Bethany nodded. “I’m going to meet with him and the patient’s mother now.”
“They’re going to be over the moon to hear how it went,” Hannah said. “They were in the most capable hands in the United States. Mark my words.” She reached out to squeeze Bethany’s hand gently. “I’ll miss you around here, Bethy. We all will.”
Bethany met Rod and Renee in Felix’s post-op hospital room. Felix was attached to numerous tubes, and his body looked so small and pale against the white sheets. Renee wept quietly beside him, unable to believe the horrors her son had gone through.
Bethany looked from Rod to Renee and gave them a soft smile. “The surgery was a success. We got the tumor out. In a few days, we’ll do another round of tests to make sure the cancer hasn’t spread. But we feel very optimistic right now.”
Renee yelped and fell against her father, weeping against his chest. Rod’s eyes were wide. Bethany was accustomed to such displays from family members. She was often the only other person present when families fell apart or were put back together again. It was a blessing sometimes. Other times, it was a curse.
Not long afterward, Rod left Renee in Felix’s hospital room and joined Bethany outside for a cup of coffee. As always, Bethany felt like she could sleep for ten hours straight after a surgery.
They sat on a wooden bench near a line of moss-covered trees. The heat had dissipated, and night crawled across the sky.
“I can’t thank you enough for doing this,” Rod offered gently.
“It was my pleasure. Really.” Bethany turned her head to look Rod in the eye, and a shiver ran down her spine.
“While he was in surgery, I was thinking about all my hopes for his future.” Rod laughed at himself. “I want him to have everything. To experience everything. I want him to be able to go to college, fall in love, learn to sail, and travel abroad. The world is such a wonderful and varied thing. I don’t want him to miss it.”
“He shouldn’t,” Bethany said, her voice breaking.
Rod gestured vaguely toward the hospital. “You’ve built such a stunning program here. A few of the nurses we dealt with called you the best of the best.” He smiled. “I had to bite my tongue from telling them I’d known you since we were very small. That I loved you.”
The L-word rang through the air between them. Bethany swallowed the lump in her throat. Before she could think of what to say, her stomach rumbled uneasily, and she touched it, laughing.
“I have an idea,” Rod said. “We should get dinner. Do you have time?”
“Do you think Renee wants to come?”
“There’s no way she’ll leave him,” Rod admitted, speaking of Felix. “Wherever we go, I’ll get her something to go.”
“You have to force her to eat,” Bethany said knowingly. She’d seen too many mothers suffer because their thoughts were so completely consumed with protecting their children.
Bethany led Rod to her vehicle in the parking lot. It was a funny thing to have Rod in the passenger side as she drove them away from the hospital toward one of her favorite Southern cooking restaurants, which sold classic Savannah food. Shrimp and grits, fried chicken, and fried green tomatoes. They ordered far more than two people could possibly eat, along with a bottle of wine and a coconut crème brûlée for dessert. As they ate, they teased one another and told stories from their shared past and the years after they parted ways.
When the server arrived with their crème brûlée, Rod pressed the dessert toward her end of the table so that she could crack the top layer with a spoon.
“Are you sure? It’s the best part,” Bethany said.
“You deserve it.”
Renee raised her spoon over the crème brûlée, letting it hover for a long time. Rod watched her. The expectation built around them.
And then, she said, “Nick and I are getting divorced.” She then whacked the crème brûlée hard, drawing the cream up through the glass-like sugar layer. Her heart pounded with the brevity of this truth. And she leaned back in her chair and stretched her arms over her head.
Rod remained quiet for a moment, watching her. His eyes echoed empathy.
“Are you all right?” he finally asked.
Bethany nodded. “I am. It’s the right thing to do.”
“I’m sure it’s terrible, too.”
“It is.” Bethany filled her lungs and scooped herself a big mound of crème brûlée. “But I’ve already sent an application to the hospital on Nantucket. Mom is keeping an eye out for houses. And I’m just going to push myself into another era.”
Bethany ate the spoonful of crème brûlée and let out a small moan. “This is incredible, Rod.” She scooped another morsel and swept it toward his lips as though they were sixteen. They were sharing a milkshake at the Nantucket diner as though they did this all the time.
Rod parted his lips and ate the crème brûlée, his lips sparkling with cream and sugar. Bethany’s heart surged. She had to fight every urge in her body not to throw herself over the table and kiss him.