Page 41 of Be My Baby

She took a deep breath and bit her suddenly wobbly bottom lip. Her huge eyes glistened with tears. “I have less than six months.”

He hurried around to her side of the bar as her face crumpled and the tears overflowed. He wrapped her in his arms and held her as tight as possible, gritting his teeth as he tried to prevent his own tears from spilling.

“There’s gotta be something we can do,” he rasped. “We need to get you to another doctor, a-a specialist.”

Lucy gripped his shirt, holding on so tight, her slim shoulders shaking. She shook her head.

“I have one, I see him tomorrow. But the results are conclusive.” She looked up at him, her pale cheeks awash with tears. “I’m dying, Max.”

Max cupped her face and pressed his forehead to hers, willing some of his heat into her cool body. His entire abdomen seemed seized in a tight, steel knot. How could this be happening? How could fate be such a bastard to someone as kind and gentle as Lucy? Someone who’d already suffered enough.

Huge, luminous pale blue eyes glistened in the reflected light from the skylight above. She sucked down a ragged breath. “I don’t want to die alone,” she whispered.

Her head dropped and her shoulders shook. Other than Ryan and Millie, Luce had no one. Ryan was the brother Lucy had chosen for herself on that very first day of preschool. Neither of them had siblings of their own, and the quiet, reticent girl gravitated to the already outgoing and boisterous Ryan Thomas. They had been close their whole life, but there had never been sexual attraction between them.

Lucy and Millie had clicked in high school, the formidable, popular Mildred Stevens sizing Lucy up on the first day of grade eight and deciding she was to be her best friend. They’d been in each other’s pockets ever since.

Max pulled her head to his chest and stroked her back.

“Do Ryan or Mil know yet?”

Lucy shook her head, her face scrubbing into his shirt, her fingers twisted into the soft cotton. “I don’t know how to tell them. I-I came straight here.”

Max kissed the top of her head. Her short, wild red curls teased his nose and he smiled sadly despite himself. She hated her hair. He’d always thought it rather cute.

“You’re not alone. We’ll all be here.I’llbe here.”

She looked up at him and wiped angrily at her face. “But Iamalone. Yeah, I have Ryan and Millie. But I have no family, Mum moved away years ago and I rarely even hear from her. No one knows who my father is.” Her lip wobbled and she looked down to her fingers, playing with the white button on his chest. “And I’m single. I haven’t had a boyfriend in over a year, and that’s not likely to change now.”

A shudder went through her. Max felt it down to his bones. Misery leaked from her pores.

He had to do something. Had to make it better, even if he couldn’t fix it.

The only thing he could do, the only thing he had to offer, was himself. His support, his care, his friendship. He bent to catch her eye and waited until she looked at him before speaking. Her breaking heart could be seen clearly through her eyes.

“Then marryme.”

Lucy blinked. Her mouth opened, then closed. Confusion flooded her face, then she burst out laughing.

Max wasn’t sure if he should be laughing along with her, or offended that she’d laughed at his offer. He sent her a small smile and lifted her chin with his thumb and forefinger.

“I’m serious. Marry me, Lucy Jones. I promise I’ll be there for you in every way possible and you won’t have to be alone.”

Ever.

The wretched mix of amusement and sadness left her eyes as she contemplated him.

“But you don’t love me.”

He caught the underlying thread of sadness in her oddly flat statement. His gut twisted at where he knew this conversation was going, where ithadto go, and the uncomfortable truths they’d have to finally face. He rubbed his thumb over her cheek.

“You know I do. You mean a lot to me.”

She breathed deep and seemed to lean into his touch on her cheek. “But you’re notinlove with me.”

“No. I’m not.” He refused to lie to her. “But Idolove you and I want to be there for you. I promise to be there every single step through treatment, doctors, anything.”

She sat back, hope and reluctance washing over her features. “What about Millie?”

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