by Naomi Niles
She looked me over and smiled. “Not bad so far,” she said.
“Good,” I gave her a smile of my own. “I’m Kyle.”
“What’s wrong with your head?” Fuck! The ghetto chick behind me. I should have known she’d be a cock-block. I turned towards her with the smile pasted on my face and said,
“Brain surgery.”
“Really?”
I laughed. “Would I lie?”
“It looks all red and irritated…like bugs or something.”
“Valerie! That’s rude!” The cowgirl was sticking up for me. That was nice, but I’d lost my burst of confidence. I grabbed my water and looked back at the pretty one.
“Have a good night,” I told her. I took the water back to our table avoiding Greg’s eyes and the feeling that the girls were staring at the back of my head and wondering what kind of bugs I have. “Hey, asshole,” I said to Greg as I sat down. “You said you got the hair back there to cover my bald spot.”
“Did they really say something, man?” he looked incredulous and shot the girls a mean look.
“Stop looking at them. Yes, the ghetto princess pointed it out. She says it looks like I have bugs.” His lips twitched, but he caught himself.
“Turn around, I’ll fix it.”
“You’re not putting your hands on me out here in public. I’ll keep my head to the wall, thanks.”
“Come on, man. Not all women are going to be assholes about it.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m not in the mood for it tonight, anyways.”
“Kyle-”
“Let it go.” The waitress brought our beer over and by the time we finished it, I saw Greg gawking at a blonde a few tables over with her friend. “Go talk to her,” I told him. He grinned.
“Thanks, but I don’t need any encouragement. I’m just waiting for her friend to…and there she goes. I’ll be back…maybe.” I rolled my eyes and watched Casanova make his way over to her.
“Excuse me…” I looked up into the pretty hazel eyes of the cowgirl with the rude friend. “I’m sorry to bother you. I just wanted to apologize for my cousin. She’s from back east and they talk different to people back there. Half the time she doesn’t even realize how rude she’s being.”
“It’s really okay,” I told her.
“It’s really not okay and I’m really sorry. I hope you have a good night.”
“What’s your name?”
She smiled. She was really pretty. “Callie.”
“Can I buy you a drink, Callie?”
She sat down. “Sure, I’d like that.”
“Are you from Dallas, Callie?”
“Austin originally,” she said. I waved the waitress over. “I came to Dallas for school. I got offered a job right after I graduated, so I stayed.”
“What do you do?”
“I’m a legal assistant. I start law school next fall.”
“Oh, wow, that’s cool.” I never used to be picky, but lately, I appreciated a girl who had a brain. Maybe I was finally doing what my sister spent the last ten years telling me to do…growing up.
“Yeah, my dad’s a lawyer and I’ve always wanted to be one. What do you do?”
“I’m an architect.” The waitress came over, and Callie ordered a beer and I ordered another one.
“That’s cool. Can I ask you a personal question?” Callie asked after the waitress had left.
“Sure.”
“Were you serious about having brain surgery?”
“Yeah, I had a tumor.”
“Oh wow… God, I just feel so bad about my stupid cousin.”
“Please don’t. It really is fine. The spot back there now isn’t from the surgery. I’m having radiation treatments because it was growing again.”
“Oh my goodness! Is it cancer?”
“No, it’s benign.”
“I’m so sorry,” she sounded so sincere. I smiled at her again.
“It’s really okay. Let’s talk about something else, something fun. No more tumor talk.”
She laughed. “Okay, no more tumor talk. What do you do for fun, Kyle?”
For the next hour, we talked. She was an only child and liked to ride horses and race dirt bikes of all things. She was smart and funny, and for the first time in months, an entire hour passed that I didn’t think about Amber. I had no idea where Greg had gone and I didn’t care. I was the object of a beautiful woman’s attention – a thing I needed very badly. I’m not sure where her “rude” cousin went either, but it was the Ghetto Princess that finally interrupted us. “Callie are you ready to go?”
She looked at me and back at her cousin. “Um, yeah, give me a minute. I’ll be right there.” The cock-block gave me a disgusted look before she walked away. I guess it was the “bugs.” “Wow, I don’t know what her problem is…”
I laughed. “Don’t apologize for her again,” I told her. “I’m glad she shared you with me for a little while.” I winked at her.
“Me, too.”
“Can I get your number, Callie? Maybe we could have dinner or something sometime?” I got the feeling from talking to her that she wasn’t the kind of girl who was going to come home with me tonight. As much as my cock objected to that, I appreciated that there were nice girls left in the world.
“I’d like that,” she said, “Can I see your phone?” I handed it to her and she put her name and number in it. “Text me in a bit and then I’ll have yours, too.”
“I will. Thanks, Callie.”
“Thank you, Kyle. It was nice to spend some time with a guy who wasn’t falling down drunk and trying to paw me.”
The old Kyle sneaked in for a second. “You don’t like being pawed.”
She stood up and grinned down at me. “It depends on who’s doing the pawing,” she told me with a wink. I’ve still got it.
CHAPTER TWENTY
AMBER
“Amber! There’s someone here to see you!” Joyce was yelling at me from the front. I was in the middle of a session.
“Busy!” I yelled back.
“Can you just take a little break and come out?” she asked me, sticking her head in the back.
“Joyce…”
“Two minutes,” she said.
“Do you mind, Mr. Moyer?”
“No, Amber, my old hip could use a break,” he said. “Just don’t forget me,” he said with a wink. He was a seventy-two year old who had hip replacement surgery recently. He was a shameless old flirt, but adorable.
“I could never,” I told him. I followed Joyce out front, wondering what the hell could be so important. The largest bouquet of flowers I’ve ever seen sat in a three foot tall vase in the center of the lobby. They were tropical flowers and I could even smell them from where I was standing. “Oh my gosh! They’re so pretty! Who brought them?”
“The florist dropped them off, but there’s more, I’ll finish up with Mr. Moyer. You go out front. Take your lunch break.”
“I don’t want to just ditch him in the middle of a session.”
“You do for this. Go.”
She was acting crazy. I grabbed my coat and scarf off the rack in the lobby and pulled them on. I pushed through the door and there was Dylan with a horse drawn carriage. Dylan was dressed in a black sweater and jeans and new black boots and cowboy hat. He was clean shaven – and he looked good enough to eat. Slowly over the past couple of weeks after I forced Kyle out of my conscious thoughts, I was able to start seeing Dylan the way I had when I’d fallen in love with him. “What is all of this?”
“It’s your birthday,” he said.
I laughed. “Yes, I know. I was there when I was born. Those flowers in there would have been quite enough. Where are we going on this guy?”
“You’ll see,” he said. He helped me up into the white buggy and followed me in. The driver tipped his hat and as he took off, Dylan covered me up with a thick blanket. The driver took us through downtown and we ultimately ended up at White Rock Lake.
As the driver
parked the buggy, Dylan reached behind the seat and pulled out a picnic basket. “I brought lunch,” he said with a grin. This was all so out of character for him, it freaked me out a little bit.
“I can’t believe you did all of this.”
He slid down off the buggy and helped me down. “It’s about time, don’t you think?” I just smiled and followed him over to a plush spot on the grass and watched him spread out the blanket. When he finished, he reached for my hand. I thought he wanted to help me sit down and I didn’t even notice he was on one knee until he flipped open the little box in his hand. “Amber, will you marry me?”
My mind was racing. I couldn’t believe he was proposing. I couldn’t believe I had waited so long for this and now I was just not sure. I couldn’t believe he went so far out of his comfort zone to do all of this for me.
That was the bottom line. Everything he’d done for the past four months had been for me, or at least, for us. I smiled at him through the tears of confusion in my eyes and said, “Yes Dylan. I’ll marry you.” He looked relieved. He slid the ring on my finger. It was a little big, but it was gorgeous.
Coming to his feet, he said, “If you don’t like it, we can exchange it.”
“I love it. Did you pick it out by yourself?”
“Not really. My mom went with me.”
“Well, you both did well. I love it. Thank you.” He took me into his arms and kissed me. It was a kiss like we used to share in the old days, and it actually sent chills through me.
When he broke the kiss, he looked into my eyes and said, “Thank you, Amber. Thank you for helping me clean up my life and thank you for sticking by my side. I don’t know what I’d do without you and I can’t stand the thought of ever having to find out. I love you.”
That was the longest speech Dylan ever made in the history of our relationship. Things sure had changed…for the better. “I love you, too.”
I kissed him again and for a second while I was kissing my fiancé, my mind flashed over to Kyle. I hadn’t seen him for six weeks now. Every so often I thought about texting to tell him I hope that he was doing well, but that would be like scratching off a scab for me. It would start bleeding all over again and eventually form a scar. I left it alone and now that I saw how happy I’d made Dylan, I was glad… For the most part.
*******
That night after work, Dylan went out to his father’s ranch to drop off one of the horses for the vet to see. I held my phone in my hand for a long time, trying to prepare myself for giving this news to my mother, father, and sisters. I practiced it out loud…and then again, adding: “Please don’t say anything until I finish.” I knew at least one, if not all of them, were going to interrupt me halfway through and demand to know what the hell I was thinking, so I prepared a speech in my head about me and Dylan, how well he’s been doing, and how well we’re doing as a couple… I was still scared. I finally pushed in Marlene’s number and waited. She’d at least been around a few times and could see how happy he’s made me lately.
“Hey, little sister, I was just about to call you. Happy Birthday!”
“Hey, thank you. I got your Facebook message, too, that was cute.”
“You’re welcome; are you having a good one?”
“Yeah, it was really good. Dylan sent me flowers at work and then took me in a carriage ride and for a picnic.”
“Hmm.”
I laughed nervously. “Really, Marlene? Hmm… That’s all you have to say? That’s monumental for Dylan.”
“I’ll agree with you on that. He’s still on his best behavior.”
“And, why is that not a good thing?”
She hesitated. “I’m just afraid it won’t last.”
“You know, for a while after we first got together I felt that way, too, but you really don’t know about anyone, do you? I mean, anyone can change, right? Look at you and Steve.” Steve was Marlene’s ex-husband who was currently battling her for custody of Nona. She hesitated longer this time and said,
“Okay, I’ll give you that. I’m glad he stopped showing his ass.” I laughed again.
“Well, I have more news…”
“What?”
“Dylan proposed to me today…and I said yes.” I waited…and waited…finally I said, “Marlene? Are you there?”
She cleared her throat. I think she was actually crying. “Amber, honey, are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
She didn’t have much to say after that. She didn’t congratulate me and she didn’t mention the lunch date we had with my mom, dad, and sisters this weekend at the ranch to have a family celebration for my birthday. I didn’t call my mom or my other sisters. I decided I’d just tell them this weekend and let them all tell me how stupid I am at once.
Instead of planning a big wedding, I was already thinking that maybe Dylan and I should go to Vegas. Nobody in either family was going to be overly happy about it. His family thinks I’m as much of the problem as mine does him. None of them have even spoken to me since the night I had him arrested. I’m surprised his mother was willing to help him pick out a ring. My dad wouldn’t even allow Dylan to set foot on the ranch since Marlene told him what he said that night about burning her house down. It was all so depressing and the more I thought about it, the more depressed I became.
I sat there looking at my pretty ring and felt sorry for myself. When Dylan came home, he found me sitting in the dark in tears. I told him how I felt about our families as he held me and let me cry. When I’d calmed down some he said,
“If you could get married anywhere you want, where would it be?”
“I’ve always wanted to get married on the ranch like Marlene and Steve did by the lake.” When I was a kid, my dad had a lake put in on our property. Over the years, he’s had trees planted and grass and flowers. It’s like a secret garden. My sister had her wedding there and it was the most beautiful wedding I’d ever been to. I always imagined getting married there, too. He pulled me in tighter to his chest and kissed the top of my head,
“Then, that’s where we’ll get married. I’ll go talk to your dad in the morning.” That made me cry harder. First of all that he would do that for me, and second of all because I knew Daddy would say no.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
KYLE
Callie and I sat in the waiting room of the doctor’s office. I had finished my last radiation treatment two weeks ago and today I’d had my scan. The radiologist was here, so he and Dr. Grant were behind closed doors looking at it while we waited. Callie gripped onto my hand like she was expecting the worst. It was really sweet of her to be here. We’ve only been dating for less than a month, so it wasn’t like I expected her to come, but she insisted. The only problem was that she was so nervous it was actually worse than being here listening to Sarah complain about how long they’re taking or how badly the office needs to be repainted.
“Kyle?” The nurse came out of the back. “Dr. Grant is ready to see you now.” I stood up and brought Callie to her feet with me.
“You want me to go back with you?”
“Of course. You sat here with me all day. You get to hear the good news with me.”
She smiled. “Thank you,” she said, like I was inviting her to lunch instead of the inner sanctum of my oncologist’s office.
Dr. Grant and Dr. Bromfield, the radiologist, were both waiting for us. I introduced Callie as we sat down. Dr. Grant had the MRI in front of him, and he handed it to me. I stared at it for a minute and then said, “I really don’t know what I’m looking at.”
“Well, son, you are looking at a clean bill of health right there. The radiation didn’t just shrink it. Can you see the difference in this one?” He lay the picture of my last MRI down next to this one. The only difference I could see was a spot that looked lit up, like a little nightlight in my head.
“The light is gone,” I said as I pointed to it.
He smiled. “The light, as you call it, was the tumor. The contrast picks it
up on the MRI as light. When the tissue is dead or gone, there’s no light. After your surgery, the part we left because of the blood vessels still lit up on the scans. Once it began growing, the light got bigger. No light now means all dead tissue.”
I smiled as I processed what he was saying. There wasn’t any left like last time. It was all gone. “Really?” I finally asked. I felt Callie clamp down on my hand.
He chuckled. “Really. I wouldn’t lie.”
I remembered all of the times he told me bad news and knew he didn’t have a big problem with that, so he had to be telling it to me straight. “That’s awesome. Thank you both.”
“You did the hard work,” Dr. Grant said after they both shook my hand. “I still want to follow up with you every three months for the next year, though, okay? Don’t go MIA on me with your newfound tumor-less brain.”
I laughed. “You give me the appointment Doc, and I’ll be here.” I thanked them again and as we were leaving the office he said,
“Kyle?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you still going to therapy?”
“Um, no, I finished that right before my radiation.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You look great, don’t get me wrong, but you’re still dragging that foot a little.”
I looked down at it to keep from looking him in the eyes and said, “I get lazy sometimes when I’m tired, but most of the time, it’s okay. Thanks, Doc.” I pulled Callie out behind me before he could say anything else. When we got into the lobby she hugged me.
“I’m so happy for you!” she said. “But what he said about therapy…”
“The therapist signed off on it,” I said, letting it go at that. “I’m happy for me, too. How about we go out somewhere really nice tonight and celebrate?”
“I’m always up for somewhere really nice,” she said with a grin. “What did you have in mind?”
“What about The French Room?”
Her pretty eyes went wide. “Really?” she looked at the time on her phone. “Could you get a reservation this late?”
The French Room was a high end restaurant that’s actually been on almost every show about food on television and every magazine, as well. It’s not a place I go often, but I actually helped with designs on some of the renovations a few years back. The place was built in 1912 and they wanted the renovations to fit with the old style architecture. I love old buildings and it’s kind of my specialty. The manager and I are tight and I happen to know he sets aside a couple of tables on Friday and Saturday nights for what he calls his “special” guests.