Finding Forever (Living Again #4) (21 page)

“I can’t believe this,” Sam murmured, pacing back and forth. Aubrey had arrived shortly after Lacey told Sam, and the scene for the few hours after that had been one Brant would never forget. He had never known anyone that had cancer, especially not someone his own age.

Lacey hadn’t been able to say a whole lot, but what they did get from her was that she had a tumor in her left breast. She had no idea what her treatment was going to be or what the prognosis was. She had a name of a surgeon she was supposed to call. It was the middle of the night at this point, and Lacey had passed out not long ago, her body so ravaged that it just gave up.

Aubrey looked down at her sleeping sister, then up at Brant. “Thank you for finding her. My god, I can’t believe she went through all of this herself. She never told anyone.”

“I knew she had to get another mammogram a few weeks ago,” Brant said. “But she told me afterwards that it had just been a fluke, that all was fine. I can’t believe she lied.”

“That’s Lacey,” Sam said. “She didn’t think you signed up for this, so she let you think she was fine. Was she backing away, trying to put you off after that?”

Brant nodded. “I knew something was up, but I had no clue that it could be this serious. Last week, we fell asleep here one night and she asked me to stay. In the middle of the night, she was talking in her sleep, having a nightmare. She said something about cancer, but when I questioned her on it, she said it was probably about her mom. I was so dumb. I should’ve figured it out.”

“She was trying to keep her distance from all of us,” Aubrey said. “In her mind, that means that it would hurt us less to find out that she had cancer. Instead of having us be her support system, which everyone in this room would love to do, she made the decision to keep us in the dark. I can’t believe she went through all of this stress, and the diagnosis, without us.”

“She didn’t know how to handle it,” Sam said. “Which is why she’s been the way she has been tonight. Not that she wouldn’t have been upset anyway, but with someone there for her, she could’ve felt like she wasn’t alone. Thank God you found her, Brant. I have no doubt she’d still be out by that river right now.”

“I knew something was really wrong. It’s just a feeling I get about her.”

Sam smiled, walking over and hugging him. “She’s it for you, isn’t she?”

Brant looked back at Lacey, his heart both swelling and breaking at the same time. “I love her. I’m going to be here for her through this, no matter what.”

Sam nodded. “I was right about you.”

“She’s going to push us all,” Aubrey announced. “She’ll say she doesn’t want us around, that she can do this herself. We all make a pact, right here, that we don’t let her push us away. She’s our family.”

They all nodded, making a silent agreement that Lacey Russell might be a fighter, but she wasn’t fighting alone.

It had been just over a week since her diagnosis, and today was her surgery day. Brant hadn’t left her side. After that night, even with her objection, he had gone home and packed up Max and some clothes.

The next day when she had woken up, she had a resolve that was great to see. She had called the surgeon and gotten an appointment, and he had gone with her to the consultation for the procedure. They were going to do a mastectomy on the left side, and even though Lacey said she would just do both, they refused to do that, saying that they would only do what they deemed necessary at that time. Once they got in there, they would take out some lymph nodes to see if there was any cancer in those. The results from surgery would dictate her care plan.

Brant was a nervous wreck, but he was trying hard not to let her see it. Her emotions had run the gamut over the last week, from pushing him away to not wanting him to stop holding her. She had been angry, then sad, then wanting to refuse treatment and just call it a day. After she had found out what procedure she was having, she had cried hysterically, saying over and over that he would never love her with only one breast. She didn’t understand that the love he felt for her wasn’t contingent on her having two breasts; he would love her with none. He wanted her, and that was it.

She had taken a leave of absence from work. He had been there when she told Dr. Jenkins, who was the kindest, most understanding boss he thought he’d ever met. He promised her job would always be there for her. Chloe, the only other person she confided in there, had been understandably shaken, and had been over to the house several times since then.

“Brant,” he heard his voice from around the curtain. He slid it open and saw the face he loved. Her head was covered with a hair net, and she wore a hospital gown. “They marked me, to make sure they get the correct one. I wish they would just take both.”

He put his hand on the side of her face like she liked, and she fluttered her eyes closed, turning her face to kiss the inside of his hand. “It’s going to be okay. They know what they’re doing.”

“Are you sure you’re ready to deal with this?”

“Doc,” he said, feigning impatience. “You need to hear it again?”

“You’ve only known me a month and a half, Brant. It’s a lot to take in at the beginning of a relationship.”

“That may be true that we’ve not known each other very long,” he started, “but I don’t need longer than I’ve had to know that I’m head over heels crazy about you. Okay? So it doesn’t matter if it was one month, one year, or one lifetime, it’s not too soon. I’m in for the long haul, Lacey. You can’t make me go away.”

“I’m not going to look the same,” she whispered, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. He wiped them away gently, then kissed each of her eyelids.

“Lacey,” he whispered into her ear. “Please stop doing this. You’re stunning. I’m not just saying that. I see you completely different than you see yourself. Your breast isn’t what makes you beautiful to me. And when they cut that bitch out of you and that cancer is
gone
,
that
will be the hottest damn thing that I’ve ever seen.”

She laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck and running her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck. He loved when she did that. “I love you, Brantley Tucker, my GQ.” It was the first time she had said it to him. He had repeated it over and over, but she hadn’t been ready, he guessed. Hearing the words from her now, on one of the most difficult days of her life, made him want to stand on top of the hospital and shout. She loved him.

“I’ll never get tired of hearing that,” Brant teased, brushing his lips to hers. “You can spend forever telling me, okay?”

“Okay, you lovebirds, time to get Ms. Russell in there. She’s got some ass to kick today,” the pre-op nurse teased, starting her IV and readying her for the mask that was going to put her under anesthesia.

Brant kissed her hand and mouthed ‘I love you’ one more time. He then left his heart on the hospital bed as it was wheeled into the operating room.

Brant paced the private waiting room they were in; it was taking too damn long. Sam, Aubrey, and Chloe were all waiting with him. Sam’s husband Ellis had arranged a private room for them, since even Sam going to the hospital now resulted in her being harassed for autographs and pictures.

The door opened and Brant stopped, thinking it was the doctor. The man that walked in wasn’t a doctor, though. Aubrey gasped, and his gaze went from her to the man in the doorway. Then he saw it. The resemblance between them. It was Lacey’s dad. No way.

“Dad,” Aubrey cried, putting her arms around him. “Thank you for coming.”

Sam stared, her mouth partially open. “No way,” she whispered just loud enough for Brant to overhear.

“Any word?”

Aubrey shook her head. Brant knew he should go introduce himself, but he was finding it hard to move. The sight of Lacey’s dad made him angry. He hadn’t been there for her this whole time, and now he was going to show up?

He looked around the room, stopping at Sam. “Samantha,” he said. “Great to see you. It’s been a long time. Congrats on your success, and your new little girl.”

She smiled, but Brant could tell it was contrived. “Thank you, Craig. I’m glad you came here today. Lacey needs you. This is Lacey’s friend from work, Chloe, and her boyfriend, Brant.”

Craig’s eyes snapped over to him. “Boyfriend?”

Brant gritted his teeth, forcing a smile onto his face. He extended his hand. “Brantley Tucker, sir.”

His eyebrows furrowed. “Tucker? You’re Robert Tucker’s boy?”

Great. Someone that knew his dad. “Yes, sir.”

“I’ll be damned. Haven’t seen him in years. We went to high school together.”

Brant nodded. He really had no desire to have small talk with Lacey’s dad. What he wanted to know was why the hell it took him this long to come support his daughter. He didn’t even know how he knew she was here, but he assumed Aubrey had convinced him to come.

Craig was a handsome man with dark hair graying at the temples, and a muscular body that showed he did something physical for work. Obviously Lacey and Aubrey got their good looks from somewhere. Brant knew that both girls got their striking eyes from their mother, but the dark hair and some of her features were all her dad. Lacey’s mom Kathryn had been petite, like Aubrey, and Lacey got the height from her dad.

“Thank you for coming, Dad,” Aubrey said, looking between Brant and her father.

Craig sighed. “I can’t believe she has to go through this, too. This would kill Kathryn, to see Lacey having to undergo the same pain she did.”

“Maybe you can be here for her through it and show her she does have a parent that loves her.” Brant slung the words from his mouth before he could even stop them. He wasn’t going to pretend that her dad was some wonderful guy for coming to the hospital.

Craig’s eyes met his, and they had a silent challenge, man to man. “I deserved that,” he said finally.

Brant crossed his arms in front of him, trying to tamper down the instinct he had to continue giving this guy a verbal lashing. “Are you going to be there for her through this? No matter how tough it gets?”

Craig looked at Aubrey, then back at Brant. “You’re in love with her.”

“Yes,” Brant said. “And because of that, I want to keep her from hurting as much as possible. So I’ll ask again. Are you planning to be here for her, no matter how hard it may get? Because she’s gone the last fourteen years without much support from you, and I won’t allow you to hurt her while she’s going through hell.”

“Family of Lacey Russell?”

The five of them turned, all conversation forgotten. Lacey’s surgeon, Dr. West, stood at the doorway. “She’s in recovery and the procedure went as planned. We removed all of the tumor as far as we know, and some lymph nodes to check them. She’ll be moved into her room within the hour, and can have visitors in a few hours. You won’t be able to stay long, and not many of you at a time. She needs her rest.”

“Can I stay with her?” Brant asked. “I don’t want her to be alone.”

The doctor looked at him, a knowing smile on his face. “Check with the nurses up there when you visit.” He left the room, and Brant fell into a nearby chair, his head in his hands. She had passed one huge hurdle. It was only up from here, right?