“What the hell is this?” she asked, blinking her eyes as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing.
“Information about endometriosis, treatments, diets, hysterectomies and after care. The surgery won’t cure your endometriosis, but it will stop it from getting any worse. There are a lot of decisions that we have to make before we get back, but I think we should look into natural remedies first before we try hormone replacement drugs,” he explained as he handed over the piece of paper that he’d been reading and picked up the next one off the large pile.
Frowning, she looked down at the piece of paper that he’d handed her and felt like she was going to be sick. “There’s still time to figure all of this out later,” she said hollowly as she placed the stack of papers down on the small space between them and stood up, needing to put some space between them for this conversation.
“Dad and Aidan managed to call in a few dozen favors for us. The surgery is scheduled two weeks after we get back,” he explained as he continued to read through all the paperwork covering the bed.
“I didn’t ask them to do that,” she mumbled, leaning over her suitcase to find some clothes.
“You didn’t need to ask.”
Ignoring the way that her hands shook, she grabbed a change of clothes and swallowed hard. “I’m not having the surgery. At least not yet.”
“This was the best date they could get for us, Marybeth. If we pass it up we might not be able to get in for a few more months,” he explained distractedly as she knelt there, listening to him shuffle through more papers.
“I’m not having the surgery yet, Darrin,” she said more firmly as she stood up and turned around to face him.
“What the hell are you talking about?” he asked, looking up from the paper in his hands to frown at her.
“I can’t have the surgery yet.”
“What the hell are you talking about? You need this surgery!”
Licking her lips nervously, she hugged the clothes in her arms against her chest. “I’m not saying that I won’t have the surgery,” she hedged, “I’m just not going to have it now.”
“You need this surgery, Marybeth,” he said evenly as he tossed the papers aside and got up, probably to shake some sense into her.
“And I’ll have it, but just not yet.”
Eyes narrowing dangerously on her, he demanded, “What exactly are you trying to say?”
“I want to have a baby first.”
*-*-*-*
Two Days Later…
“You still not talking to me?”
“Go to hell,” his loving wife bit out as he sat down next to her on the bus that would take them all to Disneyworld.
At least she wasn’t throwing things at his head anymore, he thought with a sigh, deciding that he was making some progress since his rather unfortunate response to her announcement the other day. Asking her if she had lost her fucking mind probably hadn’t been the best way to handle his wife’s asinine deceleration to have a baby instead of the surgery that she desperately needed.
Now that he’d had some time to calm down, read up on the dangers and complications for a woman with a severe case of endometriosis attempting pregnancy and spoken with his father, brother and a few specialists that they’d called yesterday he felt more confident when he said, “You’re out of your fucking mind if you think that I’m going to allow you to do it.”
“Last time I checked, I didn’t need to ask your permission to do anything,” she said acidly as she grabbed her backpack and squeezed past him, only pausing long enough to discreetly kick him in the shin before she stormed off down the narrow aisle, shoved past Aidan and sat down next to Reese.
Wondering when she’d become so heartless that she’d willingly drag his twin brother in the middle of this, he got up, shoved Aidan out of the way, ignored Arik who was trying to get his attention, and went after her. He was barely four feet away from her when Reese shifted his attention from Marybeth, who was pointedly glaring out the window, to him. When Reese’s eyes locked on him, he swore soundly as he reached down, grabbed his backpack and jumped up to get out of the way, but unfortunately for him, he hadn’t moved fast enough.
“Sorry,” Darrin mumbled with a shrug as he grabbed Reese by the back of his neck and shoved him aside.
“You bastard!” his twin gasped as Darrin sent him flying.
Ignoring his brother’s pained grunt, he sat down, grabbed Marybeth when she tried to storm off again and yanked her down on his lap where he fully planned on keeping her adorable ass until she started to see reason.
“Let me go.”
“Not until we finish this,” he said, settling back in the seat while he kept his arms locked tightly around her.
“We’re done,” she said, reaching down to shove his arms away, but he simply ignored her.
“We’re really not.”
“I’m not having the surgery, Darrin,” she grumbled as she squirmed in his arms as she tried to climb off his lap.
“You really are.”
“I’m really not.”
“We’ll see,” he said confidently as he watched the rest of his family board the bus. When Kenzie stepped onto the bus, she rolled her eyes and muttered something when she spotted Marybeth on his lap. After making a mental note to have a word with his sister so that she would stop the bullshit, he focused his attention back on his wife to find her trying to ignore him.
It’s like she didn’t know him at all, he thought with a sad shake of his head as he pulled her closer so that he could whisper in her ear. “You aren’t doing this, Marybeth.”
“It’s not up to you, Darrin,” she whispered back.
“You really think so? Because the last time I checked, it took two to make a baby.”
“Just leave me alone,” she whispered, sounding exhausted and making him wonder if she’d spent the entire night missing him as much as he’d missed her.
“You know that I can’t do that.”
She shifted on his lap so that she could stare out the window and away from the curious stares of the rest of the bus’s occupants. Shooting them a glare that told them to mind their own fucking business, he shifted his attention back to his wife and said the one thing that had damn near killed him to accept.
“Children just aren’t in the cards for us, Marybeth.”
Chapter 35
“You need to stop screwing with my brother’s head,” Kenzie announced as she sat down on the bench next to her while the others tried to figure out what rides Danny could go on without aggravating the old back injury he’d received courtesy of Uncle Sam and a bullet that had lodged itself a little too close to his spine.