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“We can get another picnic basket, Amy. I was a bit more concerned about you and the babies at the time.”
“No, I know. It’s just…Adriano, the basket had your test results inside.”
“Well, I’m sure we can get another copy—”
She waved a hand at him to shut him. “Listen to me. Adriano, you’re cured.”
It felt like his head had floated up off his shoulders. “What?”
“You’recured,” Amy repeated. “The last test proves it! The treatment worked, Adriano. All the markers for Barks-Howard’s in your blood have disappeared!”
“So…what does that mean?” He thought he knew what she was saying, but it almost hurt too much to believe it. He couldn’tallowhimself to believe it. He wanted it so much that it frightened him.
“It’s the reason I asked you to come out and meet me today,” she said. “You’re cured. You don’t have Barks-Howard’s anymore.”
“So I—I won’t die?”
Amy laughed in a way that seemed a little giddy, and Adriano realized just how happy she was to be delivering this news. In that moment, it really struck him that she wasn’t behaving like his doctor. That professional boundary had disappeared a long time ago. She was the mother of his children. And more than that, even, she was probably the closest friend he had. He couldn’t imagine anyone else in the world sitting across from him, holding on to his arm, nearly in tears because of the news that he was going to live.
“You’re not going to die of this,” she said, a warm smile spreading over her face and the first of the tears slipping free.
“Does that mean you’re still willing to do this with me? Raise these babies with me?”
She met his gaze, her green eyes earnest. “Adriano, I never needed something like this to happen to make me willing to raise our children together. I’m thrilled that you’re going to live because Icareabout you, and because it means you’re going to be around for their lives. That’s the best news I could have gotten today. But if the treatment hadn’t cured you, I would still have wanted you to be a part of this.”
“I would still have wanted that too,” he said. “I’m so sorry I let myself forget that fact.”
“We can’t let anything like that happen again,” Amy said. “We have to remember what’s important.”
“Those four little babies,” he said.
“That’s right.”
“And—” He took a deep breath. “And each other.”
“Each other?”
“I love you, Amy. I’ve loved you for a long time. I don’t want to co-parent these babies from different countries. I want to do it together.”
He waited with bated breath to see what she would say.
“Do you mean it?” she breathed.
“More than I’ve ever meant anything. If you’ll have me—”
“Of course I will. How can you possibly doubt the way I feel about you?”
“I don’t know if I would want me, if I were you,” he admitted.
“That’s because you don’t always know what’s best for you.” She pulled on his arm. “Come closer to me.”
He eased himself down onto the bed beside her carefully and pulled her into his arms, and she leaned up to kiss him.
Adriano sank into the kiss naturally. It felt as if he had known this was coming for a very long time. The hospital seemed to disappear, and for a moment, it was just the two of them together, lips and hands and the scent of her that was so familiar even after all this time apart.
“I love you too,” she whispered when they broke the kiss.
“Will you stay with me?”
