When You're Ready (Ready #1)(75)

Fuck, I didn’t want to be here. But a doctor refusing treatment probably wouldn’t look good. And, as much as I hated these walls, and the creepy nurse, I really preferred to be alive and kicking. Even if I was alone.

It had been a week.

She’d listened and stayed away for an entire week. I don’t know if that was a good sign or bad. I missed her more than I could put into words. After Melanie and Gabe left, it was just me in that great big house. Colin and Ella would stop by occasionally, making sure I was fed and watered, but it wasn’t the same without her. I saw her and Maddie everywhere I went. At the ice cream shop around the corner, at work when I’d examine a small child, and when I’d lie in bed wishing Clare was beside me.

But I told her I would give her time, and I would. As much as she needed, or as much as I had to give. I just hoped she didn’t wait too long.

A knock sounded at the door and I gave the okay for the doctor to enter.

Looking up, I saw a familiar set of green eyes and burgundy red hair enter the room.

“Clare?”

She rushed into my arms and brought her lips to mine.

It had been too long and my control snapped. I deepened the kiss instantly as my hands wrapped around her body.

Breaking our kiss, she looked at me, her eyes full of purpose.

“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry it took me so long. I was just so confused. I couldn’t get myself to take the leap,” she said.

“What changed your mind?” I asked.

She was here. In my arms. I was never ever letting her go.

“Not what. Who,” she said.

Who?” I inquired, confused.

Reaching into her purse, she pulled out a piece of paper, a letter, and as I quickly scanned it, I realized it was a letter from Ethan.

“Read it.”

“Are you sure, Clare? Where did you get this?”

“I’ve had it for years. I just wasn’t ready. Please Logan, read it,” she begged, her eyes bright and full of excitement.

I took a seat in the corner, reading the letter that Clare entrusted me with. It was a beautiful letter and I would have normally felt jealousy reading someone else declaring their undying love for Clare on paper, but I felt nothing but gratitude. When I finished, I looked up at her, tears blurring my eyes, humbled by Ethan’s selfless words.

“I’ve found him. You’re the love of my life,” she whispered.

A single phone call had made me feel like my life had ended, but two sentences had brought it springing back from the depths of hell.

“But, what if...” I started to ask.

“No. No ‘what if’s’,” she said, “We’re meant to be, we can handle anything.”

Hearing her words, seeing her stand before me baring her soul, made me feel invincible. She was right. Cancer or no, we could handle anything life threw at us, as long as we were together.

“Marry me,” I said, pulling the ring I had carried in my pocket for weeks, finally placing it on her finger where it belonged. It was about the most unromantic place for a marriage proposal ever, but considering everything we’d been through, and everything we would go through, it was perfect.

“Oh my God! Where did you get that?” she cried, looking down at mammoth ring now residing on her finger. It looked perfect, just as I knew it would.

“I’ve had it for weeks. Your Dad thought he was pulling a fast one on me that day at the cookout, when he told me I better make an honest woman of you soon. I think I surprised him when I laughed and said it was already in the works,” I said, a wide grin spreading across my face.

“So, that was what I saw!”

“Guilty. And, Clare?”

“Yes?” she said, tearing her eyes away from her hand.

“You haven’t answered me yet.”

“Oh! Yes!” she squealed, looking down at her ring again before I pulled her into my arms and swung her around the exam room.

The doctor chose this moment to knock and enter the room, looking startled at the sight of us spinning around the room.

“Um, sorry Logan. I’ll give you two a minute. Just let me know when you’re ready,” he said, obviously feeling awkward.

Clare and I looked at each other and grinned, before she said.

“We don’t need any time. We’re ready for anything.”

Epilogue

Two years later...

~Clare~

“Oh, God...why does this have to be happening now?” I said to myself as the double doors to the ER whooshed open, and I rushed to the counter.

“Do you need to see a doctor?” the attendant asked. Hmm, she looked vaguely familiar.

A feeling of deja vu swept over me. Her nametag read “Tammy” and I remembered the last time I’d seen her in this waiting room. The night I’d met Logan.

“Yes, I need to see a doctor. One doctor in particular,” I requested, but before I could continue she cut me off.

“Ma’am, you’ll just have to sign in and they will assign you a doctor when you get back there. You can’t request a doctor in the ER. We aren’t a doctor’s office,” she said, her voice filled with annoyance.

Don’t kill the nurse, Clare.

Breathe in, breathe out. Isn’t that what they teach you to do?

“I don’t think you understand. My name is Clare Matthews. My husband is Logan Matthews.”