“Let’s stay in a motel for the night.”
“We’re an hour and a half from home tops. Lauren and Sophie will want to see you too.”
“Do they know?”
“Lauren does, Sophie doesn’t. I told her your contract ended early because I figured you would want to tell her together. Hell, I need us to tell her together.”
“So call them and tell them we’re staying the night. I want some time with you alone before I face the real world again.” There were plenty of motels around the airport, and once they were in their room Mark sat on the bed and pulled Cassie to him., “I love you.”
“I love you too,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“What are we going to do?”
“I’ll go see a doctor, confirm the diagnosis and we’ll find out about treatment options. We’ll beat this, Cassie, I’m not letting anything separate me from you.”
There were tears in her eyes now. “As if I would let you go that easily anyway.”
“Let’s go to bed. I want to make love and forget the rest of the world for just a little while.”
She nodded, smiling at him. “That sounds real good to me.”
Cassie was glad they had stayed the next day. Telling Sophie was the hardest thing she thought she had ever done. “Dad has cancer?”
She nodded, and Mark squeezed Sophie’s hand. “That’s what the doctor says love. Now I’m home, and we’ll go see a doctor here and find out how to get rid of it.”
Sophie hugged Mark tight. “I hope they can fix it quickly, Dad. One of the kids at school had cancer, but he died. I don’t want you to die.”
“I’m sure I’ll be fine, Soph. How can I not with the love of you two? Best girls ever.”
Cassie wiped her face. “Are you okay, Mum?” Sophie asked.
“I’ll be happy when Dad gets the all-clear sweetheart.”
“Me too.”
Cassie saw the concern in Mark’s eyes. Since he had insisted on spending the night in the motel, and had been so tender that night she was sure that it was worse than he was letting on. Now she knew for sure.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Patrick Cross rolled over in bed. Another dream featuring Cassie. He didn’t understand why, it was twelve years since they’d last seen each other. Yet there she was, night after night, taunting him.
One fumbled coupling before she broke up with him and here he was all these years later, waking up with a woody at the memory of her. She was his first and the one he had genuinely been in love with. For years, he had regretted the time he hadn’t spent with her, the years that he had been too afraid to tell her how he had felt in fear of being rejected.
He battled the depression that went with being dumped by the girl you’ve loved all your life. Over time, he fought back, becoming a highly skilled cosmetic surgeon, very much in demand.
It would have been easy to pack his bags and leave the country, and he had done for a while, but he came back in the hope that one day he would get another chance with her though every day that passed that looked less likely. In the meantime, he filled his life with empty affairs in the hope that he would find something that resembled what he felt for Cassie. No luck so far.
Now he had to deal with this morning’s result of that obsession. “Hmmm. Speaking of obsession, I need to get out of bed and go deal with Emily.”
He stood in the shower, letting the water fall over him, Cassie still in his thoughts. Patrick didn’t know why she had been on his mind so much lately, he thought of her off and on over the years but not as much as recently.
Patrick pushed it to the back of his thoughts as he dressed and headed into his clinic for a very difficult meeting. Emily Shaw had been in a serious car accident, and a series of surgeries helped the young woman regain her appearance from the scarred mess she had been before. Progress was slow as Patrick had not wanted to push to too hard, but his gentle way had won her over and he decided to pass her care onto another doctor as she had grown too attached.
A few mornings before, he had looked out his bedroom window. She was in the street below, staring up at his apartment. Uncomfortable, he called her parents who collected her, but she screamed dementedly at them to leave her alone. She was with Patrick, and that was all that mattered to her. It had been more than her body affected by the accident.
That was why he had thought about Cassie so much lately. He had spent hours sitting out the front of his house when she’d dumped him, looking up at her room where she stayed for days as if she'd had her heart broken. In that way, he understood Emily.
Today was the day that he would sit down with her, Emily's parents and Ethan, who was taking over her care. With the majority of her treatment completed, there wasn’t much opportunity for her to become attached to Ethan, and while he knew she would fight it, he also knew his patient would be in good hands. He could have just handed over care, but Patrick had too big a heart for that and wanted to communicate the change properly.
Arriving in the office, he was greeted by Ethan at the door. “You’re here early,” Patrick said, laughing and patting the other man on the back.
“It’s more that you are running late,” chided Ethan.
Patrick had learned a lot from Ethan over the years. He had complete faith in him, and he was the only choice to hand over Emily’s care to.
“Are you ready for this?” asked Ethan.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” replied Patrick nervously.
“It’s for the best.”
“I agree. We can’t have any incidents like the other day, or worse.”
Ethan nodded.
When they entered the building Angela, the receptionist and the new junior whose name Patrick couldn’t remember both looked up at them. “Good morning, Doctor Cross, Doctor Stone,” said Angela brightly.
“Angela, we’ve got Emily Shaw and her parents coming in soon. Ethan and I are in my office if you could show them straight in.”
She nodded. “Time for her to change doctors?”
“It is.”
“You should stop being charming. That’s your problem.”
“I can’t help it.”
Angela was like a second mother to him. She took him under her wing when he first started at the clinic, and he was like another child to her. Recently she’d wanted some help with the accounts that she hated doing, so the partners gave her permission to hire a junior. Now this young brunette with the doe eyes was looking right at Patrick as he flirted with Angela.
He averted his gaze. Another obsessed teenager was all he needed right now. One was more than enough, and soon she would become Ethan’s problem. She didn’t have much surgery left, a couple of skin grafts, but it wasn’t worth it to keep dealing with her. He was a consummate professional when it came to clients, and he wasn’t about to start screwing with his career.
When the family arrived, Angela showed them through to the office. Emily beamed at the sight of Patrick but cowered when she saw his frown.
“Thank you for seeing us,” her father said, “I’m glad that you agreed to meet after what happened. We agree with the course of action, but of course we need to make sure Emily is clear on what’s about to happen.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked anxiously.
“Well, Emily,” said Patrick, “given what has happened it’s time that you changed doctor. So Doctor Stone is here to meet you, and he’ll be handling the remainder of your surgery and aftercare.”
“But you’re my doctor,” she said blankly.
Her father stepped in. “Doctor Cross won’t be your doctor anymore, Emily, we’ll be seeing Doctor Stone from now on.”
“Dad? Patrick is my doctor.”
Patrick closed his eyes. This was what he was afraid of.
“He’s not Patrick darling, he’s Doctor Cross. That’s what he is sweetheart, a doctor. So now you’ll be seeing another doctor.”
“I don’t want to see another doctor, I want Patri
ck.”
The words had a double meaning, and Patrick tried hard to keep his expression straight at them. This was awkward.
“Doctor Stone is a very good friend of mine and he will take good care of you Emily.”
“He’s not you.”
“No, but he’s as good, if not better than me.”
“If you would like, Emily, we can go to one of the other offices here to discuss your case. Then next time we can meet at my clinic,” said Ethan.
Emily’s parents led her away, and Patrick could feel her eyes on him all the way out the door. He stayed seated thinking about what had happened. It was awful seeing her that day being led away when she wanted to be near him, but he wanted to make sure she was taken care of.
His mind wandered back to Cassie, and he wondered what she was doing right now. Was she married? Did she have children? He thought often about what life might have been like had they stayed together, and he was sure they would be happily married with children.
“You need to snap out of this,” he murmured before getting on with his day, but in the night, back at home he thought of her again. This was getting beyond a joke.
It was early morning when he had enough of trying to sleep, and he decided to drive north and see his parents. Anything to distract himself from this. He sat in the living room with his mother in silence for nearly half an hour when she asked him what was going on.
“Patrick? Is there anything wrong? You’ve been sitting there for half an hour not talking, and it’s not like you.”
“You’re not going to like what I have to say, that’s why,” he replied.
Her brow furrowed. “What’s going on?”
“Mum, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Cassie.”
She closed her eyes. “Wasn’t that out of your system a long time ago?”
“I thought so, but I keep wondering what happened.”
“Patrick, you may never find that out, but that girl did your head in all those years ago. Why would you want to dig that all up again?”
“Because I was in love with her Mum and I thought she loved me too. I need some closure.”
“It’s been twelve years, Patrick, let it go. She’s gone off and lived her life, and you need to live yours.”
“I have been. It’s something that has kept on bugging me, and I can’t let it go that easily.”
“Why now?”
“She’s been on my mind a lot lately. I should try to find her, to get some answers.”
“And then what sweetheart? What if she’s happily married and you turn up on her door. This might not be a good idea for either of you.”
“It’s not going to hurt for her to tell me why she walked away from us.”
“Patrick, love, I remember how hard it was to pull you out of whatever you got into when you broke up. Do you really want to dredge all of that up?”
Patrick admitted his mother had a point and he sighed, shaking his head. “Don’t do anything rash. It was a long time ago, and you both should have moved on by now.”
“I really loved her, Mum.”
“I know love. I know only too well how much you loved her as I was the one picking up the pieces afterwards.”
She was getting upset now, and Patrick hugged her to apologise. “Sorry, Mum, I didn’t mean to upset you. It’s really bothering me, but I will think hard about reaching out to her.”
“Thank you. I don’t want you to go through what you did all over again, that’s all.”
He grinned. “I’m a bit more mature now though. Come on, Mum, you know what a ladies man I am now.”
She laughed. “I’m sure there’s a lot you get up to but underneath all that is a very big heart and one that’s been broken before. Be careful love.”
By the time Patrick went home, he’d already made up his mind about one thing. To track down Cassie Warren and get some answers. Then maybe she would stop haunting his dreams, leaving him with body parts that wouldn’t behave.
Then again she could be interested in becoming intimate again with said body parts. He didn't think he would turn that down. Either way, hopefully soon he would find out why the love of his life dumped him without warning.
He only knew it was something to do with the night of the party. She hadn’t turned up when she said she would be there, and he’d consumed a lot of alcohol. There was a point in the evening where he stopped remembering what happened, and the following day Cassie wanted nothing to do with him and wouldn’t even talk to him to tell him what happened.
Patrick tried to find more details, but his friends were less than helpful. He’d dealt with his irate parents the next day when they came home to a trashed house. Somehow he had to work it out to get closure and soon.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“We need a second opinion.”
“We have a second opinion, Cass, you’re wanting a third opinion.”
“I don’t care if we have to get twenty opinions.”
“Love, nothing is going to change. We have to accept that.”
“I don’t have to accept anything.” Cassie burst into tears, and Mark reached for her.
“Come here.”
She cried, feeling his strong arms around her and knowing there would be a time maybe soon that she would never feel them round her again. “We’ll go to Auckland, find a specialist there. There has to be someone,” she whispered.
“Whatever you want love, you find us another specialist, and we’ll see what they say.”
She knew he was humouring her. They were going to get the same answer no matter what. If only they’d found it sooner, there would be more hope, but it was advanced. Cassie suspected that Mark had felt not quite right for a while, but he had never been one to complain. Not that any of that mattered anymore. It didn’t take long to find someone and soon they were planning the drive to Auckland to see yet another doctor.
Lauren offered to stay with Sophie as Cassie wanted to stop for the night. As they were likely to get bad news, she thought she might not want to drive home. “You never know love, maybe this guy will come up with some miracle.”
“We can only hope.” Cassie was driving. If she had the road to concentrate on, it stopped her from thinking about anything else. It seemed to be working so far. Finding their way around the hospital wasn’t too difficult and they soon sat in the waiting room. Cassie fidgeted while they waited, chewing on her fingernails.
Mark pulled her hand away from her face and squeezed it. “You’re anxious love, it’s all right.”
“How are you so calm?” she asked.
“I think about you and Sophie. You’re my rock, Cassie, and now that’s about to change as I have to be strong for you now.”
“Shouldn’t that be the other way around?”
He shook his head. “You’re the one who will be left behind to cope with everything. I might not be around for much longer, but while I’m here I’ll do my damnedest to take care of you.”
“You’re going to make me cry,” she whispered.
“Don’t you dare.” He winked at her, and she laughed through her tears. It was typical Mark. She was numb as they went over the diagnosis. It was the same story again, and any hope had faded. “Cassie, love, why don’t you go and get a coffee. I just want to talk to the doctor alone for a bit.”
Cassie stared at him. “I thought we were doing this together?”
“We are but I need a bit of time. Please, love.”
She nodded, wondering what it was all about but nodded at the doctor and did as she had been asked to do. Cassie walked into the coffee shop and ordered, sitting in the far corner away from anyone else where she could try to gather her thoughts. Her emotions were overwhelming at the thought of Mark’s illness.
Soon she would be saying goodbye to the only man who had ever truly loved her and her heart was breaking at the thought. She’d tried to hold it in despite Mark urging her to let it out. “Always the strong one,” she said to herself. She’d had to be, the t
ime she’d spent as a single mum had seen to that. With no one else to fight for her, she’d had to be strong.
The coffee arrived, and she sat and stared at it for a while, afraid to move for fear of letting go. It happened anyway, and the tears flowed again as she clutched the hot cup, pulling it closer. Her anguish struggling to burst from her she fought it back and found herself sobbing quietly, unable to hold it in.
“Cassie?” Came a voice, “Cassie Warren?”
The voice was familiar and reluctantly she lifted her head, peering up at the person standing in front of her through her wet eyelashes. Her eyes widened when she saw it was Patrick, and her heart skipped a beat realising he had barely changed since their teens. “In comparison I must look terrible,” she thought to herself. “Patrick.”
“I thought it was you, you’ve not changed a bit. Are you okay? You look upset.”
“I’m fine.”
He sat beside her. “You are clearly not fine, Cassie, I can see you have been crying. What’s wrong?”
She breathed in sharply. “My partner. He has..” She stumbled over the words and had to take another breath to get the last, whispered word out. “Cancer”
“Oh shit, Cassie, I’m so sorry.” Patrick put his arm around her, moving slightly so no one could see she was in distress. “Is he getting treatment love?”
Cassie shook her head. “There wasn’t much point, he has melanoma, and it’s spread.” Now he saw how red and teary her eyes were. “He’s going to die, Patrick, I can’t do a damn thing about it and it’s killing me.”
“Have you told him?” he asked.
“No. I can’t put my feelings onto him. He has enough to deal with at the moment without worrying about me.”
“I bet he worries anyway. Where is he now?”
“With Doctor Latimer, we came up from Hamilton for a second opinion, but it sounded like the first. Mark wanted some time to talk to the doctor alone, which is why I’m here.”
He nodded. “There will be a lot of questions he needs to ask, I’m sure you have some too.”
Another Chance Page 11