Page 11 of The Doctor's Surprise Family

“You too,” she said, and raised her glass. “To us.”

“To us.” We clinked, and I smiled. “Happy birthday, and happy match day.”

“I’m nervous,” said Claire, and reached for her fork.

“About what? Exams?”

“No. I mean, yeah, but I’m good at exams. But I’m going to walk out of here Claire Everett, MD. Patients will come in, and they’ll call me doctor. If I mess up with them, it’s not like on a test. It won’t be a red X and a point taken off. It’ll be life and death.”

“It won’t be just you. It’s not like they’re just going to turn you loose.”

“Still.” She leaned back and licked sauce off her lip. “I’m glad you’ll be here.”

I choked on my wine and covered it up with a cough. Claire passed me a napkin and I wiped my mouth. She took a bite of spaghetti and sighed with delight.

“You always say anyone can make good spaghetti. But I’ve never met anyone made it like this.” She took another bite, then tried her salad, and washed it down with a neat sip of wine. “I kept having these nightmares you matched out of state. You were packing up boxes. Going away. And all I could think was… how can I do this?”

I made a strangled sound. My throat felt too tight. Claire frowned at me.

“You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine,” I said. “And you got this far yourself. That’s one of your strengths, your independence. You don’t need anyone foranything, so being in your life… Well, it’s an honor, to be wanted there.”

Claire’s frown deepened. She set down her fork. “Okay, you’re being weird. What’s going on?”

Sam would’ve told me what I already knew: this was my moment. Time to fess up. But she hadn’t had her cake yet, or finished her wine. We hadn’t done presents or made a wish.

“Blake? You’re scaring me. What’s going on?”

I tried to swallow and couldn’t. My breath wouldn’t catch. Fireflies danced in my vision, like I might pass out.

“It’s, uh…” I grabbed for my wine and took a huge gulp, but when I tried to swallow, I nearly gagged. I coughed wine through my fingers and all down my front, all over the new jeans I’d worn for tonight.

“Shit,” said Claire. “Sugar. No, salt. It’s salt, right, for wine stains? I’ll get you some salt.”

I sat like an idiot while she went for the salt. She sprinkled some on my shirt sleeves and over my knees. I watched it pink up from my spilled wine.

“It’s my match,” I said. The words hurt my throat. “You asked me last month — you said, did I get it. And I told you I did, but it wasn’t…”

Claire dropped her napkin. “It wasn’t what?”

I didn’t think I’d be able to say it, but now I’d started, the truth came by itself. “It wasn’t the one you meant, in Memphis.”

Claire sat down so hard her breath wentwhoof. I couldn’t look at her, so I stared at my knees.

“It’s not out of state, is it?” She reached for me. “Isit?”

I forced myself to look up. “Well, the truth is, it’s…” I closed my eyes, and I saw a bomb dropping. I saw it plunge down through miles of blue sky, glinting and dwindling as it hurtled to earth. Then came the mushroom cloud, then the shockwave, and I opened my eyes to face the fallout.

CHAPTER 5

CLAIRE

Ithought I’d misheard at first, or I was dreaming. What Blake was saying didn’t make sense. He had to be joking, or he’d made a mistake, because hadn’t he told me he’d matched right here?

“It’s Germany,” he said.

Static buzzed in my ears. His lips were still moving, but I couldn’t hear him at all. I didn’t want to. I wanted to wake up. This had to be just another bad dream, and I’d open my eyes, and I’d be in Blake’s arms. I’d snuggle close to him and he’d stroke my hair, and before I knew it, I’d drift back to sleep.

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