Page 110 of Love Me Boldly

I wasn’t complaining. If she needed to break all the bones in both of my hands, I’d happily hand them over so she could get through this.

“Dr. Myers will be just a minute,” the nurse said. She set a file on a flat-looking screen that was definitely not a computer and then left and closed the door.

“The results are in that file,” Holly mumbled. “I don’t even think I want to know anymore.”

I adjusted in my seat so I was facing her as best I could, gripped the armrest of her chair with my free hand, and gave it a quick tug. It angled, and Holly was faced to look at me.

“It could be dozens of things. Fibroids. Something else. Endometriosis. Constipation.”

That last one broke the icy facade she’d worn before we left the rink. “I’m not constipated.”

“It says it’s a symptom.” I went on teasing, and it helped. At least a little because she smiled, and my fingers weren’t in immediate peril.

“You’ll be okay either way. I checked, Holly. Even if it is the worst, the survival rates are high, and you’re young. You’re flying to the worst-case scenario because that’s the way you’ve always lived, but life isn’t always one step away from death and ruin.”

“I’m trying to believe that. I’m trying, but it’s so hard.”

Two quick thumps hit the door, and then it opened.

Holly’s face paled, and this time I think she broke my pinkie.

I faced the doctor and tried to read her expression as she closed the door, kept her face blank, and gave me nothing.

“Thanks for coming in today,” she said. “Sorry for the late notice, but like I said on the phone, I didn’t want you to wait longer.” She gave me a passing glance and went back to Holly.

“I have good news and bad. Which would you like first?”

THIRTY-FIVE

HOLLY

“Bad.” Always the bad. There was no way to prepare myself for this. I’d tried not thinking about it. I’d tried living with the pain. I’d triedhoping, but my life didn’t work like that. Despite the blocks I’d torn down and broken through, I was still expecting the other shoe to drop.

Things had gotten too good. I was with Graham. He was more fantastic than he used to be.

Hell, I was having a blast with Eli and Tanner and watching my little family of friends grow.

Something had to fall. Something had to turn it all sour.

“The bad news is we didn’t need that biopsy after all, so I’m sorry for putting you through that unnecessary pain.”

I blinked. Blood rushed from my face, straight to my toes. Might have left my body altogether. “What?”

A soft but still wary smile broke out on Dr. Myer’s face. “The biopsy was an extra precaution, as you remember, so you don’t have to keep waiting for tests and pushing everything back.”

“I remember.”

Next to me, Graham was listening intently. I knew I was hurting his hand. I kept seeing him flinch in pain out of the corner of my eye, but every time I tried to loosen my grip, I kept coming back to him.

I needed him. I needed him for more than this.

The last week with him had shown me how much I was missing out on, how much Jonah was, and how much I wanted to give him everything with Graham. There wasn’t anyone else who’d be good enough.

But if I were broken…

“I don’t understand,” Graham said, frowning at me and then the doctor.

She slipped something out of the file the nurse left, set it on that flat lamp-looking thing, and flipped a light on.

---