Page 74 of The Choices I've Made
He smiled. “So, crazy then?”
I laughed, followed by a nod. “Yes, definitely. She nearly got us arrested the other night.”
He shook his head, not appearing shocked in the least. “That sounds like Millie. Anything to liven the place up.”
“Well, she is used to a faster pace of life nowadays.”
“I think she was born at a faster pace than the rest of us.”
I nodded, laughing in agreement, and then a silence settled in. I looked around, noticing several things from home. His iPad and several paperbacks. A deck of cards he loved to play solitaire with even though I’d shown him a hundred different apps on his phone and a cheap spiral notebook he used to jot down thoughts throughout the day.
“You’re probably wondering why I asked you here,” he said, bringing my attention back to those dark green eyes of his.
I nodded but added, “You don’t need a reason for me to visit Dean but I was kind of hoping for some answers.”
He nodded, looking down at his fingers as he rubbed his thumb. “You deserve that much.”
I allowed him time to gather his thoughts, as I tried not to stare at the right side of his body. It was hard not to. I’d known this man since I was barely able to form complete sentences. If I had any artistic ability at all, I could trace out his likeness down to each freckle on his face, every laugh line around his handsome smile.
The stump, as the doctors called it suddenly made him so different. So foreign.
I couldn’t help but fixate on it.
“It’s okay to look at it,” Dean finally said.
“I wasn’t, I mean—“
A smile spread across his face. “Yes you were. But it’s fine Mols. I know it’s weird. Hell, it’s strange for me too.”
“Is it getting any better?” I asked hesitantly.
He looked down at his arm, severed harshly across the middle of his bicep. It was covered neatly in white gauze but eventually, it would all be removed and there would be fresh clean skin covering the wound.
“A little,” he replied. “I still wake up everyday and it feels like that moment after the surgery. Like I’m coming out of a dream. But then I look down and I realize it happened. This happened.”
I grabbed his left hand and squeezed. He gave me a sad smile in return, threading our fingers together.
“But I didn’t ask you to come here so you could feel sorry for me. I asked you here to apologize for being such an ass the other day. There were a hundred different ways I could have made that easier on you, but instead I chose the worst possible option.”
I bit my lip to keep the emotions at bay. “Your mother says she’s going to give you a piece of her mind when she sees you next.”
He let out a chuckle. “Oh she already has, don’t worry. Jake too.”
“Jake?” I said in surprise.
He nodded. “He overheard you and my mother that day and must have stomped up to his room and called me.”
“What did he say?”
“Well there was a lot of yelling involved.”
I found myself smiling a little.
“He’s a good guy Molly.”
“I’ve never doubted that,” I said. “But we’re not here to discuss Jake, are we?”
He laughed, a full boisterous laugh as I tried to change the subject. I asked him how he was getting along, and he told me about his trials and accomplishments over the past few days.
