Page 105 of Indiscretion

“A boyfriend and a bone-marrow donor, all in one day. I’d say this is cause for celebration, wouldn’t you?”

“Absolutely. What do you have in mind? We can do whatever you want.”

“WhateverI want?”

I nodded. “You name it.”

She nibbled on her lip. “Those things you mentioned before sound kind of celebratory.”

And this day kept getting better, because I was about to keep that smile on her facefor hours.

Chapter 31

DAWSON

Monday afternoon, Naomi took a late lunch to go with her sister to her doctor’s appointment. She came back to the office looking a little frazzled.

“Everything go okay?”

“Yeah.” She took a deep breath. “The process is just a bit overwhelming.”

“How so?”

“Well, Frannie needs to be admitted to the hospital for a week before the transplant. Her body has to undergo what they call a conditioning regimen. Basically, they load her up with high levels of chemo and radiation to destroy the diseased cells floating around in her bloodstream and stop the blood-forming cells in her bone marrow from producing to make room for the new blood cells she’ll receive. That part alone has a full-page list of potential dangers, because you’re essentially pumped full of toxins that can inadvertently attack organs.”

“Jesus.”

“Two days after the conditioning phase is complete, she’ll receive the marrow transplant from the donor.”

That timeline made sense since they’d scheduled the harvest of my cells for a week from today. I’d asked if the recipient received them the same day, and the doctor had said it was usually one to two days later.

“How long does she stay in the hospital after that?”

“Four weeks,ifshe doesn’t get an infection or anything that extends things.”

“Holy crap.”

She nodded. “You basically have no immune system while you wait for the donated stem cells to take root and begin producing new blood cells. There’s another full page of side effects for that part of the process. Not only that, but you have to live in very strict isolation for the first hundred days—no public spaces or crowds, and they stressed that she should have very few or preferably no visitors at all. The doctor even suggested the kids go on homeschooling or live somewhere else during that period because they bring so many germs home from the classroom every day.”

“Wow.” I hated that Naomi looked like a ball of stress. “What can I do to help?”

Of course, she had no idea what I was already doing.

Naomi smiled halfheartedly. “Nothing. Just listening to me babble is enough. I’m sorry if it sounds like I’m complaining. I don’t know, maybe Iamcomplaining. I don’t mean to. My sister’s been given a gift by a stranger, and it’s amazing, but I’m just…” She shook her head.

I reached for her cheek and cupped it. “Scared. I know.”

She nuzzled into my palm. “This can be a cure for her, but getting there comes with a lot of risks. What would happen to Ryder and Molly if…” Her eyes filled with tears. “What would wealldo without her?”

“You can’t think like that, Naomi. You have to think positive. Not just for your own mental health, but for Frannie and the kids. If the kids seeyouscared, they’ll be even more worried. Same with Frannie.”

She sighed. “I know. I know. You’re right. I’ll have to keep my meltdowns to myself and learn to put on a brave face.”

“You don’t need to have meltdowns alone. I’m here.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it.” She smiled. “Aside from being the lucky recipient of my freakouts, I also need to ask you a professional favor.”

“Whatever you need. What’s up?”

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