That hurt…even though I deserved it.
“Yeah, I’ll see you in the morning.” My arms wrapped around her little waist, and I pulled her into me for a deep embrace, holding her for a while before I had to let her go. My lips planted a kiss in her hairline before my arms slid away.
“Dex?” She tilted her chin up and looked at me.
I met her gaze.
“I got tested yesterday. Should have the results soon.”
I kept a straight face and appeared indifferent, even though my entire body turned hot, all the muscles in my body tightened, and there was a distinct flush that seared my entire neck. I didn’t have any idea what to say to that, so I just gave a nod.
“It’s not that I haven’t wanted to. I just…needed some time—”
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me. I’ve been really happy just being together, waking up with you next to me. So, whenever it happens, you know I’m game. And if it doesn’t happen for a while, that’s cool too.”
She grabbed me by the front of the shirt and pulled me in for a gentle kiss. “I love you.” It was the first time she’d said that to me on her own, just spontaneously, without tears in her eyes like she’d when first told me how she felt.
My arm circled her waist again, and I tugged her back into me, unsure how I could walk away now, when she looked at me like that, when she said those words to me in a whisper. “I love you too.”
Sixteen
Sicily
My life was like a dream.
And like a dream, I was going to wake up at some point.
But it continued on and on, each day better than the last, Dex treating me like I was the best thing that had ever happened to him, that his big heart was full of a single person. I didn’t have to share space with Catherine.
I knew that the moment I saw the broken picture in his garbage.
I never told him about it because I wasn’t meant to see it in the first place.
But there was still a low wall around my heart, a slight resistance, a slight fear…like this could all end tomorrow.
I sat in the armchair in the corner and took his notes on the laptop, watching him interact with his new patient, a three-year-old boy who had a hole in his heart. The dysfunction was actually more common than I realized, and most of the patients who came in were kids like him.
Dex sat on the couch beside him, his stethoscope in his ears, the metal tip pressed against the boy’s t-shirt. He gave the boy a smile as he listened to his heart pump the blood, when it was flooding between two different sections of the atrium. He leaned back and returned the stethoscope to around his neck. “It’s just a little hole. About this big.” He made a circle with his fingers. “All I have to do is close it up, and you’ll be good as new.” Dex grabbed his shoulder and gave him an affectionate squeeze.
He seemed to be too young to really understand, but he mimicked Dex’s movements and made a circle himself. “Like that?”
“Yep.” He took the boy’s hand in his and put his fingers into a fist. “And then it’s gonna look like this. No hole.”
The boy looked at his closed fists.
“You like to ride bikes?”
He nodded.
“You’re gonna be riding your bike longer and farther than you did before. You’re gonna feel so much better. I do this all the time, taking care of brave little boys and girls, and every single one of them is very happy.”
He nodded again, staring at Dex’s face like he was a little shy.
Dex gave him a gentle pat on the back and looked at his mother. “You’ve got a handsome boy here.”
The parents loved Dex even more than the kids did. “I know. And he’s so sweet too.” She ran her fingers through his hair.
“I’ll get it on the schedule,” Dex said. “Then you’ve gotta take him to Disney World to celebrate.”
His eyes widened, and he looked at his mom. “Can we? Can we?”
“Whoops,” Dex said with a chuckle. “Sorry…”
She smiled and kissed the little boy’s forehead. “Absolutely. It’s a great idea.” They said their goodbyes before they departed.
Dex waved before moving back to his spot on the other couch. He grabbed his tablet and quickly pulled up something he needed. It was getting warmer with every passing week, the humidity starting to arrive, so Dex stuck with jeans and a tee every day.
I moved to the couch across from him. “That boy was so cute.”
“I know, right?” He grinned as he looked at his tablet.
“You’re gonna be a great father.” The words were out of my mouth without further thought, just jumping into the universe and having a distinct echo. “I don’t mean, like, we’re gonna have kids or anything—”