke.” Carlton Cook walked up, and I stopped pacing to chat with him. “You all right? I heard Sheridan was going into surgery today. I brought you something.” He handed me a pill bottle.

“Melatonin?”

“You’ve had a long day.”

True, I’d already performed three surgeries on my own patients. Sheridan’s had been scheduled late in the day so I could be with her, and then they hadn’t let me into the theater. Not that I could blame them. I was a mass of nervous energy.

“Get some rest. It’s going to be a few hours.” He patted my shoulder. “They’ll want to watch her in recovery for a while and let her sleep. Christine arranged for her to have a longer recovery time than others. I heard she’s treating Sheridan like a VIP, like she’d donated a million dollars to the OB-GYN department.”

Before he’d had time to advise me otherwise, I popped the gummy melatonin in my mouth. “This had better not make me too sleepy to drive her home.” I chewed and swallowed it. “Thanks, Carlton. For everything.”

Carlton looked ready to say something else and then seemed to change his mind. “Thanks for inviting Giselle to be the flower girl at your wedding next month. That’s going to be nice in Sheridan’s parents’ back yard. She and I went and checked it out so Giselle could get familiar with it before the big day.”

We talked a little bit longer about Gigi being excited about her dress and her offering to make some more keychains before he let me know he had another appointment.

“See you soon.” Carlton left, and I sat down on one of the uncomfortable vinyl chairs with the sharp metal armrests.

“Thanks,” I called after him.

I started feeling out of it. I’m not sure if it was the melatonin or the thought of our upcoming wedding. The simple idea of being husband and wife with Sheridan at last always brought me this incredible wave of peace and contentment. And now, it was next month, but next month was coming quickly.

Then, I slipped into a dream.

“Hey, there, handsome.” Sheridan’s auburn hair was splayed out across the white satin pillowcase, a red and gold halo. Gorgeous. She reached out and ran a hand across my cheek.

At her caress, my eyes closed, and a rush of love filled every vein and capillary. I leaned toward her, opening my eyes to gaze on her beauty. I reached out and touched her shoulder, her skin soft, silky. “I don’t have to be at work for an hour.”

“Good.” She gave me a kiss of invitation, a kiss that woke me up—

Oh, dang. It had literally awakened me. Blast it, this always happened. Waiting was not my forte. But there were only a few weeks left, and for Sheridan, any sacrifice was worth it.

“Luke?” Dr. Chortall came through the swinging doors from the operating room hallway. “She’s ready to see you now. She’s asking for you.”

I jumped to my feet, rubbed my eyes, and followed Christine back to the recovery room. There, Sheridan’s auburn hair was spread out over the sterile surgery pillow, but it was just as beautiful as in my dream.

“I already got you a wedding present.” She gave me a sleepy grin.

“Oh, yeah?”

“A puppy!” She sounded a little drunk, but happy. “Can we name him Jasper?”

“Sure.” I moved her hair off her forehead. “I’m so in love with you, Sheridan.”