Page 85 of One-Star Romance

“What?” he asked, a wrinkle in his forehead.

Looking at Rob, talking to Rob, felt like standing on the only stable ground in a disintegrating world. “I worry that Gabby and Angus moved so fast, did things so much quicker than the rest of us, because somehow Gabby knew, subconsciously, that she wouldn’t get as much time as everyone else.”

“I know what you mean,” Rob said. He cleared his throat. “Or perhaps they moved fast because Gabby is a goal-oriented person. And if her goal is to beat this cancer, then she’s going to send it packing.”

“Yeah,” Nat said, another tear springing up in the corner of her eye. She knew it didn’t work that way, that cancer didn’t take only those who weren’t willing to fight it. It was an indiscriminate monster. Rob knew that too, but sometimes you had to say things you didn’t fully believe. He moved forward and gently brushed her tear away with his thumb.

And then, on the arm of the couch, Natalie’s phone began to ring. Angus’s picture flashed on her screen. Her stomach dropped. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to move. Because on the other end of that phone call lay a different world, one that potentially included a future without Gabby. And if that was the future Angus was calling to share, she wanted no part of it. She’d rather stay in this moment of agonizing ignorance forever than face a life without her best friend.

Rob squeezed her hand. “Do you want me to answer it?”

“No,” Natalie said. “I will.” She swiped the phone open and put it on speaker. “Hi, we’re here.” Her voice sounded faint, but maybe that was because of the roaring in her ears drowning everything else out.

No, not everything else. She could hear Angus on the other end of the line. He was crying. “Oh, guys,” he said. “She’s…she’s…” Natalie and Rob locked eyes, their expressions hollowing into sorrow. A sob caught in Natalie’s throat, her heart beginning to plummet through her chest down into the basement, burrowing into the center of the earth. Rob’s hand shot out and found hers, holding on tight.

But Angus was forcing out more words. “She’s going…they think she’s going to be okay.”

Natalie blinked, unsure if she was hallucinating. “What?”

“It hadn’t spread too much,” Angus went on, “so they managed to get it all out. She’s resting now.”

“I thought…” Natalie said, unable to fully believe it. “You were crying so much…”

“I’m having a lot of feelings right now,” Angus blubbered.

“So, wait,” Rob said, his voice so calm it seemed he might be in shock, “everything’s okay?”

“Not everything. We’ll have to monitor and possibly discuss treatment, and it could always come back, and they had to take out her uterus. But the doctors told me this was the best case they were hoping for.”

“Oh my God,” Natalie said, jumping to her feet and pacing, the energy bursting out of her. “Oh my God!” She stared at Rob as tears of relief began to spill from his eyes, the two of them beginning to beam matching unrestrained grins.

“I love you, buddies,” Angus said. “I gotta go kiss my wife.”

“Go,” Rob said.

“We love you too, Angus,” Natalie said. “We love you guys so much.”

Natalie hung up the phone and dropped it onto the couch, her whole body humming. It was going to be okay, or at least as okay as it could be. Gabby would get better and come home to them all and swing Christina up in her arms and kiss Angus good morning and gossip on the phone with Natalie and so much more. The road ahead wouldn’t be easy. But it existed.

Without thinking, she screamed, a guttural sound of relief she didn’t even know she was capable of making. On instinct, Rob stepped forward and covered her mouth. “You’re going to wake Christina,” he said, laughing and crying all at once.

The awareness hit her: without seeming to realize it, Rob had looped his other arm around her back. The two of them were standing an inch away from each other. Their eyes locked as Natalie took a shaky breath in, Rob’s warm, strong palm on her lips.

With what seemed like great effort, he started to take his hand away from her mouth. She reached her own hand up and placed it over his, then moved his palm to her cheek. Still, they could not look away from each other.

Over the past few days, her fear had hung over the rest of her emotions like a heavy curtain. But now, relief swept that curtain away, revealing all the longing that had built up behind it. The intensity of it made her knees go weak. Here he was, this infuriating, wonderful man who had been by her side through these terrible days. His eyes were glued to hers, his dark lashes casting shadows on his face. All she had to do was step forward and press her mouth against his.

So she did.

At the touch of her lips, his whole body seemed to loosen. Then he drew her closer to him and kissed her back, hard. She lost herself in the feel of his mouth, of his hands running up and down her back. He let out a groan as she pushed herself into him, and she wished she could play that sound on loop for the rest of her life. (Though it wouldn’t be practical for her to go through the rest of her life being as turned on as that groan made her. She’d never get anything useful done again.) He ran a hand under her shirt to cup her breast, and one imperative ran through her mind: she had to touch every part of him. But as she reached to unbutton his shirt, another thought intruded.

“Wait,” she said, scrambling backward. “We’re not just doing this because we’re so relieved about Gabby, right?”

His breathing was ragged. When he spoke, his voice had gone hoarse. “I am very relieved. But I don’t know about you…I’ve wanted to do this since the night I met you.”

“I have too,” she said.

“Good.” In a quick motion, he stepped forward and picked her up, as if to carry her over a threshold. She stifled a yelp.

---