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“Talia—”
“Have you ever seen someone vomit after chemotherapy, Tony? Ever seen the mouth sores or the radiation burns? Ever seen hair fall out in clumps?” Here she paused for another of those nasty laughs. “Although, to be fair, I don’t really have enough hair for it to fall out in clumps, but still—”
“What do you want me to say? No, I’ve never seen any of that, but I will. If that’s what we have to go through to build our life together, then, yeah—”
“Well, let’s talk about that for a minute.” She marched up to get in his face, her features wild and contorted. “Let’s say I do get through another round of treatment and we do get married.”
“Hallelujah.”
“What if the treatments make me infertile? What if I already am infertile? Did you ever think of that? How’re you going to get the babies you seem to want with a wife who can’t produce them?”
She didn’t really think that was a dilemma, did she?
The ridiculousness of the question made him snort. “If it’s a choice between life with you, however it goes, or life with some brood mare, then I’ll take you. What else have you got to throw at me?”
She checked herself in surprise. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you can’t seem to get rid of me fast enough. You were so worried about me walking out, but you don’t get a free pass. I don’t walk out on you, and you don’t walk out on me. Period. That’s the deal. So you’d better dial back that fear.”
Her brows snapped together with outrage or bravado—he couldn’t tell which—and she puffed up, reminding him of some creature on Animal Planet executing its most effective defensive maneuver.
“Don’t you dare.”
Calm washed over him, as though God had touched a finger to his head, and he knew, absolutely and irrevocably, that nothing would prevent him from being with this woman until the day one of them died.
He’d been afraid before, and he was afraid now.
But he would work through his fear. He had to.
“You’re the coward here, not me,” he said quietly. “You’re the hypocrite here, not me.”
These truths were too much for her. Tears that had been welling for the last several minutes began to fall, wetting her cheeks as she began to sob.
“I want you to leave! Get out of here! Leave me alone!”
Shaking his head, he stretched out on the couch, covered himself with the throw and stared her in the face. “I love you. I’m not going anywhere. Ever.”
“We’re a little early, I think,” Gloria said on Monday morning, keeping her firm grip on Talia’s elbow as she steered them off the elevator at the medical arts building and down the long hallway to the oncologist’s office. “I told you we had time to stop for coffee.”
Though she was so numb that just walking was like trying to run a marathon while under the effects of a sleeping pill, Talia tried to smile. Tried to engage. “You don’t need any more coffee. Your bladder’s going to explode.”
“Eh. You may be right.”
Take a step, Talia. Another step. And another.
“We’ll get through this, Tally.”
“I know. I’m glad you’re here. Thanks for—”
Gloria stopped cold. “If you thank me for coming with you, Talia Adams, I swear to God I’ll kill you myself.”
Uh-oh. Nothing like a death threat to make you change course.
“—finally telling me what happened with you and Cooper Davies when he took you home after the party. And don’t deny it. I know you. You’ve been acting funny.”
Predictably, Gloria clammed up, making a show of turning away and staring out the windows as they continued walking. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said flatly.
“I’ll get it out of you eventually.”
A man stepped around the corner, blocking them.
Oh, God. It was Tony.
She hadn’t seen him since Saturday night. In one of her lowest moments, ever, she had walked out on him. Just grabbed her purse, leashed the dog and taken them both with her as she fled to Gloria’s apartment, where she stayed, ignoring his frequent calls and texts the entire weekend.
