Page 46 of Jace 4Ever
“You sure fucking are.” I leaned down and kissed him hard. After a moment, I realized we weren’t getting out of bed yet.
The phone rang,and I grabbed it from the coffee table.
Jace had to work, so he’d gone home Sunday night. I didn’t like my house nearly as much as when he was here. It felt too big.
“Hello?” I said, realizing I didn’t look at who was calling.
“Hæ Hæ, Sonnur.”
“Pabbi!” I crowed the word and slipped right back into Icelandic. “Hi!”
“How are you, Nils?”
“I’m good, Dad. Really good. How are you?”
“Well, that’s what I’m calling about.”
I sat straight up on the couch. “What’s wrong?”
“Well, I wasn’t feeling so well the last few weeks and I finally bucked up and went to the doctor. They were doing all kinds of tests of me, and…it didn’t come back too positive.”
“Dad, tell me.”
“I have renal cancer.”
A wave of dizziness washed over me. “Cancer…”
“Now, hold on before you go all woozy,” he said. “It was caught early, and while it is causing kidney failure, my other is still healthy and functioning at full capacity. We’re going to just remove the bad one and then chemo or radiation as they see fit.”
“Dad, let me bring you—”
“No. Iceland has healthcare just as good as anything we’d get in the States. I’m seventy, Nils. Losing one kidney to gain another twenty years is a fine trade to me.”
“And Helene has been with you?”
“Helene and Ólafur, Móeiðr, and Gunnar have been helping, too. Gunnar drove me to the appointment the other day because your sister had a project at work.”
If we’d been on video chat, he would have seen my smirk. “My nephew is old enough to drive already?”
“He’s old enough to brag about his uncle, the famous American actor,” Dad teased me.
“How are you feeling about this?”
“Good. I’m tired, and I have all the symptoms, but I’m doing well. They have me on some painkillers, but I’ll be going in next week for the surgery.”
“How long has this been going on, Dad?”
“About two months.”
I scrapped my hand down my face and sighed. “Why didn’t you call sooner? Two months?”
“I wanted answers before I called.” He paused. “And I was hoping you’d call me.”
Fuck. Parental guilt. I should have been calling him instead of letting him call me. I had a cell phone that worked all over the world. I should have been calling my sister as well. My younger brother, Móeiðr, needed a call as well.
“What’s kept you from calling?”
I cleared my throat.
