Page 108 of Tumbleweed Temptation
Chapter Twenty-Three
Austin was surprisedto wake up to see a message on his phone from Mr. McKay in the morning.
“We’re going to fight. Can you come out today so we can talk about what’s next?”
He showered and headed downstairs to look at his schedule before replying. “I can be there at four.”
The reply was instant, like Mr. McKay had been waiting. “We want to keep this in the family for now.”
“Of course.”
He hated keeping secrets from Ginny, especially since things were so weird between them right now anyway, but he had to keep his patient’s confidentiality.
So he was distracted the rest of the day, and knew Ginny was getting impatient with him because of it, but he couldn’t say anything to ease her mind, as much as he wanted to. In fact, the more tempted he was to tell her, the less he trusted himself to be around her. And that he left her to lock up the office again so he could get out to the McKays’ didn’t sit well with her either. One day he’d explain it all to her, but he just didn’t have the energy to do it right now.
So he grabbed Mr. McKay’s file, told her good-bye, and drove out to the ranch.
The family was waiting in the house, and he noticed first of all that both Con and his mother had relaxed a bit. Mr. McKay was calmer, too, and Austin had to wonder how they’d hashed everything through to reach this point.
“Okay, what can I do to help you?” He was sure the family would appreciate his directness.
“What can we expect when we start treatment?” Mr. McKay asked once Austin took a seat on the fireplace ledge, the family facing him from the couch. “We looked it up online and it seems pretty bleak, so I guess we were hoping you could give us a better picture.”
“Don’t expect to be able to do much at all,” Austin replied, leaning his elbows on his knees and folding his hands together. “Your goal is going to be to get better. Not help Con, not catch up on paperwork, not take care of any town business, just let your body rest. It’s going to be rough, and for someone like you, who’s used to being very active, it’s going to be particularly hard, because your mind is going to want to do things but your body won’t be able to.”
Mr. McKay looked at his family. “I don’t want to start soon, then. I want to work as long as I feel like I can.”
“The longer you wait, the harder it will be,” Austin said. “Your body is already going to be fighting the cancer, you’re not going to have a lot of reserves. It’s better to start the treatment as soon as possible.”
“And what will we have to do for him to care for him?” Mrs. McKay asked.
Austin was prepared for the answer, and produced a list he’d compiled and printed out. He handed the copies to each of them. “It’s going to be a lot. And I know you want to keep this on the down-low for now, but I think you should consider getting Lacey or Maggie to come out here a couple of times a week to help you out, to make sure everything is on track, at least at the beginning. They can teach you some tricks, too, and so will the center where he goes for treatment. I’ve seen things like port pillows and stuff like that, stuff we don’t think about, that can make the ordeal easier. And I’m not going to lie. It’s going to be an ordeal.”
Con hadn’t looked up from the list, and he’d gone a little pale. “So you really think we can do all of this?”
“You can, other families have. But I think you’d be more at ease if you had one of the home health nurses come through and check up every now and then, just for peace of mind.”
They had more questions, and he answered them as clearly and in as much detail as he could. He noticed Con becoming more and more closed off, and his focus was almost exclusively on the printout.
The sun had set by the time Austin walked out. He had half-expected them to invite him to dinner, but he was pretty sure they had a lot to discuss amongst themselves.
Con followed him out. “Hey, ah. We can call you if we need help, right?”
Austin hesitated, in his mind going through the other patients he had to worry about. Thankfully there weren’t that many. “Sure. I’ll do as much as I can to help your family through this.”
“That’s something we didn’t do for you.”
Austin squared off to face him. “You think I’m going to hold that against you.”
Con shook his head. “You’ve already shown that you won’t. I just...I don’t know why you won’t.”
“Because I’m a doctor, and to be frank, my mom would be pissed if she thought that I was holding a grudge.” Okay, maybe he was, a little. But he’d closed himself off enough that he wouldn’t allow it to affect his work.
Con almost allowed a smile to curve his lips, but his gaze drifted away. “She would.”
The intimacy of Con’s words struck Austin in the chest. Con hadn’t known his mom as well as some of the regular bus riders. He had ridden before he could drive, but not as regularly as some of the others. But he’d known her. And she’d loved him. She’d loved all the kids on her bus. The thought softened Austin’s heart a little.
“My mom...has some things she’d like to discuss with you, if that’s okay,” Con said, the words jolting him out of his thoughts. “Maybe not today, but soon. She said she wants to be strong for my dad, and she’s not, you know.”
