Chapter Twelve
She shook her head and started to pull her hand from his. He tightened his hold.
“Listen to me, Aubrey. This isn’t something I’m jumping into. I’ve given it a lot of thought. I have two kidneys and I only need one. You don’t have a working kidney at all and you only need one. Let me do this for you. Please.”
“I had a transplant years ago,” she said, her voice quivering. “I was twenty. I’d been on dialysis for almost four years.”
“What happened?” he asked, forehead crinkled.
“It was a three antigen match. That’s not bad. That’s about what you’d get from a sibling.”
“So…one of your brothers gave you a kidney?”
She shook her head. “There are certain occupations that transplant doctors don’t like to take donations from. Occupations where injury might take the remaining kidney. Firefighters, police officers… One of my brothers is police officer, the other one is in the military.”
“They can’t donate without giving up their careers, and you wouldn’t ask them to do that. Not even if it means saving your life?”
She cleared her throat and took a small sip of water. “I told you the transplant I had was a three antigen match. I rejected it ten months later. What if I’d taken a kidney from one of my brothers? They would have given up a career they loved just so I could get off of dialysis for ten months.”
Of course only someone who’d been on dialysis could understand what a gift ten months off the machine had been.
He squeezed her hand. “I’m not a police officer, a firefighter, or a solider. I’m a photographer. I’m not likely to lose a kidney in my line of work.”
She stared at the white table cloth and bit her bottom lip so hard it hurt.
“Aubrey. I am crazy about you.”
She looked up into his blue eyes and saw the truth there.
“I wake up in the morning thinking about things I want to say to you. I fall asleep at night wishing you were in my arms. This is new to me, and it’s sweet and fresh. For the first time in my life I’m with a woman I couldn’t bear to be without. I feel angry and cheated thinking that a few months may be all we have together.”
His voice was tense, his eyes bright. “A kidney is a very small thing to give, to keep the woman I love with me.”
“Most people wouldn’t think it’s a sm— Wait a minute. You love me?”
“You didn’t know?”
She shook her head.
“Well, now that you do, will you let me do this for you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Aubrey, it’s as much a gift to me as it is to you. It’s a chance to keep the woman I love alive and with me for years to come.” He grinned and she found herself smiling back although she had no idea what he was going to say next.
“I like the thought of there being a little piece of me inside of you.”
The first tear spilled, rolling down her cheek to be joined by others.
Aubrey took a deep breath, releasing it slowly. She nodded.
“I love you, Jim Tanner.”
“In that case, will you do me the honor of accepting one of my kidneys?”
****
She called her transplant doctor first thing in the morning, letting him know she had someone wanting to be tested as a possible donor. She didn’t call her brothers, preferring to wait until she knew for certain if Jim would be able to give her a kidney.
She told Tess, who hugged her so hard she thought her ribs would crack.
“When?” Tess asked when she finally let Aubrey go. “I know you’ll have to be in the hospital and then you’ll be recovering for a while. I’ll watch the shop for you. The boys can come in after school and give me a hand. They won’t mind a bit. They’ve both been praying for you to get a kidney.”
Aubrey laughed. “Not so fast. I just agreed to accept the kidney last night. We still don’t know if he’ll even be able to donate.”
“When will you know?”
“He had to go over to the transplant center this morning and pick up the paperwork. As soon as he fills that out he can begin testing.”
****
She knew something was wrong the minute Jim walked in the door of the shop.
“What is it?” she asked, flipping the open sign to closed. “Is your father all right?”
“Dad’s fine. I need to talk to you though.”
“All right.” She put Einstein on her shoulder before leading Jim upstairs, the weight on her heart growing with each step. She unlocked the door, put the parrot on his perch and turned to Jim.
“Now are you going to tell me what’s wrong?”
He led her to a chair, sat down and pulled her onto his lap.
“You know I love you?” he asked.
She nodded, feeling the muscles in her throat begin to grow tight before he said another word. Whatever he had to say, it wasn’t going to be good.
“I picked up the paperwork at the transplant center and filled it out. I turned it in the same day.”
She nodded, pressing the palm of one hand against his cheek. “Are you all right?”
He tried to say something, the words coming out choked. He cleared his throat and tried again. “It’s my blood type. I’m B negative.”
She was O positive.
“So you can’t donate to me,” she said, proud of how calm she sounded as her hopes for a future crashed around her.
He held her tight, his cheek resting against the top of her head. “Please don’t give up. Someone told me about a type of exchange. I can’t donate directly to you, but there may be someone out there needing a kidney who has a family member that can’t donate to them but could donate to you and—”
“I know someone who received a kidney that way,” she said, trying to sound upbeat.
“It’ll be all right,” he said. “We’ll find you a kidney.”