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)
Dante grunted. “Considering I’m already paying him…”
“I’m a Jack of all trades.” Rafe laughed.
“You’re a pain in the ass,” Dante said as he stood. “Thanks for the help.”
Then he shook all the hands in the room, including Janie’s, but excluding Rafe’s.
“I expect you to let my brother know that you weren’t on the clock today,” Dante grunted.
Rafe laughed then.
“I’ll be sure to do that.”
Then Rafe left.
“Janie, you got those papers?”
Janie jumped and turned to look at Sam guiltily. “Uhhh, yeah. Sorry. I’ll get them right now.”
Then she was gone, disappearing less quietly than Rafe had.
“Gonna be a problem.”
I looked over to see Jack talking to Sam.
Sam grunted. “Don’t start.”
“It’s gonna happen,” Max said.
“What’s gonna happen?”
All the men looked at me, and Sam grimaced. “Janie has a small crush.”
No, Janie had a big crush. One that was going to get her in trouble, apparently. But, if I was a woman that looked like Janie, I’d have a crush on the bad guy, too.
“Hmm,” I muttered, then smiled. “Thanks for helping us!”
I offered my hand to each man, and every single one of them squeezed it lightly, like they were afraid to break me.
I grimaced.
Yet another thing that I didn’t like about having cancer. Once people knew you had it, they treated you differently.
Before, they might’ve just given me a handshake. Now they were looking at me like I was about to die any second.
Guess I had a whole lot more of that to look forward to, didn’t I?
Chapter 9
There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who put their ketchup on the plate, and the weirdos who squeeze it directly onto their fries.
-Sincerely, Cobie, a fellow weirdo
Cobie
“I want you to make me a promise.”
My brows rose as my hand stilled on the handle of the truck door. “What?”
My eyes met his, and I could practically feel the energy that he was trying to keep contained.
“I want you to call me if you think he's putting any pressure on you whatsoever.”
I pursed my lips. “I don't think...”
He shook his head and held up his hand. “I don't live here. I have no clue if anything is wrong unless I come up here. You’ve already said you weren't leaving. You've also said that you're not giving up this house, and I understand that. Respect it even. But I have no way of knowing if you're in trouble if you don't tell me. Help me keep you safe.”
I groaned. “Fine.”
I pushed the door open, but he stopped me with a hand on my thigh.
I froze.
“One other thing.”
I waited.
“Give the treatment a chance.” I opened my mouth to say something, but he squeezed my thigh lightly, telling me without words that he wasn't through. “The world would be a lesser place without you in it.”
***
Three days later
“The world would be a lesser place without you in it.”
I replayed those words over and over again in my mind as I made my way into the office.
This place literally scared the crap out of me.
I'd spent some of the roughest months of my life here.
Cried here. Sweated. Cursed. Moaned and groaned.
This was also the place where I was set free again but where Marianne lost her battle.
Well, not at this exact office building, but this was the place where Dr. Todd told her that she wouldn't make it out of this alive. The same place that I’d left just a week ago, telling myself I'd never be back.
Yet, here I was.
The world would be a lesser place without you.
Dante's words replayed through my head during check-in as I played the waiting game in the waiting room, and all the way up until the moment when Dr. Todd came into the room.
He looked happy to see me, and I immediately felt like an ass for leaving the way I did last week.
“Cobie.”
I gave Dr. Todd a smile.
“I'm glad you came back.”
I shrugged. “I gotta be honest with you. I wasn't planning on it. But a friend gave me a few wise words, and I knew he wouldn't be okay if I didn't fight.”
“Drake Garwood?”
I shook my head. “No. His name is Dante.”
Then I blushed.
Dr. Todd smiled. “Like that, is it?”
I opened my mouth to deny it, but the words wouldn't come. Dr. Todd's smile widened.
I blushed harder.
He started to laugh, and I did, too.
He sobered a few moments later, and then he pulled out a computer, which he hooked up to a cord.
A picture of what I guessed was my breast flickered to life on the screen.
“Here’s your left breast.”
I nodded.
“This is the cancer. However, with as close as it is to this lymph node, we’re going to offer two suggestions.”
I listened as he explained what he thought I should do, and then I looked at my fingernails.
“You can do a lumpectomy, where we’d just remove the tumor and the surrounding tissue,” Dr. Todd began. “Or, you can opt to do a modified radical mastectomy, which means we’d take the entire breast, including the nipple, the breast tissue, as well as the surrounding lymph nodes.”