Whatever It Takes by Jessica Pack

Author:Jessica Pack
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2019-03-19T00:00:00+00:00

When the leaves hang trembling.

Trembling.

Trembling.

I spare the thought only that half a second. Then I turn away from him and head into my room, closing the door resolutely behind me.

19

Sienna

I’m out of the shower, wrapping a towel around myself, when Tyson taps on the bathroom door from the guest room. I finish covering myself in time for him to open the door. He looks me over, long and slow, and I use every bit of strength to push away how his look makes me feel. He’s leaving in two hours. Maybe forever. This is what I want.

“How’d you sleep?” he asks.

I can’t tuck the towel in on my right side, and it’s awkward to tuck on my left. I end up just holding the towel in place by keeping my arms wrapped around myself. “Pretty good,” I don’t feel tired as soon as I wake up the way I have since the surgery, and I dare to hope I’ve turned the corner. “You?”

“Like rubbish,” he says, and runs a hand through his hair. He comes into the room and sits on the tub like he did last night when I told him the pathology results. He’s wearing a white T-shirt and plaid pajama bottoms, and I wonder if he wore them to bed or put them on over his boxers before coming to talk to me. “What if we tell your dad before I leave?”

My heart speeds up at the unexpected suggestion. “You’re the one who said I should wait.”

He shakes his head and braces his elbows on his knees. “I know, but last night all I could think about is that you’re going to have to tell him by yourself and manage these treatments and . . . all of it.” He looks up at me with sympathy in his expression. “It’s a lot.”

“It won’t be less today than it will be in a week or a month.”

“You’ll probably be starting radiation treatments in a month.”

The thought of everything lying ahead of me will make me dizzy if I think about it too much. “I’ll tell him when I’m ready.”

“And you’ll be alone.”

I want to say, “I’ve been alone for months.” But that was more my decision than his. What I actually say is, “If we tell him right now, two hours before you leave, then I’ll still be alone to deal with the fallout.” I shake my head. “I’m not ready to tell him, and I really need to get dressed.”

He lets out a sound that’s part groan and part sigh—frustration seeping out around the edges.

I go into my room, closing the bathroom door behind me. I’ve managed to put on my sports bra—in under three minutes this time—and pull on a pair of jeans for the first time since the surgery before Tyson taps on my bathroom door and lets himself in again.

“What if you come to London with me.”

I blink at him and my hands stop in the process of doing up the button of my jeans.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.