I rolled my eyes and held out my hand as the nurse approached. "That's me."
"Alright." She shook my hand and took one long glance at Tex, her face paling by the second. The guy sweated intimidation. While I at least tried to appear normal, Tex didn't. Mainly because he didn't give a shit. I had to respect that about him, even if half the time I wanted to strangle him.
"So…" She looked away from him, swallowing hard. "…it looks like you've got a bone-marrow harvest today."
"Yes."
"Great." She nodded toward the door. "If you and your partner will just follow me…"
Tex choked while I barked out a laugh.
"No." Tex held up his hands and managed a smile. "We're…" He shared a look with me. "…we're family…" His eyes were serious. "…basically brothers."
"Oh." She shrugged. "Sorry. I just assumed."
"No problem," I said quickly then under my breath to Tex murmured, "I think that makes me the bitch in this scenario."
He laughed loudly. "How do you figure?"
"You're taller." I nodded. "I dress better."
"You do have a nice shoe collection."
"Was that a compliment?" I didn't hide the surprise from my voice.
He shrugged. "Maybe. Look, I know this isn't easy for you… I may hate you most the time, I have trouble forgiving and forgetting, but what you're doing for Andi…" We stopped at one of the surgery prep rooms. "…it's commendable."
"It's not like you didn't do the same." I shrugged.
"Ha," Tex shook his head. "We all did it the normal way — five days' worth of injections, basically no side effects. You're getting bone marrow pulled from your freaking hipbone. Yeah, good luck with that. I may love inflicting pain, but needles in my bone? No thanks."
"Wow, great pep talk, Tex." I pulled off my shirt.
He smirked. "Alright, this is where I leave you. Try not to die."
"And again with the encouraging words."
"Hey, I'm Italian." He nodded. "I'll bring you wine later, we cool?"
I burst out laughing. "Yeah, if you bring wine."
"Chase can cook some pasta."
"Tell him to bake some bread while he's at it."
"Anything else you want me to tell my bitch?" he joked.
"Hey, I thought I was your bitch!"
A nurse walked by. Her steps faltered before she raced past our door.
Tex kept laughing. "You can both be my bitches."
"Now you're talking."
Tex sobered. "Be careful, alright?"
"I'll do my best to lie very still."
"Wouldn't want that knife to slip."
I rolled my eyes. "Leave already before you talk me out of it, and make sure the girls distract Andi long enough for me to wake up and at least be able to carry on a decent conversation."
"When have your conversations ever been decent?"
"Maybe not with you…"
"Valid point." He knocked his hand against the door and waved. "See ya on the other side."
"Yeah." I swallowed as he closed the door, leaving me in silence. The last time I'd been in this hospital had been when my mom had died and then again when Andi was in here. I'd vowed to never come back again.
I'd vowed never to even have surgery.
I'd even told both Ax and Nixon that if I got a bullet wound to take me anywhere but there.
Because in my mind, this hospital was where people went to die.
And yet, there I was, facing a fear, doing something I swore I would never do. Hell, I would have rather died.
So yeah. It was love.
Because it couldn't be anything else.
Nothing else would have brought me back to this place.
Nothing else would be able to keep me here.
But Andi.
I loved her.
I just hoped it would be enough — because it hadn't been with my mother and something in the back of my head told me, it wouldn't be for Andi either.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Andi
THE NEWS WAS BAD. I KNEW before the doctor even walked in, report in hand. I wasn't stupid. It wasn't like I didn't know my body backward and forward.
Bruises weren't healing.
The dizzy spells were getting worse — another reason I wanted to stay in bed with Sergio. At least, having sex distracted me from the fact that when I wasn't horizontal I wanted to fall down onto my hands and knees just to keep the room from spinning.
But more so than the physical symptoms, I just… knew. I felt it in the way each breath of air left my lips — those breaths were counted. They were numbered. My soul knew it even before my doctor did, and that was the sucky part. Modern medicine could perform miracles — but I was beyond saving.
I put on my brave face, which basically meant I forced a toothy grin and tried extremely hard not to let my eyes fill with tears. Basically, there was a lot of fanning my hand in front of my face. I probably looked like a southern debutante after winning another pageant, but whatever; if it worked, it worked.
"Miss Smith…" Doctor McHotpants held out his hand.