Page 59 of The Doctor's Surprise Family

I gulped my coffee. It was too early for this. OfcourseI had questions, but not before breakfast. Not with my brain still foggy from sleep.

“I mean, have you talked to him? What are his plans? His leave must be up soon, so what about Oli? Have you talked about schedules, and keeping in touch? Your father used to phone me when he’d travel for work, every Tuesday and Friday at six p.m. It probably sounds stuffy, making a schedule, but if you don’t, you forget. You drift apart. Life runs away with you and you say you’ll call later, and before you know it?—”

“Mom.”

“—a week’s gone by, or two weeks. A month. You need to plan for these things, or?—”

“Mom.”

“What? It’s true. Having that schedule’s what kept us together. And you two have Oli. He needs his routine. He needs to know, okay, it’s Friday. Dad’s calling. And you’ll need that too, if you’re staying together.”

My head spun. Together? Was that what we were? We’d been joined at the hip since Sam’s barbecue, if not just the two of us, then me, Blake, and Oli. It did feel a lot like back at the start, when we were brand new and falling in love, but we were older now, and wiser than that. At least, our heads were. My heart, not so much. Much as my head knew Blake would soon leave me, my heart kept on dreaming of a life where he didn’t.

Mom’s brows drew down. “Youhavetalked, right Claire?”

I looked away. We hadn’t. Talking was hard. I kept telling myself,we’ll talk tomorrow, but then tomorrow became today, and we didn’t have many todays left together. It felt wrong to spoil one with a sad conversation.

“Claire? Youhavetalked?”

I sighed. “What’s the point? Blake’s in the Army. He can’t just get out of that on a whim.”

Mom smacked my arm.

“Ow! What was that for?”

“Pass me the allspice.” Mom grabbed the jar before I could find it, and twisted the lid off in one jerky motion. She dashed it over the apples, quick and aggressive. “For a couple of doctors, I hate to say this — but ifmydoctor was as stupid as you two are being, I’d be straight down the road for a second opinion.”

I pulled a sour face. “How are we stupid? We’re making the best of the short time we have, not wasting time hand-wringing over what we can’t.”

“But youcould, if you wanted.” Mom set down the spice. “I’m not saying he could up stakes and be back tomorrow, but he has options.”

My heart leaped, then plunged? Options? Like what? Did I even want to know, and get my hopes up? If Blake did have options, he must know already, so ifhehadn’t mentioned them…

“Did you hear me? He has options.”

But he’d had options last time, that waiver he’d mentioned, and he hadn’t applied for it because we hadn’t talked. What if the same thing was happening again?

“Here, look at this.” Mom reached for her tablet. She swiped her notes app away, with her pie recipes, and pulled up her browser. “It says Army doctors are in demand in the States. They get all sorts of great fellowships, because the Army pays for them.”

“At civilian hospitals?”

“At— look! Everywhere!” She thrust the screen at me. I squinted to see.

“Youcouldhave a future, if that’s what you wanted. Maybe not overnight, but you could make it happen.”

My head was still spinning. I couldn’t think. If Blake did come home, what would that mean? Would we move into his rental house? Would he move here, with us? Oli loved his room, and his Gram and Gramps. But Blake might not want to live with my parents. He might not want to live here at all. When he talked about Germany, he smiled. He laughed. He had friends back there, a whole work family. But we were hisrealfamily, so?—

“Claire? Have you talked?”

“It’s his business,” I said. The words felt weak, wrong. “His career is his choice, as long as he’s there for Oli.”

Mom snorted. “Therefor him? What good is hetherefor him? He’s better offherefor him, and here for you too.” She set her hand on my arm. “You want him here, don’t you?”

I’d tried not to let myself want Blake back home, but how could I not? He was Oli’s father. And he was good at it, warm and patient, even on Oli’s high-energy days.

“He’s a good father,” I said.

“Anyone can see that. But I’m asking about you, and what you want for yourself. Do you still love this man? Do you want a life with him?”

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