Ellie heaved a deep sigh. “Good news is that my tumor is actually a big cist with two small tumors on it. It’s sitting on the surface of the top right side of my brain so they can remove all of it. Dr. Dunham thinks that in all likelihood the tumors are benign. He thinks it’s been there a long while and that it’s just gotten slowly bigger and needs to come out for obvious reasons. I’ll have surgery, scheduled in two weeks’ time, and they’ll send the tumor off for biopsy.” Ellie smiled, her lips trembling a little. “I’m a little scared about the surgery, but Dr. Dunham was really confident and said that the risk in this kind of surgery is like 2% and the possibility of the tumor being cancerous is really very small.”
At once we all let go of our breaths, relief cascading over us in a huge wave that almost knocked us off our chairs. Braden rushed Ellie before anyone else could, squeezing her up into his arms until she told him she couldn’t breathe, and while he did that Clark reassured Declan, who was still a little sleepy that Ellie, was in all likelihood going to be okay. Braden finally let his little sister down with a loud smack of a kiss on her forehead and before she could even catch her breath Adam was on her, kissing her right on the mouth in front of everyone. A real kiss too. Ballsy.
“Well, it’s about time,” Clark sighed.
Ellie laughed against Adam’s mouth at that one. Obviously she was just now realizing I’d been right all along. She and Adam had been anything but subtle these last few months.
“What’s funny?” Elodie asked, bustling back into the room.
I took that opportunity to haul Ellie into my arms. “Worst twenty four hours in a very long time, my friend.”
She pulled back to look at me. “I’m sorry I put you through that.”
I sighed heavily and then looked at the tea and coffee Elodie had brought into the room. I gave her an apologetic look as I said, “I don’t think that’s strong enough.”
She raised an eyebrow at me. “Do you have anything stronger in the house?”
“Not really.” I glanced at Ellie. “But there is the pub just a few doors down from us that we’ve never been into yet. Maybe it’s time. I think there’s a possibility they’ll have something stronger.”
“Strong sounds good to me.”
“And me,” Clark agreed.
“We have the kids,” Elodie complained.
I grabbed my purse sitting on the coffee table. “They’re allowed into a pub if they’re with an adult. They can have a Coke.”
Elodie didn’t look too sure.
I smiled reassuringly. “It’s just one drink. A celebratory drink at that.”
“Clark can have a drink. I’ll drive,” Elodie relented and we grabbed our things to leave.
Elodie and Clark shuffled the kids out first. Adam had his arm around Ellie and she was tucked in close to him, looking amazingly happy for someone who had major surgery coming up in a few weeks’ time. Then again, for over twenty four hours we’d all been convinced she had cancer only to discover she probably didn’t… and of course she finally had Adam right where she wanted him.
That left me and Braden to trail at the back, and I got the first taste of what he’d meant earlier. His fingers brushed my lower back to guide me out of the door and it was so deliberate it wasn’t funny.
He knew I was sensitive there.
I tried to hold back the shiver as I turned to lock the apartment, but Braden got in my way, so when I turned I collided with him.
“Sorry.” He smirked, moving slowly so my breasts brushed against his chest.
I felt my nipples harden and flinched at the heat that pulsed between my legs. My look was scathing. “Sure you are.”
Braden laughed softly as I leaned down to lock the door, and then I felt his shadow fall over me. I glanced up to my right to see his hand pressed against the door near my head. I twisted around to look up at him, only to find he’d cocooned himself around me. “Need a hand?”
I narrowed my eyes into slits. “Back off before I turn your balls into a keyring.”
I could tell he tried really hard not to laugh. Unfortunately not hard enough. “Babe, you’ve got to know when you say shit like that, it just makes me love you more.”
“You sound like a very bad villain/stalker right now.”
“I don’t care how I sound, as long as it’s working.”
“It’s not working.”
“A few more days of it and it will.” He brushed a quick kiss across my cheek and then abruptly pulled away before I could kill him.
“Come on guys,” Ellie called to us from further up the sidewalk. Elodie, Clark and the kids must have already gone inside. “What’s taking so long?”
“Jocelyn was just begging for sex, but I told her it was a highly inappropriate time for it,” Braden answered loudly, causing passersby to chuckle at him.
Furious at him for so many reasons, I rushed down our stoop towards them. “That’s okay, sweetheart,” I answered just as loudly. “I have a toy that does a better job of it anyway.” With that I slammed into the pub where he couldn’t hound me in front of the kids.
And although immature —and yes highly inappropriate considering the reason we were going for a drink—I couldn’t help but feel satisfied I’d finally got the last word in.
***
I admit it. I was a big fat coward.