Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Brock took one look at her, and his whole demeanor had changed.
He’d gone from looking lazy to alert, and it hadn’t taken a genius to see that he’d found her attractive.
I didn’t like the way he looked at her last night, and twelve hours later, I still didn’t like it.
But, as with all things that were starting to make me feel again, I buried those thoughts deep and locked them behind a door that I wouldn’t be opening. Not ever.
So, in order to ignore the way that I was still mad about Brock staring at her, even as innocently as he had, I went back to reading on my phone.
I’d been doing that a lot over the last two years. I read before Lily had died, but now with those long sleepless nights, I had to do something to fill the time. Physical exercise only lasted so long—and my body wasn’t that of a twenty-something-year-old man anymore. I was forty-one. I couldn’t do the all-day workout thing anymore, or I’d be physically unable to walk.
Hence the reading.
“Whatcha readin’?”
I looked over to find her staring at me expectantly. “Jim Butcher.”
“Jim Butcher is the title of the book or the author?”
“Author,” I answered distractedly.
“What does this author write about?”
I grinned and looked over at her. “Paranormal and science fiction.”
Her eyes widened. “I like that.”
I rolled my eyes. “You can sign into my Kindle account and read them. I started this series for a second time, but I have all of them.”
Greedily she signed out of her account and into mine, and soon I got her started on the first book in Jim Butcher’s Codex of Alera series.
She was an entire two chapters in before she was called back, and without her asking, I got up and followed her in.
The doctor was waiting on us when we arrived at the exam room, and he smiled warmly at Cobie.
“Cobie, come in, come in.”
“Hi, Dr. Todd.” She shuffled slowly, careful not to make any sudden movements that would cause her pain. “This is Dante. He’s my shadow.”
Dr. Todd grinned. “I’m happy to hear that you have a shadow, Cobie. Hello, Dante. I’m Holman Todd.”
I shook the man’s hand, and he gestured for me to follow Cobie into the exam room, who was already taking a seat on the bench.
“How is everything feeling?”
“You mean, does it feel like I had my boobs chopped off?”
I winced.
Dr. Todd snorted. “Well, I assumed it would feel like that seeing as you did, in fact, have them removed.”
I couldn’t help but smile at that, and Cobie couldn’t, either.
But her smile fell, and she stared at the doctor intently. “Let’s talk about what you found.”
Dr. Todd didn’t dally. He pulled out the file that was on the corner of the counter, placed it into his lap, then reached for his reading glasses that were in his front coat pocket.
Placing them on his nose, he stared at Cobie over the rims. “We were able to get all of the cancer.”
Both Cobie and I both breathed out roughly.
“How do you know?” I found myself asking.
He glanced over at me.
“Our hope when we went in there was to determine how much of the tissue was affected by the tumor,” the doctor began. “It’s always a worry that when we begin the surgery that the affected area could have spread to the chest wall, or the muscles surrounding the breast. However, in Cobie’s case, the cancer was limited to the breast tissue itself. We were able to remove all of the affected area, as well as the surrounding tissue completely. The cancer also didn’t spread to the lymph nodes, either.”
I knew that was good. Cancer spreading to the lymph nodes meant spreading to the rest of the body. And spreading to the rest of the body was also what would kill her.
“But when she spoke about having it, she said that she’d be dead at the end of the year if it wasn’t treated,” I found myself continuing. “Does she have to have any further treatments aside from what she’s already done?”
“Follow-up,” he answered. “We’re going to be doing regular tests on her to make sure that the cancer is no longer there. That’s a simple blood test. At that time, we’ll determine if a final round of chemo will be needed—which they usually do anyway, just to be safe. She’ll get those blood tests quite frequently until I’m well satisfied that she has nothing else to worry about.”
I clenched my jaw, then released it.
Cobie cleared her throat delicately.
“What now?”
Dr. Todd smiled. “Now you live your life.”
Thirty minutes later, after removing the drains, we were walking slowly out the door.
I’d offered to get Cobie a wheelchair, but she was bound and determined to walk out of the hospital.
I let her, but the entire time I stayed with her, step for step, stopping when she stopped.