Yours Truly (Part of Your World, #2)(33)

I nodded. “I’m sure.”

He grinned. “I’ll tell him tonight. That kid’s gonna lose his shit. Seriously, man. You have no idea what this means to them. You’re doing a good thing.” He paused. “And you’re sure you wanna do this anonymously?”

I nodded. “I’m sure. Don’t tell anyone. No one. Not even my mom.”

“You’re not telling your mom?”

“No. I’m not telling anyone.”

It wasn’t that I didn’t want my family to know. It was that I didn’t want Briana to know. I didn’t want her to feel like she owed me anything or was obligated to be my friend because of this. I didn’t want strings or the recognition. I just wanted to help her, and I wanted to do it in secret, and my family knowing was too risky. Contact with her had already been breached. I couldn’t trust that Jewel wouldn’t show up at my work again and casually mention me donating a kidney to someone. And Mom too. She knew too many people and there were too many opportunities for this to leak. I wanted it quiet and confidential, at least for now.

And then I had to laugh, because it occurred to me that it was easier for me to donate an entire organ than it was to ask a woman to pose as my girlfriend and come with me to a few family gatherings. My fear of rejection and judgment was that acute.

I guess I just had to decide what scared me the most. Showing up to this wedding alone, or making Briana Ortiz an indecent proposal.





Chapter 14

Briana



When I got home, Alexis was sitting on the porch swing in front of my house.

“What are you doing here?” I said, closing my car door. “I thought you weren’t coming until tomorrow!” I ran to hug her.

“I’m staying the night,” she said with her chin over my shoulder, her pregnant belly pressed into mine. “Figured you needed emotional support. Jessica came down today to do a free clinic at my office and she mentioned something about the forest reclaiming the land?”

I laughed and let her go.

“You all right?” she asked, eyeing me.

I sighed. “I’m fine. Sort of.”

As fine as anyone could be on the eve of their divorce.

Tomorrow was the nineteenth. It was finally here. D-day. I’d planned on working and acting like it was any other Wednesday. I’d told Alexis numerous times over the last two weeks not to come. But she came anyway.

I loved her for it.

She looked great. Her red hair was in a ponytail, and she had on a dark green fitted T-shirt and jeans. Small baby bump. No makeup. Everything about her was relaxed. So different than she used to be, back before Daniel. I was also different than I used to be, but not in a good way.

She grabbed a duffel from the swing bench and a brown paper bag. “I brought you muffins,” she said. “I made them from scratch.”

“Of course you did. You’re a country girl now. Did you churn your own butter?”

She laughed. “Shut up,” she said, following me in.

Justin, Benny’s friend, met us at the door on his way out.

“Hey,” I said, surprised and happy that someone was here.

“Hey.”

Benny was in the living room behind him on the sofa. He looked up at Alexis with that flat expression he always wore these days before staring blankly at the TV again.

“Did you guys have a good day?” I asked Justin, my voice hopeful.

He pressed his lips together in a way that meant no.

“We’re gonna go to GameStop tomorrow, right, buddy?” Justin called over his shoulder.

Benny didn’t answer. Justin looked back at me as if to say, This is how he was all day.

“Thanks for trying,” I said quietly.

“Yeah. Of course.” He glanced at Benny again. “We’ll try again tomorrow.”

Justin was a good friend. Brad too. The three of them were tight. Justin’s dad had died a few years ago and Benny and Brad had been there for him during that, and now the guys were here for Benny. Both had been tested to see if they were a kidney match. All of Benny’s friends had. But after that, they started to drop off one at a time. With the exception of Justin and Brad, no one else really came around anymore. I was infinitely grateful to the ones who did.

Justin left. I put Alexis into the guest room, and then we went to set Benny up on dialysis. Alexis helped me get him situated. We spoke without saying a word the whole time. After ten years of working together plus med school, we had our own language. She was concerned about him.

His physical deterioration had to be shocking for her. He’d lost at least thirty pounds in the six months since she’d last seen him. He was in shorts. His legs were so thin they looked like ropes with knots in the middle. He hadn’t shaved, his eyes were sunken. He’d barely said two words to us the whole time we were setting him up.

Alexis made eye contact with me while she checked his blood pressure. It was the same look she gave me back when we worked together, the one that meant we needed to discuss the patient in private.

I had to look away from her.

I hated that this was the state of things now. That I didn’t have a better life to show her, happy news to share. That she had to come here because I was going to be divorced tomorrow and she didn’t want me to be alone and then when she got here, this was my life. This old, worn-down house, my sick brother. My broken heart.