Page 96 of Hard Corps (Selected Sinners MC 7)

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Summer 2015, Wichita, KS, USA

As he walked into the room, the first thing I noticed was how he wouldn’t make eye contact with any of us. With his head hung low, he continued to walk in our direction.

“Come on.” I said as I stood.

We met in the center of the room, and he raised his head slowly. “Well, he’s one of the most stubborn men I’ve ever seen.”

“Alive and stubborn?” I asked.

“Yes, he’s alive,” he said. “I guess telling you now causes no harm, but we lost him twice.”

Alicia gasped. “Oh no.”

“It’s irrelevant now,” he said as he raised his hands in front of his chest.

He poked himself in the lower portion of his chest with the tip of his finger. “The portion we worked on was here.”

“It ended up being a much larger part than I had anticipated. The procedure took six hours,” he said.

“He’s in recovery now, and I suspect you’ll be able to see him in an hour or so,” he said. “I’ll let you know as soon as we have him in a room.”

“Thank you,” I said.

The six hours had passed like minutes. Sitting with my sister talking about our childhood, my new life, her new job, and Shane’s son went rather well, and I enjoyed it immensely. As the doctor left the room we turned toward the couch we had been seated on.

“Have you ever eaten Pho?” I asked Katie.

“What?” she asked.

The food was my sister’s favorite, at least the best I could remember. She and her friends would drive repeatedly to a Vietnamese soup kitchen when they were 16 years old and devour the soup, and she would come home without enough appetite to eat dinner. I refused to even try the stuff as a kid, and although many years had passed, I still had yet to try it.

“It’s a noodle soup,” I said.

“I love noodle soup,” she responded.

“You eat it now?” Alicia asked.

“Never tried the stuff. You still like it?” I asked.

“Love it,” she said.

“Well, Erik Ead brags on the shit like it’s gold. Let’s go grab a bowl before they get him to a room, I’m hungry,” I said.

“Who’s Erik Ead?” she asked.

“A good friend,” I responded. “So, do you want to?”

“I’d love to,” Alicia responded.

I raised my arms and wrapped them around the two women’s shoulders who I cared dearly for.

One bound to me by blood, and both by love.

As we walked to the door, I realized Alicia reminded me of my mother. By the time we reached Alicia’s car, I admitted I resembled my father in many ways, one of which was described accurately by his doctor.

I was stubborn.