Love Bug (The Prescotts Book 3) by Tara Wyatt (electric book reader .TXT) 📗

harvest and freeze my eggs, and then I started a regimen of chemo and radiation.”

She could feel the tension in his muscles, in the way his hand had tightened on her hip. “For how long?”

“It was four weeks of intense treatment. I had chemo every Wednesday and radiation five days a week.”

“That sounds brutal.”

“It was. I was always really sick on Thursdays and Fridays from the chemo and could barely keep anything down, even water. And we had a hard time finding an anti-nausea drug that worked for me, so I never got a lot of relief from it. I lost weight because I had no appetite and I always had this really disgusting metallic taste in my mouth. And I was exhausted all the time from the radiation.”

He sighed heavily. “That sounds awful. I’m so sorry you had to go through all of that.”

“Me too. It was a shock to the system having to deal with that just when I felt like my adult life was really starting, you know? Lauren was amazing through all of it. She and I had been roommates in college and were really close. She’d come with me to my chemo appointments and sit with me, and she’d hang out and keep me company a lot when I wasn’t feeling well. Even if all I wanted to do was lie on the couch half-asleep and watch Simpsons re-runs, she was always there. She’d do little things to try to cheer me up, like write me a goofy song, or bring me flowers or little presents, like a book or jumbo packs of the gum I was always chewing to try to get rid of the metallic taste. And she always let me be in my feelings, you know? However I was feeling was always okay. She never offered me platitudes or silver linings. She was just there, listening and letting me feel what I needed to feel.”

Max nodded slowly. “Lauren’s a sweetheart. I’m glad you had her for support.” He blew out a breath. “I can’t even imagine how scary that must’ve been.”

“It was, but my prognosis was always good because it was only stage two when they found it.” She shook her head. “One of the shittiest parts was that this guy I’d been dating for like a year totally bailed. We’d met in grad school and things were starting to get a little serious. We’d said ‘I love you,’ talked about moving in together. But when I got sick, he broke up with me because he really wanted to go to Europe for two months.”

“What?” Max asked, his voice full of ice.

She shrugged. “Yeah. It was too heavy for him and he couldn’t deal, so he just left. Sometimes, when I think about getting sick again—because while it’s unlikely, it’s not impossible—I worry that the people I care about will leave me.” She cleared her throat and hurried to keep talking. “After the four weeks of treatment and a little time to heal, they ran more tests and I was officially in remission.”

“And you got to ring the bell,” he added, tucking her more tightly against him.

She nodded. “And…as much as it sucked, it did give me a new perspective on life. On going after the life that we want, not taking things for granted, choosing happiness. It’s too short to throw it away on misery. It also helps to talk to others who’ve been through it. I’m part of this support group for female cancer survivors under thirty-five. We meet once a month and just share whatever we’re dealing with. I’m pretty okay with everything now, but I have a feeling that some strong emotions are going to hit me when I’m ready to have a family and can’t just do it the old-fashioned way.”

“You said there’s a small chance it could come back?” he asked, a ripple of emotion in his voice.

She lifted her head and met his eyes, her stomach vaulting into her throat at the raw emotion shining out at her. She lifted a hand and smoothed her fingers over the lines in his forehead.

“It’s been six years and it hasn’t come back yet, so the chances are slim that it ever will. It’s not impossible, of course, but it’s unlikely. But I still get checkups every six months.”

“Is that why you volunteer at the hospital? Because of what you went through?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I was twenty-three and scared and a mess. I can’t imagine how these little kids feel. Anything I can do to brighten their day, provide a little distraction…I know how much that’s worth.”

“That’s a really beautiful thing that you do,” he said, tracing his thumb over her cheek. “You’re such a beautiful person, Willa. Inside and out.”

Warmth suffused her at his compliment and she leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to his mouth. “You should come with me some time,” she said, snuggling back down against his chest.

“To volunteer?”

“Yeah.” She sat up again, an idea charging through her. “We could use a new superhero. We used to have a Spider-Man who came regularly, but he moved away.” She licked her lips and let her eyes rove over him, taking in the dark wavy hair that she knew was actually curly, the chiseled jaw, the broad, muscular frame. “You’d make an excellent Superman.”

And then, just when she didn’t think she could be any more into him, he blushed. “Yeah?”

“Definitely. I think you’d be a hit.”

He pursed his lips and then nodded. “Okay. I’d like that.”

Affection filled her up, making her feel like a balloon floating on a warm breeze, and she climbed into his lap, trailing kisses over his neck and jaw. “So…” She scraped her teeth over his earlobe and felt his cock twitch against her. “Not to change the subject, but…what are we going to tell people at work?”

He opened his eyes and cupped her face. “What do you want to tell them?”

She shrugged, biting her lip. “I mean, it’s not a