Page 122 of Hello Doctor

While everyone sat around the card tables we’d hauled out here, I got out the cookie cake with the sparkler candles and lit them.

Fletcher helped me carry it toward Maya as more than thirty people sang “Happy Birthday” at the top of our lungs, making birds start and flutter from the trees. When we reached my favorite little girl, I said, “Make a wish!”

She grinned at me and said, “I don’t need to. I wished my dad would fall in love with you, and it already came true.”

My heart ached as she blew out the candles.

For the next couple hours, the kids splashed in the slow-moving stream and the adults hung out, talked, drank beer from red coolers filled with melting ice. But eventually, the sun started to sink, and we had to call it a day.

My parents and brothers went about driving everyone back to their cars at the beginning of the river while Fletcher and I worked to clean up the party space.

We had to fold up all the tables and chairs, fill garbage bags with the disposable tablecloths, and toss out all the beer cans and paper plates. Fletcher and I didn’t talk much, working silently side by side as the wind rustled through the trees and the river song played beside us.

But then new music began playing from Fletcher’s phone.

I looked over, seeing him standing with his hand outstretched. “Dance with me?”

Glancing around, I said, “We still have some work to do...”

The opening lyrics to “Ten Thousand Hours” played from his phone. “Please?”

My heart ached as I slipped my hand in his. Because this didn’t feel like a dance in the middle of the country.

It felt like goodbye.

* * *

When we got backto the house, I went to the bathroom and showered, rinsing the river water from my hair. But I was only putting off the inevitable.

I came out of the bathroom, wearing shorts and T-shirt, and found Fletcher waiting in his room, sitting on the end of the bed.

“You decided,” he said. It wasn’t a question.

I set my wet towel on the table by the door. “I did.”

His features fell. “Can I talk you out of it?”

My chin trembled as I shook my head.

“Liv...” He got up, but I stepped back.

I needed to get this out. “I’m moving in with my parents. My mom and dad are going to look after me while I recover from the surgery next week. I’m sure your dad and brothers can be with Maya after school.”

His lips parted. “You’re quitting?”

“No. I told you I’d be here for Maya, and that isn’t changing, but I can’t live in this house with you. Not when it’s a reminder that I almost had everything I’ve always wanted.”

His brown eyes were full of pain, void of light. “But it’s just a ceremony. We can still build a life together.”

“If it was ‘just a ceremony,’ we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” I said. “We both know it’s more than that. And I’m not going to stay here, hoping—” My voice broke, and I took a shuddering breath. “Hoping to convince you that life with me would be worth it.”

His lips parted, and he held his hands out to me. “It’s not a question if you’re worth it, Liv. We both know you’d be the best wife in the world.”

“Then it’s your past,” I said, tears sliding down my cheeks. “And even though you’re not married to Regina, and you’re not in love with her, you’re not letting her go. You’re not letting go of the person you were when you told her ‘I do.’”

“I love you, Liv,” he said, reaching for my hands.

This time, I let him take them.

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