Unbreakable (Unrestrained 4)

“Find anything interesting?” I said, drying my hands on a paper towel after rolling out pastry for a curry pie I was making. Drake had been putting off going through Liam’s personal possessions for weeks, as if it was too painful to consider, but now he was down to the last box.

He exhaled loudly. “A lot of old designs he was working on before the company took off. I didn’t realize he was such an inventor. He was always trying to improve surgical implements. He had these old notebooks, and wrote about what parts of a surgical procedure could be automated and what required a surgeon’s judgment. It obsessed him. I had no idea…”

I glanced over his shoulder at the intricate drawings. “He was really skilled.”

Drake nodded. “I wish I’d known him better. He was so busy; I was so busy. We hardly saw each other except once or twice a year at Christmas or in the summer.”

“You didn’t talk on the phone?”

“He wasn’t big on talking. He tended to want to do things – tinker with his car, fiddle with his designs. He was pretty closed.”

I sat down on the side of the chair beside him. “I wish I’d known him.”

He smiled. “He would have been very chivalrous and charming at first but he would have closed up eventually. He was too self-contained.” Drake said nothing for a moment, staring off into the distance as if remembering. “Don’t let me ever get like that. If I ever seem distant, unconnected, or closed off, tell me, okay?”

He turned to me, his blue eyes dark under a frown.

“Of course,” I said.

“Seriously, Kate. I don’t want to fuck up again. Don’t ever hesitate to tell me if I do something to upset you.”

I nodded, and put my arm around him, leaning my head against his shoulder.

“It’s sad you didn’t get a chance to visit his grave in Africa when we were there. I feel bad about pulling you away before your term was up and before you had the chance to go to Ethiopia like you wanted.”

He closed the box. “We’ll go one of these years. Maybe when you’re finished with your thesis.”

“Whenever you want.”

He leaned over and kissed me. Then, he pulled me into his arms and we sat nestled together and listened to the Beatles, a mix of their hits from the 60s. One of my favorite songs came on – one that had so

much meaning to me. “And I Love Her”.

“This is my favorite.”

“I know,” he said and squeezed me.

“I want to come and listen to Mersey some night when you’re playing it.”

“We’re playing new material now, but I’ll see what I can do.”

I smiled. That was a huge thing for Drake – letting me in to his life so completely that I had an open invitation to go to hear them play. I hadn’t gone yet, wanting to leave it as his “time with the guys” thing, but I had gone with him for Sunday dinner.

Now, with Thanksgiving fast approaching, I was already wondering what I could get Drake for Christmas. He had everything he could want. He lacked nothing – nothing except his father.

It was then, as we sat in the living room sorting through Liam’s things, that I decided I’d buy us plane tickets to Ethiopia, hire a guide to take us to the Bale Mountains where Liam’s plane crashed and then the Harenna Forest where Liam’s ashes had been buried. It wasn’t too far from there to Kenya, and the Loisaba Lodge north of Nairobi. We could stay in the lodge for a week and sleep under the stars.

Drake had talked about a trip to a warm climate in February and was going to arrange his schedule so that we could go for two weeks. I wasn’t taking any classes and was focused on writing my thesis and doing research, so I could take time off with no problem.

So I had one gift out of the way. We promised to only buy two gifts for each other. It wasn’t that we couldn’t afford to buy more but I wanted the gifts to be personal and special – not just spending money for its own sake. Now, I had to figure out what else to get the man who had everything. Not quite as easy a task as I first thought.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Drake

Out of the blue, late in the afternoon while I was at the hospital, a colleague I hadn’t spoken with for at least several months called me, his name showing up on my cell. I was sitting in my office, poring over patient files and pulled out my cell from my pocket, thinking it might be Kate but it was Jim Kerrigan, an oncologist who helped with Liam’s treatment earlier in the year.

“Drake, I thought I’d let you know that Maureen and Liam are back in town for a follow-up and because Liam is having a few issues with his liver enzymes. I know she’s pretty sticky about you becoming involved, but I thought you should know just in case she hasn’t told you. It’s his nine-month check and they have him in the children’s ward to treat the liver issues.”