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“Oh?” Palmer’s voice cracked, despite her attempt to remain calm. She knew the trips were too good to be true. Tears pricked her eyes, and she had no choice but to look away.
“Hey, no.” Kent reached for her hands. “I’m sorry, but what I have to say is good. I promise. We’re going on this trip. We’re just doing it differently.”
“We are?” She tried to keep her voice level.
“Of course. Yesterday, instead of asking for the time off, I asked for a sabbatical instead. My deputy chief told me he’ll approve it as soon as my captain signs off. So, it looks like I’m going to be off and we’re going to travel, with no time constraints.”
The words soaked in as Palmer sat there, stunned. “Uh . . . what about my doctor’s appointments?”
“Yeah . . . that’s the only thing I haven’t worked out. I can administer your meds, track your symptoms, and we can do telehealth with Dr. Hughes. If things get bad, we can stop at the hospital. Of course, if Dr. Hughes approves.”
“She won’t,” Palmer said. “She wants me to have chemo or radiation, and she’s vehemently against forgoing any treatment.”
“Well . . .” Kent paused and looked at Palmer. “We could go and not tell her.”
“Okay.” Palmer shocked herself by her quick answer.
“Can I ask? Since you quit your job, what are you doing for health insurance?”
Palmer stood and went into her bedroom. When she came back, she placed a pile of papers in front of Kent and sat down. “I bought a six-month plan. I suppose if I make it past the six months, I’ll wing it.” She shrugged. “I also added you as the person who can make decisions for me if I’m incapacitated.”
“And what is the decision?”
“DNR. I’m terminal. If it’s my time, I want to go.”
Kent swallowed hard. “This brings me to my next question. On the list you wrote, it says, ‘Find my family.’ Now, I know you grew up in the system, so what does this mean exactly?”
Palmer stood and walked over to her desk and brought the envelope back to where they were sitting. “I’ve taken a DNA test, and these are the results.” The paper-thin shell felt as though it weighed a hundred pounds, sitting there on her lap.
“And you haven’t opened them?”
She shook her head and looked at him. “Months ago, I was eager to know the results, and now . . . well, now, what’s the point? Either I go on living the rest of my days the way I have, or I open it to find that I have a slew of family out there that I’ll never know because it took me far too long to take this test.”
Kent rested his hand on Palmer’s knee. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“Because I’m dying?”
“Not only that, but because of the way you grew up. It doesn’t seem fair, not to you. Not to anyone. There’s someone out there who belongs to you, and I’m sure they’re missing you just as much as you miss them.”
“I doubt it.” She set the envelope onto the table. If they missed her, they would’ve looked for her or not left her at the orphanage to begin with.
Kent nodded and cleared his throat. “All right, let’s shift to something happy.” He pulled the stack of books in front of him. “We need to figure out our plan. Do we start here? Do we fly east and start there? We have options. What’s your flavor?” He spread the books across the table, opened the atlas, and took out the highlighters he’d bought.
“Everything I marked with a red dot are the things on our list.”
“Our list?”
“Yes.” His eyes met hers. “You told me to add to the list, so I did.”
Palmer smiled. “Okay.” She leaned forward and studied the map of the United States.
“Flying east means we have to rent a car.”
“Money isn’t an issue,” she told Kent. “I told you I’d pay for everything.”
“And I told you no. We’ll split or figure something out. This is our trip. We make all the decisions together.”
Palmer nodded and ducked her head. She tried to hide her smile, but Kent saw it. “So, Ms. Sinclair, are we flying east?”
She nodded. “I think we should rent a convertible. I’ve never been in one, and I’ve always wanted to feel the wind in my hair.”
“Yes.” Kent fist pumped. “I’ve always wanted to drive one. Look at us, working together.” Kent wrote on his notepad. “On your list, you said you want to watch the sunrise in Cape Cod, and it just so happens that I want to see Plymouth Rock, and they’re close to each other.” He flipped to Massachusetts, which shared pages with Connecticut and Rhode Island in the atlas. He showed Palmer where Plymouth and Chatham were and estimated the travel time to be a little over an hour without traffic.
