Page 59 of Don't Forget Me
He lifted his head, his gaze settling on her emotionless eyes. “Sick?”
“Osteosarcoma.” Her breath shook on the way out. “Cancer. Just like my mom.”
“I thought you were adopted—”
“I didn’t inherit this. Just an unlucky coincidence. Her cancer was different though, and by the time it was detected, it was too late. Me… I got lucky—if you can say that. It was early, and they treated me quickly. Cancer free by the time I was nineteen.”
He couldn’t imagine being so young and facing such a life defining obstacle. His fingers skimmed down her arm, and he threaded their fingers together. “That’s not everything, is it?”
The shield in those frigid eyes dropped for only an instant, but she looked away. “It came back. I went through a few more years of treatment cycles and surgeries. You want to know why I dropped out of medical school? For a while, it was all I could manage to be present for two kids who needed me.”
Slipping her hand from his, she wiped her eyes. “Are you happy, Nick? You have my secret. Not only am I currently in a coma, but my body never fully recovered. You see me here smiling and dancing, and you think that’s me.” She scooted away from him, breaking their connection, and sat up. “Being here… it’s the first time in years I haven’t felt weak, sick with fear. I live every day of my life worried the cancer has come back, because it did once. I know the odds are high. This place… it makes me almost forget to be afraid. I… I’m not sure that’s something you can understand if you don’t go through it.”
Nick waited for her to finish speaking as he tried to process the words. He’d never met anyone like Liz. How could someone with so much goodness have suffered so much? It wasn’t fair.
None of this was fair.
Pushing himself up, he didn’t say anything as he slid their hands back together, fitting like it was where they were meant to be. His thumb ran over the back of her hand, memorizing the feel of every bit of smooth skin, the raised knuckles and little dimple near her pinky.
Her eyes fell to their hands as her lips parted to release a breath.
“You asked me if I’m happy.” His voice was low. “And I am. Happy I got to know you, happy you were honest with me. I won’t pretend you didn’t just break my heart a little, thinking about what you’ve been through, but you’ve also proved to me I still have one to break. I won’t lie and say it’ll all be okay because it might not, but even when you were sick, even in the real world when this stupid illness took so much from you, I can guarantee you weren’t weak, Elizabeth Ross. Fear doesn’t make you weak. I understand now how you have so much fight in you. You’ve never known any other way.”
She closed her eyes but didn’t say anything in response.
Nick had never been close with anyone who’d survived cancer, and he wasn’t quite sure what words mattered. “I’m trying not to say the wrong thing here.”
She nodded, giving a faint sniffle. “No. No.” Her eyes slid open, glassing over as they locked with his. “You didn’t. That was… it was right.”
He reached up to wipe the dampness from her face. “I love you.” The words escaped before he could call them back, shocking them both, but what shocked him more was how much he meant them. Stephen was right. He hadn’t lost his ability to love.
And the thought broke something free inside him.
Liz stared at him with wide eyes, and he waited for her to tell him none of this was real, that it was only a dream he’d wake from to return to his life that didn’t have room for women like her.
But the protests never came. Instead, another tear slipped from her eye, rolling down her cheek in a silent descent. “I think…” She sucked in a breath. “I think I needed to hear that.”
It wasn’t the response any guy wanted when a confession like that slipped out, but she didn’t push him away. Liz didn’t believe in true love; she’d said as much.
So, right now, he’d satisfy himself with whatever she was willing to give.
Liz had cancer. Had. In the past.
She hadn’t said how bad it was or if she’d ever thought she wouldn’t make it, but he’d been too afraid to ask.
Yep, he was a coward.
And he couldn’t lose anyone else. If she feared it returning, there was a chance. No matter how small, it hurt to think about.
Nick tapped a finger against the cover of the book in his lap, Stephen’s book. He hadn’t been in the right mindset to open it in days, not since Liz’s confession.
And then his.
Dark clouds rolled across the sky, stretching down to coat the morning in a layer of thick, damp fog. It would rain soon, cleansing the world once again.
But what about him? Would he ever truly be clean? Free from the mistakes he’d made? Not until he faced the consequences coming for him.
“What would have made me do it?” he whispered to himself, hoping Stephen would appear to give him the answers he sought. But his brother must have been busy bothering some other poor soul because it was just Nick and the darkening sky.
