Chapter Eighteen

 

“ARE YOU SURE you don’t want me to call Beau?” my dad asks as the orderlies prepare to wheel me into the operating room.

I shake my head. “No. I can’t concentrate on that right now. I’m about to go through a major surgery that is going to change my body forever. I just can’t.”

He nods sadly and steps aside as the orderlies raise the side rails on my gurney. “Time to go,” one says.

Dad steps forward and takes my hand. “I’ll be right here, kiddo. I love you.”

Tears fill my eyes and fear causes my throat to close up. “Love you too,” I choke out.

The surgery itself takes about four hours. Add to that the time spent in recovery, and it’s five and a half hours before I see my father’s smiling face again. I feel groggy and sore, and I have thrown up several times from the anesthetic.

“How are you feeling, honey?”

I smile and take his hand, barely able to move from the pain. “I’ll be okay,” I whisper. My mouth is dry, but I can’t have anything to eat or drink for a while, not until the anesthetic wears off. My eyes fall closed, and for the next little while, I’m in and out of sleep. Every time I take a quick peek, my father is still in the same spot as before, a magazine in his hand, reminding me yet again just how much I love my dad.

I’m finally awake and attempting to eat a small bowl of Jello when the door flies open, and there stands Beau, his eyes frantic. “Am I too late?”

“I’ll just go grab a coffee,” my dad says, giving Beau a nod on his way out the door.

“I missed it, didn’t I?” he asks, his voice laced with pain. “I’m so sorry, Kinsley. Why didn’t you tell me you were having surgery?”

“How did you know?” I ask, my spoon frozen in midair.

“Your father called me.” That surprises me. It’s not like my dad to meddle in my life at all. He steps forward and takes my hand in his. “How are you feeling?”

“Like someone just chopped my boobs off and wrapped them back up in gauze.”

Beau’s eyes fall closed, and he drops his forehead to mine. “God, Kinsley. I can’t even tell you how sorry I am that I wasn’t here. I should never have talked to you the way I did yesterday. I know that you said the media can tangle the truth with their lies, but I saw that picture and I was ready to kill that son of a bitch.”

“I know,” I whisper. “I’m sorry that you had to see it at all. It should never have happened.”

“I promise next time I will ask before flying off the deep end. Do you forgive me?”

I reach up with one hand and tangle my fingers in the hair at the back of his head, tugging his face closer. “Of course.” I press my lips against his and can practically feel the relief radiating off of him. “And there won’t be a next time.”

He pulls back and looks at me, his eyes full of questions. “When I first got that contract, I was naïve. I thought that my life would be the stuff that dreams are made of, you know? But I was wrong. In this instance, it’s true what they say—all that glitters, really isn’t gold. I’m sorry that you got caught up in it, Beau, but I’m going to fix this. I’m going to beat this cancer, and take my life back for myself.”

Beau stares back at me. “I really do love you, Kinsley Brogan.”

I grin. “I love you too, Beau Weston.”