A Second Chance (4 page)

“
You be careful with him,”
Madeline warned.

“
I will be.”

Eduardo shuffled through the kitchen.
“Well, sunshine. Glad you could join us.” She turned to kiss his
cheek.

His eyes shot open, and he took a step
back. “Wow, Mom! Are you okay?”

“
Yeah, I’m fine.”

“
You’re burning up.” He put
the back of his hand to her head as if she were a child. “Maybe
you’d better go back to bed.”

“
I’ll lie down when you all
get on the bus.” She forced a smile through the sickness that was
taking over her body. “Do you have your presents for your teachers?
It’s the last day before break. There isn’t a second chance to get
them to them before Christmas.”

“
Yeah, Mom.” Eduardo nodded
and continued with his worrying. “Why don’t you call Matt and see
if he can come over and take care of you while I’m at school. He
could at least do that much for you.”

She was sure that if a breaking heart
could make a sound, they’d have heard it. She forced a smile to her
lips to ward off his worry. “I’ll be fine. I have the day off. I
can rest. Sit down and eat your breakfast.”

Cancer had turned her into a
liar. Every day she waited for her nose to start growing like
Pinocchio’s. She’d even called her parents and asked them to fly to
Nashville so she could have a routine surgery. When her mother had
asked what
routine
meant, Madeline told her she was having a growth removed. The
lie had some merit—she didn’t want to upset her parents. Her mother
had agreed, but then had gone on talking about the vacation they
wanted to take. She’d never even asked what kind of surgery.
Madeline only hoped they’d get there in time.

Christmas was a blur. She and Carlos
had shared their time with the kids between Christmas Eve and
Christmas morning.

The morning after Christmas, she took
the kids to Carlos’s house and waited in the driveway for them to
get all of their things from the car.

Carlos appeared at the back door and
waved. She plastered on another fake smile and waved back. “I think
they brought the whole house.”

“
We’ll try to keep track of
it all,” he laughed as Clara walked toward him. “Do you have time
for a cup of coffee?”

That was so Carlos. He was her best
friend in the world, and she couldn’t tell him what she was going
through. Her skin chilled under her heavy coat. “No. I have to
finish packing.”

“
Send us a
postcard.”

She nodded, kissed her kids good-bye,
and drove away in tears.

Her parents hadn’t made their flight,
and she’d been forced to call her boss and ask for the biggest
favor any employee could request. She needed a ride to the hospital
at four the next morning and would have to have her there until she
was wheeled into surgery. By then her parents should be there and
everything would work out.

Sylvia, her boss, was an expert with
all the paperwork and helped her understand what it was she was
signing. She was also an expert on the process and she did
everything she could to keep Madeline calm, but it wasn’t working
very well.

The check-in process took an hour,
then they escorted her to a room. As the sun came up the nurses
prepped Madeline for surgery. In a few hours they would go in and
remove the cancer along with her breasts. Swallowing hard, she
tried to relax. As long as she was able to remain on the Earth and
have her children, she didn’t care what she looked like.

Dr. Curtis Keller slung his commuter
bag over his shoulder and rubbed his eyes. He’d been at the
hospital for thirty-six hours. It was time to go home and crawl
into bed for the next three days. He stepped back from the elevator
to let the nurses push the gurney toward surgery and then he
stepped into the elevator, only to step back off.

He watched as they pushed the gurney
through the doors to surgery and he turned back toward the desk.
There on the wall was the surgery schedule for the day. M. CARSON
was written under Dr. Martin.

“
Samantha.” He leaned on the
desk and gave a slow wink to the nurse who sat in front of a
computer. “Hey, what’s Martin got going on this
morning?”

Knowing she could get in trouble, she
rolled her chair closer to and leaned in. “Mastectomy.”

“
Shit,” he whispered. “Mr.
Carson? Is he in the waiting room?”

She shrugged. “I don’t think there’s
anyone here. A woman was with her when they checked in and said
that Ms. Carson’s parents should arrive before she’s out of
surgery.” She held up a finger and rolled back to the computer.
With a few keystrokes, she opened the file and quickly closed it.
“Mr. Carson is not listed on her paperwork. Next of kin is listed
as Carlos Keller.” She knit her brows together. “Relative of
yours?”

“
You certainly could say
that.” He reached out and touched her arm. “Hey, I owe you one.
Dinner this week?”

“
Can’t. Catch me next
week.”

“
Deal.” He turned toward the
waiting room.

Matt Carson wasn’t anywhere. Curtis
shook his head and pulled out his cell phone. The family waiting
area was one of the only places his cell phone was
allowed.

The phone rang in his ear and before
his brother could even mutter the word hello, he was firing off
questions. “Carlos, hey, where’s Madeline?”

“
What? She’s out of town for
a few weeks. The kids are staying with me.”

He gave a cluck with his tongue and
shook his head. He’d known Madeline as long as Carlos had, and he
knew what she was doing. She didn’t want anyone worrying about her,
but she’d once married into the wrong family for that. “Can you get
down here to the hospital?”

“
Okay, bro, you’re freaking
me out. What the hell is going on?”

Curtis rubbed the tension
out of his neck then scrubbed his hand over his face. “Listen, I
don’t
want
to
freak you out, but…” He blew out a breath. “Madeline was just
wheeled into surgery.”

Curtis was right where Carlos expected
to find him. He sat in the corner of the family waiting room, his
head propped up against the wall, his arms folded across his chest.
He was sound asleep.

Carlos nudged his arm and Curtis
jolted up in the chair.

“
Now tell me what the hell
is going on. I ran out of the damn house. I made Kathy call into
work and tell them she had some emergency, and all of this was done
without the kids hearing any of it. Now I’m freaking the hell out
and so is Kathy.”

“
Shut up for two damn
minutes and sit down.” His brother rubbed his hands over his eyes
and sat up in the chair as Carlos took the seat next to him. “I
happened to pass them as they were taking her into surgery. I
didn’t know she was here, did you?”

“
I told you. She said she
was going out of town.”

Curtis nodded. “She checked in this
morning. She’s scheduled for a double mastectomy.”

Carlos chewed on his bottom lip and
inched in closer to his brother. “You’re going to pretend like I’m
really, really dumb. What the hell does that mean?”

“
She has breast cancer,
Carlos.”

He felt the blood drain from his face
and he knew his brother had seen it, because he jerked Carlos’s
shoulders and shoved his head down between his knees. His stomach
knotted and he felt like Curtis had just punched him.

When he could, he sat up. Curtis stood
before him with a cup of water.

“
Drink.”

He did as his brother told him. After
looking around the waiting room, he looked up at Curtis.

Curtis shook his head as if he’d read
his mind. “Matt’s not here.”

“
Why the hell not? If your
wife is going through this, you’re here!”

“
He’s not listed on any of
her paperwork. She’s listed as single, and you’re listed as the
emergency contact and next of kin.”

His mouth fell open. “What’s going
on?”

“
I don’t know.” Curtis
rubbed the back of his neck with his hand then fell into the chair
next to Carlos. “I checked with the nurse, and it’ll be a few hours
before she’s out of surgery. I’m going to see to it that you can be
there when she wakes up.”

Carlos nodded. That was right where he
wanted to be.

“
Do you have any way to get
in touch with Matt?”

He shrugged. “I’ll call Kathy and ask
her to look in my contacts on my computer. Maybe Eduardo
knows.”

“
Okay. Let me go see if
there’s any news.”

Carlos sat in the waiting room,
surrounded by family members of other patients. He felt sick. Every
part of him hurt, especially his heart.

When he was calm enough he called
home, and Kathy answered the phone on the first ring. “Sweetheart,
what happened? Is she okay? Was there an accident?”

“
I’ll let you know all about
it when I get home.”

“
I can come
down.”

“
No. I need you to be calm
and just be with the kids.” He swallowed the lump in his throat
that had formed when he thought about the kids finding out their
mother was sick.

“
Okay.” He heard her take a
deep breath.

“
I need you to look in the
contacts on my computer. I need to find Matt Carson’s phone
number.”

Sounds from the keyboard filtered
through the phone. He looked at the small table next to him and
noticed there were a notepad and a hospital pen laid out for those
who waited here, unprepared in more ways than just lacking writing
implements.

He heard Eduardo’s voice in the room
with Kathy. “What are you looking for?”

“
Matt’s phone number,” he
heard her say, and he shook his head.

“
He moved out,” Eduardo
said, loud and clear.

“
Kathy, let me talk to Ed.”
He heard the phone pass hands. “What do you mean he moved
out?”

“
They’re getting a divorce.
He moved out before Thanksgiving. She didn’t tell you?”

“
No.” Carlos took a deep
breath. “Neither did you.”

“
I guess I figured she would
have told you. She tells you everything.”

Evidently, she was keeping a lot of
secrets lately.

“
Let me talk to Kathy
again,” he said, and the phone changed hands. “I’ll fill you in
when I get home and I have more answers. She’s fine, and I don’t
want the kids to know until I tell them.”

“
Okay.” He heard the lift in
her voice. He could trust her to keep quiet until he could talk to
his children.

Carlos drank three cups of coffee and
paced the floor while Curtis slept in the corner of the waiting
room. He’d told him to go home, but Curtis wouldn’t move. He was
stubborn, and Carlos was happy to have him there. He needed his
brother.

When the nurse entered the room and
began to speak to Carlos, Curtis shot right up. “They’ve moved her
to recovery. As soon as she’s stable, you can go back and sit with
her,” the nurse said, and Carlos nodded.

“
Thank you.” His mouth was
dry. The room was still spinning, and all he could think about was
gathering Madeline up in his arms and holding her tight.

Guilt washed over him.

He’d professed his love to Kathy and
moved her into his house. When would he stop thinking of Madeline
as his wife and feeling as if he needed to take care of her every
moment?

The color was returning in her skin,
and the monitor on her heart began to beep a little
faster.

Carlos watched her carefully as her
eyelids began to flutter. A few moments later, she fully woke up
and turned to him. He’d been sitting by her side for over an hour,
whispering words of encouragement in her ear. Now he kissed her
cheek.

“
You did great.” He
smiled.

“
What… are you”—she tried to
swallow—”doing here?”

“
Did you think anything
would escape a Keller?” He brushed her cheek with his fingers.
“Curtis saw you being wheeled into surgery and called
me.”

“
I’m sorry. I
didn’t…”

“
Shhh. Don’t talk now. We’ll
have time for that.”

Madeline nodded and her eyes drifted
closed.

He’d gone down to the cafeteria to get
some real food when they’d moved her to an actual room. A smile
crossed her lips when he entered and he knew she appreciated his
being there.

“
The doctor says the surgery
went well.” Her words were now fluid and he could tell she was
feeling better. Her eyes were glassy from the pain medication, but
her smile was genuine.

“
Good.”

“
Thank you for being here. I
didn’t think it would matter to have someone there when I woke up,
but it did.”

“
You should have asked me to
be here.” He pulled a chair close to her bedside and leaned into
her. Careful not to disturb the wires and tubes attached to her, he
eased his hand into hers. “Do you want to tell me why I think
you’re on a vacation?” He raised his eyebrows.