Blinding Trust (Mitchell Family, #7)(65)
“Yeah, buddy. I think she’s goin’ to be fine.”
Noah smiled. “I don’t want to lose her, Dad.”
I put my arm around Noah. “You’re not! It’s our love that’s goin’ to help her get better. As long as she knows she has us, she’ll be alright.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes. I’ll help wash clothes and do the dishes. I’ll feed the horses and do all my chores.”
“I know you will.”
Noah was a good boy and I was proud that he wanted to do whatever it took to help out his mother. I never doubted the way he felt about her. “We can’t tell your sisters.”
He nodded. “I know. They won’t understand.”
After a few moments of silence, I turned back on the game like our conversation hadn’t even happened. Noah sat back against the couch and did the same. My son was more and more like me every day.
When I finally climbed into bed, Savanna was nestled in between a bunch of pillows. I’d waited days to be able to sleep in the same bed as her, so I removed the ones that were separating us and cuddled up against her. Her body was so warm and I was careful not to touch her near the bandage.
She stirred, but didn’t wake up like she normally would have. Her pain medication was strong and it was exactly what she needed to let her body recover.
Savanna was always hardheaded when she was injured or sick. She’d push herself until she made things worse. This surgery was serious and we couldn’t take the chance of making her go back into the hospital. Her safety was up to me to control, so it was necessary for me to be there for her until she was able to take care of herself.
I was trying to be everything that she needed, even without her asking.
While she slept so soundly, I laid there next to her watching. She was so beautiful to me. I didn’t care about a scar, or the way she would look with a double mastectomy. She was my everything and nothing could ever taint the way I felt about her. If anything, I loved her more for being so strong.
Savanna had been home for four days when we got the call that Amy was in labor. As excited as we were to have a new addition to our family, I knew we weren’t going to be able to go to North Carolina with the rest of the family. The drive would be too long for Savanna to handle. She needed to be able to readjust herself frequently.
She cried and pleaded with me to take her, but at the end of the day, I was in charge.
To make things easier, my mother took the girls with her to visit the new baby. For the first time ever, Noah declined on his invitation to go see Bella. Ever since that day in the hospital, he’d never left her side. I think he believed that if he was with her all of the time, nothing bad could happen. It was both sweet and alarming. I worried that he really feared if he turned his back for a second, she’d be gone. I didn’t want him living his life like that.
Savanna wasn’t exactly thrilled that I’d told him the truth about her condition. She worried that he wouldn’t understand, but from what I could see, he understood completely.
Cassandra Elizabeth Healy was born at five o’clock in the morning on a warm summer day. The whole family had gone to welcome the new baby, which they were already calling Cassie. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. Conner and Amy had named three of their four children Cammie, Callie, and Cassie. How they would keep that straight was beyond my understanding. I got my kids mixed up and none of their names even started with the same letter.
Anyway, when my mother got back in town, not only did she bring pictures, but she brought Bella as well. Noah was so happy to have his cousin come and stay with us, that I figured he would forget about helping out. Instead, he surprised me even more. Every morning, he would enlist his cousin to help out with chores. Before they disappeared to play together, he would make sure everything was taken care of.
He was a blessing and without him, I think I would have set myself crazy.
Bella was great to have around. The girls thought she was the best thing since sweet tea. They followed her around and begged her to play with them instead of Noah.
Ty and Miranda called every night to talk to their daughter. Savanna would stay on the phone with them catching up each time. She was getting bored and I knew she would be itching to go somewhere as soon as she got the okay from her doctor. We’d been going out to the grocery store and other local places, but she wanted to get to North Carolina to see her new niece. Pictures were never enough for my wife. Besides, she wanted to take her own.
On the day she got the go-ahead, we made plans to go out of town. Her radiation was set to begin that next week and it was important for her to travel when she wasn’t feeling ill. The doctor had informed us that her treatment was more for a preventative and it would be ‘low-grade’, as opposed to the intense treatment that other people require. He informed her that she probably wouldn’t lose her hair and that she may only have flu like symptoms.
We knew that every person handles things differently, so we packed up the kids, including Bella and made the long drive to North Carolina.
Our first stop was Conner and Amy’s house. Noah unhooked his sister and before Savanna and I could get out of the truck, the kids were running into the house. Amy was sitting in the rocking chair feeding the new baby when we walked in. Savanna rushed over and hugged her and then took a peek at our newest cousin. “Oh my goodness, she’s so pretty!” Savanna was all smiles and I loved seeing her that way.