Mom gave me a grim smile, her skin finally getting back its healthy glow. Every time I saw how short her hair was, I wanted to cry, but I kept on the brave face I’d learned to perfect while she’d gone through her intense chemo treatments. When she’d started losing her hair, she’d simply shrugged it off, picked up a pair of clippers, and shaved her head.
The next day, all of my aunts had done the same. Flick, Willa, Quinn, Gracie, and Kelli had all been just as bald as Mom, and she’d laughed at the sight of them. When I’d picked up the clippers to do the same, though, Mom had screamed and finally started crying, forbidding me from so much as touching a single strand of my own hair. This shit was taking too much from her, she’d sobbed as I’d held her. It wasn’t going to take anything from me too.
Other than that one breakdown, however, she’d been the strong one throughout everything. Even when she was so sick she could barely lift her head from the chemo, she was still the one keeping the rest of us from falling apart because it hurt so damn bad to watch her go through it and be unable to do anything to help her.
The day she rang the bell announcing her last treatment, I’d gone home and cried in Ben’s arms for hours, thankful it was over. But still, I was terrified, dreading the results of this test when we would find out if the cancer was gone once and for all.
Dr. Weller was looking over the lab results and not speaking, and I felt bile lift into the back of my throat, shooting Dad a scared look over Mom’s head. His blue eyes were just as freaked as my own, and I switched hands with Mom so I could reach behind her and touch Dad’s shoulder. His free hand covered mine, holding on just as tightly to it as his other held on to Mom’s.
“Okay, well,” Dr. Weller finally spoke, and when she looked up, she was grinning from ear to ear. “Everything looks great, Raven. The chemo really was mostly a precautionary measure, and from all these numbers, it looks like you are cancer-free. Congratulations.”
Dad let out a choked sound and jumped to his feet, his shoulders already shaking as the door slammed behind him. I bit my lip, trying not to cry, but I was so damn happy, I couldn’t contain the tears.
Mom only smiled at the doctor. “Thanks for everything, Doctor,” she said as she shook the woman’s hand and stood.
“I hope you’ll be an advocate now to make sure every woman you know gets yearly screenings,” the doctor said with a stern lift of her brows.
“Trust me, she is,” I said with a shaky laugh. She’d even been on my case lately to get my yearly exam, but I already had to keep my yearly appointments to make sure I got my birth control shots anyway. Still, it had freaked me out this last time, because I’d been scared it would come back that something was wrong.
Outside, we found Dad sitting in the SUV. His eyes were swollen and bloodshot, but he’d gotten himself under control. Mom and I don’t say anything to him about it, because really, I was still having trouble containing myself too. I’d never felt relief so strong in my life. All I wanted to do was laugh and cry at the same time.
Mom was okay.
She wasn’t sick anymore.
We weren’t going to lose her.
“I’m hungry,” Mom commented while Dad pulled into traffic. “Let’s grab some lunch.”
“Whatever you want, baby,” Dad said in a hoarse voice.
From the back seat, I watched her reach for his hand. He linked his fingers through hers and placed their hands on his thigh. Seeing them like this, it made my heart happy. Even after all these years, they were still so in love, so attuned to each other’s feelings that they didn’t need words to express themselves.
I wanted that same thing twenty, fifty, a hundred years down the road with Ben.
Aggie’s was so crowded when we got there, it was almost impossible to find a place to park. On the drive, I’d finally gotten myself under control and had texted both Max and Ben to let them know Mom was cancer-free. I was all smiles as I walked with my parents into the diner, still looking at my phone, reading the last text Ben had sent after I’d told him the good news.
Ben: Let’s celebrate tonight.
I was typing out a reply as we walked through the door, so when everyone shouted, I jerked in surprise and nearly dropped my phone.
I hadn’t even noticed whose cars and motorcycles were in the parking lot, so hearing all my family members congratulating Mom had startled me. Mom was pulled into a group hug with her brothers, then her sisters-in-law and Aunt Willa, before Uncle Spider was twirling Mom around and around, making her laugh.
Smiling at the happiness on everyone’s faces, I stepped around them and sat at the counter, waiting.
“Hi.”
At the sound of Ben’s voice, I glanced up, surprised and delighted to find him standing beside me. “Hi,” I purred and started to stand so I could kiss him.
But with a hand on my shoulder, he pushed me back onto the stool and turned me to face away from everyone else while he leaned on the counter beside me.
“Right here,” he said as he shook his head, a grin teasing at his lips. “It was right here that I saw you for the first time. I sat there.” He pointed at the booth he’d been in the night we’d met. “Do you remember?”
“I’ll never forget,” I whispered, a feeling of nostalgia hitting me. “That night changed everything.”
His brandy-brown eyes locked with mine. “And then I kissed you a little later, and I knew.”
Smiling, I lifted a brow at him. “Knew what, Sheriff?”