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“Oh, you’re a liar,” he said with a chuckle.
“I am not, Daddy.”
Bree twisted in her seat to look at her daughter. “What’s his name?”
Opal pouted, her eyebrows drawn down. “It’s very new, and I wasn’t going to say anything.”
“Miles,” Mike said without looking at any of them. “His name is Miles, and he’s a doctor on her floor.”
“Mich-ael.” Opal looked like she might hit her brother but pulled back at the very last moment. “He’s not a doctor on my floor. We don’t have floors. We work in the ER.”
Mike said nothing, and that did not sit well with Wes. His concern for his son seemed never-ending these days, and he let Bree handle the news that Opal was dating again. Everyone knew it had been years, so this was big news.
His youngest dating.
His middle child about to be a father.
His oldest undergoing a life-changing surgery.
Wes had never been able to say his life was dull, that was for sure, even as old as he was. He didn’t say a whole lot on the rest of the drive, letting Bree, Easton, and Opal fill the silence with their voices.
At the hospital, all five of them went in, and Mike checked himself in for the surgery. Wes had spent some time in the hospital over the years, and nothing ever happened quickly. But they came for his son too soon.
He wasn’t ready to let him go. What if this surgery wasn’t the answer?
He stuffed down his doubt and called on his faith. He grabbed Mike in a hug and whispered, “I love you, son.”
That was all. He couldn’t make promises that might not come true, and he simply wanted his son to know that he was lovable no matter what. Whether this surgery helped or it didn’t. Whether he never got better or he was miraculously healed.
Easton and Opal hugged Mike, and then Bree clutched him tightly for a long, long moment. Finally, Mike said, “Momma, they’re going to give my spot to someone else if you don’t let me go.”
The boy had never been much trouble in his life, even as a teenager. Wes had shipped him down to Gray’s farm summer after summer, and Mike simply went. Even when he wasn’t overly enthused about going, he went.
Gertrude Whettstein had been a big part of that, and Wes could admit that they sure did look good together now that they were older. He and Bree had held countless conversations about their oldest son and how he was easily overshadowed by Easton’s shininess and Opal’s strong personality.
Mike could be strong if he had to be. He did amazing things no one knew about, so he could shine too. He simply felt like he didn’t always have to voice his opinion, and as long as he knew who he was and what he’d done, he was fine staying out of the spotlight.
He would’ve never made an announcement last night like Easton had, and he’d told Wes and Bree the very evening he’d returned from the fields with Gerty that he liked her and wanted to start dating her again.
Mike followed the two nurses who’d come to get him, and Wes reached for his wife’s hand. She’d been crying a lot lately, and Wes sent up another silent prayer that this surgery would be the solution they’d been searching for and praying for.
The door closed behind them, and that was it. For a moment, Wes felt like weeping too. He didn’t know any of these doctors. They’d only seen the shoulder specialist one time before scheduling this surgery.
You felt good about it then, he told himself.Nothing’s changed.
“Let’s go to lunch,” he said, because he didn’t want to stand there staring at an empty hallway, fighting off demons when he should be relying on his faith. He’d had to do that so many times in his life, and it had never ended badly for him.
He turned away from the hallway and put his free arm around Opal’s shoulders. “Why’d you not want to tell us about Miles, honey?”
She sighed as the four of them headed for the exit. “He’s got kids, Daddy, okay? I haven’t met them yet. I told you, it’s new. But he’s got kids, and I wasn’t sure how y’all would react to that.”
Wes wasn’t quite sure how to react to that. Bree asked, “How old are they?”
“Six and three,” Opal said, and she sounded absolutely miserable. “I don’t think you’ll like him.”
“Why wouldn’t we like him?” Bree and Wes asked together.
“He’s a decade older than me,” Opal said. “He’s finishing up his residency, because he got a late start on medical school. He’s been in a drug rehab facility, and it was there that he decided to turn his life around and become a doctor.”
