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Friday morning comes and Lilly has met all her pre discharge goals. I’m so proud of the progress she’s made. The doctor comes in and speaks with us about the next steps in treatment. He’s given her an appointment for a surgical clinic near our house for next week. He informs her that she’ll have the colostomy bag for at least six months, and that in order to have it removed she’ll have to undergo a minor surgery with a few days stay in the hospital to recover. He promises that it won’t take as long to heal from that surgery as it did this one.
When he walks out of the room I quietly excuse myself to speak to him in private. I catch him outside the door and I ask him the question that has been wracking my mind for the last few days. Ever since I saw her naked in the shower the other day I’ve been wanting to have sex with her, but in the hospital isn’t the place to do it, at least not in my book. I ask him, “Doctor, when can we start to have sex again?”
He shoots me this confused look at first before it registers that I’m not talking about anal sex, but regular sex. “When she’s six weeks post op. Should be long enough, we don’t want to reopen the surgical site, but definitely not in the anus until after the bag has been removed and she’s healed from that.”
“What about me manually stimulating her, or oral?” I ask the uncomfortable questions that makes the young nurse that is accompanying him on rounds turn red.
He nonchalantly replies, “I wouldn’t do anything until she is fully healed in six weeks.” He turns and heads down the hall I think the questions made him uncomfortable, but he’s not the one that’s going to have to wait six weeks before he can show the woman he loves that he means every word of it.
I drive her home after the hospital discharges her and by the time we arrive at home it’s past midnight. Lilly had fallen asleep almost instantly when we got on the highway. It felt good that she was comfortable enough that she could sleep while I drove us home. Once I’ve unloaded Lilly I head back out to the truck and grab the bags before coming back in and sending Chris a text that we made it home safely.
Little Luke has been worried since his mom has been in the hospital, he was scared that she wouldn’t come home. I tried to calm his fears by calling every night and talking to him giving him the kid friendly update on her progress. He’s starting spring break on Monday and Kathy is glad that Lilly will be home to somewhat enjoy it with him. We both know that Luke will just want to take care of his momma while she’s healing.
They bring him over for a brunch with me and Lilly to check on how she’s feeling. I have to admit that she looks like hell. The hospital doesn’t allow one to really rest. Chris and Kathy promise to keep Luke for the rest of the weekend and they’ll drop him back off late Sunday evening so that we could get two days of real rest.
I decide it’s now or never to ask the question that I had wanted to ask before we had gone to Houston. I look at Luke who is sitting next to his mother and I clear my throat. He knows its our cue. I say, “Luke, I have a question to ask you and your mommy.”
“Yes, mister Anthony.” He replies, having practiced this over and over every night while his mom was in the hospital.
“What do you think about staying with me and your momma here at my place permanently?” He gets a wide smile on his face, even though we’ve had this conversation several times it’s still very appealing to him.
“Yes.” Is all that he replies.
“Luke we can’t live here rent free that’s not how things work. Mister Anthony has been kind enough to let us stay this long, but when your school year is over we are going to have to find a place of our own.” Lilly says to his quick response of my question.
I can see the shock on Kathy and Chris’ faces. I look at Lilly and say, “Lillybear I want you to consider staying with me.”
“I can’t. I can’t freeload it’s not a good example for Luke.”
“You’re not freeloading. I want you and Luke to stay with me as a family.” I explain my reasoning. “If not a married couple at first, but as boyfriend and girlfriend.” Man that sounded so high school.
“Mom, he really cares for us. He’s nothing like Jeff was.” Luke is fighting for me.
Finally, Lilly breathes deep and says, “Okay, but only as a relationship. I can’t do leaps of faith anymore.”
I nod in agreement to her stipulation I’ll wait as long as it takes for her to come around to being in a full time relationship with me and maybe having kids with me. I look at Luke and I say, “Luke if it’s okay with your mom I’d like to share the master bedroom with her. Is that okay with you?”
“Yes. Can I call you daddy?” That wasn’t part of the rehearsed conversation and it throws me for a loop.
My jaw must have hit the table because all eyes are on me instead of Lilly and Luke. I finally recover and say, “Yes Luke you can call me daddy, you just can’t forget your angel daddy. He’s always going to be your real daddy. I only hope that I am a decent enough stand in.” I pause for a second and look at her before finishing what I am saying, “That is if it’s okay with your mom.”