Shady Bay (15 page)

Laughing, he tried to get his breath. I swatted his arm. “Hey!”

“I’m sorry. That was not ninja. That was little league football.”

My mouth gaped open. Tears were falling out of his eyes he was laughing so hard. When he stopped to wipe them, I lowered my shoulder again and knocked his hind end onto the bed and jerked open the drawer.

His smile fell and a look of amazement and respect fell onto his face. My blissful countenance fell as I took in the economy box in the empty drawer. He’d bought condoms.
Extra-large condoms in a box to rival that of my jumbo pads.

“Jax?”

“Hmm?”

“Those are condoms.”

“No shit, Sherlock.”

I shut the drawer with my knee. “Who are they for?” Anger flooded my body and I felt hot.

“What do you mean who are they for?”

“Are you screwing other women? I mean, I know what this whole marriage means to you, but I need to know now if that’s how it’s going to be.”

He huffed and sat up on the bed. Tugging his t-shirt over the back of his head, he launched it at my face. The smell of Jaxon hit me full force with the impact. I threw the shirt away. If he was going to sleep around, I didn’t know if I could deal with that. Period.

Crossing my arms, I turned and walked out onto the balcony.

He followed me.

“Hey.” Well, Mr. Gruff was back.

I ignored him.

He grabbed my arm and spun me around, my back along the balcony fencing. “I said, hey.”

“I heard you. I’m not deaf.”

“My mama used to say she wasn’t deaf, dumb or blind. Do you see me, Mercy?”

I ticked my head back. “Of course, I can see you.”

His green eyes pierced me. “Then you must be dumb.”

I guffawed. “I am most certainly not dumb.”

He inched his face toward mine. “If you think that box of condoms was meant for anyone but you, then you are dumb, baby. It’s our wedding night. And I don’t know what you think I want from this marriage, but I want you. I want us. I don’t want any other woman
, and I’ll be damned if you’ll be with any other man.”

He stepped forward until our bodies were flush. “Got it?” he asked, scratching his stubble down my cheek. His hot breath fanned my ear.

“Yeah.”

“Good. Now, if I remember correctly, you lost a bet earlier this evening. If it’s okay with you, I’d like to collect.”

I nodded and he moved his head to where our breaths collided. Then he did it. He kissed the corner of my mouth. That was all it took for me.

I pressed my lips to his and raked my fingers across his back. He growled and lifted both of my legs, pushing me into the balcony fence, pushing himself into me. Holy hell. I clung to him for dear life as he kissed me. Before I knew we’d moved, he dropped me onto the bed and stood over top of me, a hungry look in his eyes. “What do you have under the robe, Mercy?”

I whimpered, unable to even form words.

“Can I see?”

After I nodded, he moved closer and began to untie the sash. Separating the halves of the robe, his eyes traveled over my body. If it had been anyone else, I would have covered myself back up and would have been uncertain. But Jaxon left nothing to chance. He had made sure I knew what he wanted. He wanted me. Us. And I was going to give it to him.

I shrugged the robe off my shoulders and could see his eyes darken. That was just before he sunk to his knees and shook his head.

“What’s wrong?” I scooted up a little bit.

“You’re so damned perfect, Mercy. You’re more beautiful than I’d even imagined and I’ve not even seen all of you. But I’m going to. If you’ll let me, that is.”

“I want you to.”

He blinked up at me. “You sure?”

“Yes.”

It wasn’t long before we were bared to one another, exploring and tasting each other. Our marriage was consummated three times that night. And he’d been right. He was the best I’d ever had. I couldn’t imagine it could get better than it was with Jaxon Harrison.

“Mrs. Harrison?” A
sweet-faced middle-aged nurse called from the clip-board she was clutching.

My heart pounded. “Yes.” I stood up at the same time as Jax and he squeezed my hand, infusing it with some of his strength. We followed the nurse’s
Snoopy scrubs out of the waiting room and into the belly of the Coastal Cancer Center. I didn’t feel like I belonged there. I felt like the cancer in such a pristine, sterile-smelling place, pastels on every inch of the walls, furniture and floors.
Cha-Cha, you’d better behave.

After taking my vitals and measuring my height and weight, she asked me to remove my shirt and don one of the
horrifically embarrassing white paper shirts. It was scratchy and opened in the front, so I overlapped the layers and held it tight against my body. It didn’t take long for the cold air to pebble my skin.

I sat on the examination table while Jaxon stood beside me rubbing my back gently. It was strange to me that such a strong, masculine guy could be so tender at times.

Two rapid knocks sounded before the door inched open and the doctor strode in. He was probably near forty with hair that looked as though it had recently been dyed dark brown, at least around the temples. It seemed darker there. His gray eyes peered through silver wire lenses as he introduced himself and shook my hand and then Jaxon’s. “Doctor Eric Golden. You must be Mercy.”

“Yes. This is my husband, Jaxon.”

Dr. Golden smiled. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Harrison. It’s good to see that you have a support system, Mercy.”

Support system? I
was gonna puke. “So, I understand you discovered a lump near your breast. Can you show me where?”

I looked at Jaxon, who nodded. The doctor placed his chart down and smiled. “No need to be modest or embarrassed. I’ve seen thousands, sweetheart. Jaxon and my nurse...” at that time the nurse who’d ushered me into the room, stepped back into it. “...will be here with you.”

I nodded. I was being stupid. Of course he’d seen breasts before. But not mine. I covered up as much as I could with my opposite hand, but moved the shirt over to expose Cha-Cha. She’d gotten a bit bigger somehow. I wasn’t sure how and was worried about that fact. I hadn’t even known she was there for that long. Rapid growth was bad, right?

The doctor pushed, gripped and felt around Cha-Cha. “Is this the only lump you’ve discovered?”

“Yes.”

He blew out a breath. “Cover up. I think the first step is getting you a mammogram. We have the machines in our office and can get one now if you have time.”

“We have time,” Jaxon answered for me.

“Can you hang around for me to read it? If this thing is growing like you say, we need to be aggressive in our approach. It may be completely benign, but growth is bad either way.”

I nodded. “We can wait.”

“Good.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “Linda, can you show them the way?”

She smiled sweetly, her graying hair tucked into a low bun. “Sure can.”

Mammograms sucked. They hurt. They hurt and squished and squeezed the girls in ways I had no idea were possible. And now they and Cha-Cha were sore and aggravated. And so was I. Jaxon wasn’t able to go into the room where the test was performed but sat patiently in the waiting room, or so I’d assumed.

We sat quietly in the examination room waiting for the results, or he did, anyway. I paced the floors. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll get through it, no matter what he comes in here and tells you.”

“What if it’s not okay? What if it’s cancer? What if I’m going to die, Jax?”

He stood and hugged me into his chest. “Shhh. Don’t talk like that. You’re going to be fine.”

I was getting ready to yell at him. How did he know it was all going to be rainbows and butterflies? The door opened and the doctor and nurse Linda walked back in. I sat next to Jaxon, and thankfully, was fully dressed this time.

Dr. Golden sat on the little swivel stool and rolled up to us. He took a deep breath. “Good news and bad news. I always give the good news first.” I nodded and he continued. “There are no other tumors in your breasts. They are clear and healthy. So I need to know for certain what this is. In order to do that, we need to biopsy it. I can stick a needle in and get a sample, send it off and we can wait. What I would rather do is remove it. It’s in an area now that it would be easily removed. You’ve mentioned that it’s growing. I don’t want the rapid growth to continue. It could become more difficult to remove. If it’s benign, we could remove it now without the chance of it becoming malignant.”

“And if it’s already
malignant?” I asked.

“Then we determine a way to treat you. The treatment will depend on what sort of cancer you have, if you have it. I think we should cross that bridge when we come to it, but I recommend surgical removal of the tumor immediately. I can schedule an outpatient surgery for Thursday morning if you are agreeable.”

“Thursday?”

“Yes. I
have an opening on Thursday.”

I looked at Jaxon. He nodded. “Okay. Thursday.”

Linda nodded and told Dr. Golden that she would have the proper staff book the surgery and contact the insurance company for approval. Dr. Golden explained the surgery in detail. At least I think he did. He tried. I just couldn’t focus. That weird buzzing started again and soon the black dots swirled like an angry tornado across my vision.

Mercy looked numb
. I held her hand and rubbed her back as the doctor explained what would happen in the surgery, how I would care for her afterwards. He said he would explain again on Thursday and I was glad. Mercy had checked out. She looked at me and her eyes didn’t seem to be focused. Then she slumped forward and her head thumped onto my collar bone.

“Shit! Mercy! Mercy!”

She was out cold. Again. “Doc, this happened the other night.”

I helped him ease her onto the
exam table. “Linda!” he shouted. She burst into the door a moment later. “Ammonia.”

She rifled through a cabinet and produced an ammonia packet like Brody had used to revive her the other night at Shady.
Linda waved the small packet underneath Mercy’s nose. After a few seconds, she blinked rapidly and finally began to come to.

Golden calmed down. “Full blood panel. Check for anemia. Call me when you get that back.” He stepped out of the room and in stepped two additional nurses. I moved back to let them work on her, raking my hands through my hair. I felt helpless. And I hated feeling like that. I’d walk over coals for Mercy. She’d ducked under my radar and crawled right into my heart.

They put the rubber thing around her arm while another readied the collection tubes. Soon, her crimson blood was spurting into tube after tube, filling them to the brim. I wasn’t sure she’d have any left after they were through with her. When they pulled the needle out and slapped a cotton ball and bandage on, Linda poked her finger with something else and squeezed the blood into some water. It swirled across the top of the surface.

“She’s very anemic. That’s p
robably why she’s having these episodes.” I nodded once and waited while they filed out. “I’ll send Dr. Golden in to speak with you.” True to her word, she led him into the room fifteen minutes later. Mercy was sitting up, sipping out of a glass of orange juice that one of the women had brought her.

Golden stepped up. “Mercy, you’re very anemic. You have very little iron in your blood. You also have low sugar. Have you eaten?”

“Not this morning.”

“Okay. You need to make sure you eat several times a day. The meals can be small, but you need to eat frequently to keep your sugar up.” Handing her a white bottle of pills. “These are iron supplements. You will need to take two a day, one in the morning and one at night until we can get your iron built back up. Don’t take anything or eat after midnight on Wednesday, though. You can’t have anything on your stomach when we operate.”

Her hands were still trembling. “Okay,” she said.

He looked to me. I nodded. I’d take care of her.

Later that night, Mercy and I lay facing each other on the huge canopy bed.

“Sorry I ruined our honeymoon by being sick.”

I tucked her blonde hair behind her ear. “Baby, you gave me a honeymoon by being sick. I’m the luckiest man alive.”

She grinned. “Thank Cha-Cha.”
I rolled her over so that I hovered over top of her.

I licked the side of her breast as she lie beneath me. “Thank you, Cha-Cha.” She sucked in a breath and I went to work loving my wife. Damn, I loved the sound of that.

Poor Jaxon. He
seemed like he might miss Cha-Cha. She was getting a lot of his attention, mostly from his tongue. The sweetest thing he’d ever done was thank her for bringing us together. And that’s what we were. We were together. We’d skipped the awkward dating stage and went from mutually attracted friends to husband and wife. Every girl should be so lucky.
Oh, well, be jealous, bitches.

It was Thursday and way too early. I had to check into the outpatient center at eight o’clock. The alarm beside the enormous bed
read four-nineteen. Jax wanted to take a walk on the beach before we checked out of the hotel and into surgery. He was still in the shower, so I decided to call Daddy. He would be really pissed if he found out I’d had surgery after the fact.

Holding my cell phone to my ear, I stepped onto the balcony and waited to be patched in to him. Several minutes and seagulls later, I heard his voice. “Mercy?”

“Hi Daddy!”

“It’s so good to hear your voice.” I could hear the relief wash over him.
Sorry, Daddy, but that will be short lived.

“It’s good to hear your voice, too.”

“How are things in paradise?”

I paused, swallowing some courage. “Not so perfect.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Don’t get mad. I have to tell you a few things. They just all happened at once and I haven’t had time to even process everything myself, so please just don’t be pissed at me.”

“I’m listening.” His voice had hardened.

“I found a lump on my breast.” I heard him inhale a sharp breath. “Then I sort of passed out. I didn’t have money to go to a doctor, so—”