She smiled. Then she gave me a playful eyebrow. “You know, Doug is still single.”
I gagged and she cracked up. Her husband’s crusty best friend had followed me around with a guitar at their wedding.
“I’m not that desperate,” I said. “Yet.”
We were giggling at this when the screaming started.
Benny.
Alexis and I looked at each other for a split second before we bolted.
Everything moved in slow motion after that.
Down the hallway, around the corner, into the living room—I was braced for something awful. A disconnected tube, blood everywhere. But when I got in the room, he was right where we left him, still hooked up to the machine.
He was crying, hysterical.
Alexis and I both darted to his side, going into ER mode, frantically checking wires and screens on the dialysis machine while he screamed.
“What’s wrong?” I said, touching dials. “Benny!”
He was so worked up he couldn’t even form words.
Alexis shook her head. “This looks fine. It’s not the machine.”
I turned to my brother, frantic. “Benny, what is it?!”
And then I saw he wasn’t just crying. He was laughing. Manic, high-pitched laughing between sobs.
“Zander…” he managed, looking up at me with tears in his eyes. “He just called…I…I have a donor.”
Chapter 15
Jacob
I could feel the buzz before I even walked into the ER. The mood on the floor was palpable. Everyone was happy and chattering. And when I saw Briana by the nurses’ station, a group huddled around her, I knew why. Zander must have told Benny.
I smiled and stood back and watched, my hands in my pockets. Briana was glowing. Laughing, smiling. Someone hugged her. Then someone else.
My own smile reached my eyes.
She looked up and saw me and waved excitedly. Then she said something to everyone and jogged over to me.
“Did you hear?” She was beaming.
“No,” I said, playing dumb. “What’s up?”
“Benny has a kidney donor.”
I grinned at her. “That’s wonderful.”
She bit her bottom lip and bounced a little. “Thank you for putting the sticker on your car. I mean I know it wasn’t from that. Too soon. But stuff like that made this happen. So thank you.”
“Of course.” I just stood there, smiling.
She started to tear up a bit and wiped under her eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m so emotional. This was so unexpected. I can’t do lunch with you today, my best friend is in town. Tomorrow? Supply room? You have to tell me that family thing.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Sure. See you then.”
Then I watched her go back to a group of waiting nurses.
I didn’t even realize how good this would feel. I was glad to be the source of everyone’s happiness, even though they didn’t know it was me. But mostly I liked seeing Briana so excited. I couldn’t have anticipated how much joy that would bring me.
It occurred to me that the same way Briana had shut off my anxiety by welcoming me to Royaume, I had probably just done the same for her. An instant relief. It made me smile to think of it like that. Like I’d paid her kindness forward, even though it was in secret.
I hoped Benny was celebrating today. But I had to admit, I was more invested in how Briana took it. I was stressed about the dinner tonight with my family, but I was in a good mood all morning anyway.
My life was a mess. But at least Briana’s was the way it should be.
Chapter 16
Briana
I’d just finished lunch in the cafeteria with Alexis, and she’d gone back to my house. I swung by Gibson’s office on the last ten minutes of my break and knocked on his door frame. He held up a finger, asking me to wait while he wrapped up his call.
I needed to ask for the days off for Benny’s transplant in July. I was practically bouncing. I’d been like this since last night. I couldn’t stop smiling.
It was like a light had switched on inside my brother; the change was instantaneous.
He’d stayed up with me and Alexis celebrating. Brad and Justin came over, and my brother was joking and laughing and was Benny for the first time in so long, I wanted to cry even thinking about it. This morning, he was on his treadmill when I got up. He said if he wanted to be ready for the next marathon, he had to start training now. Then he ate a full breakfast. All of it. I’d had to muscle down the happy sob that came out of my mouth.
Someone had given me my brother back.
I didn’t know who the donor was or how they found us. All we were told was that they were available for a late July transplant, they wanted to do it at Mayo Clinic, and that they wished to stay anonymous. Zander said they were a perfect match.
A perfect match.
I’d been braced for today to be so shitty. And now I didn’t even care that I was officially divorced. Didn’t care. Nothing could cast a shadow on this moment. Not even Nick.
Gibson hung up the phone and motioned me inside.
I stood in front of his desk feeling buoyant and light. “I need to request two weeks off in July,” I said.
“All right.” He logged on to his computer. “Going anywhere fun?” he asked, tapping into his keyboard.
“Rochester. To the transplant center.”
He stopped and looked up at me over his glasses with a grin. “Well, I’ll be damned. You see? Everything happens for a reason.” He went back to tapping. “And to think he might have gone to a different hospital.”
I laughed a little. “Why would Benny go to a different hospital?”
“Not Benny. Jacob. He’d never have met your brother if he had. Look at that, everything works out.” He shook his head with a smile and went back to the screen.
I stood there, my brain trying to make sense of what he was saying. “Jacob?” I asked.
“He’s doing it for Joy,” he said, talking to the screen. “Did he tell you that? His mother had a kidney transplant when he was a kid. Always dreamed of paying it forward. At least that’s what he said when Zander asked him if he wanted to run the labs. Glad it worked out.”
My soul. Left. My body.
“Jacob is my brother’s kidney donor?” I breathed.
Gibson looked up at me. “What’s that?”
I swallowed. “The donor is anonymous…”
I watched Gibson’s smile melt, then morph into sheer panic. “It’s…he didn’t…Briana, I had no idea.” He stuttered. “He spoke about it freely, the…the two of you seemed to be friends—you…you were eating lunch together yesterday. I—I didn’t know, I just assumed…”
I turned and ran. I had to find him. Now. Immediately.
I threw open the door to our supply closet as I darted past. He wasn’t there, so I bolted to the ER floor dialing his number.
My heartbeat was thudding in my ears, my mind careening forward faster than I could keep up, the details shifting and reconfiguring.
Jacob was Benny’s kidney donor.
Jacob. Was Benny’s. Kidney. Donor.
How???