Page 1 of The Ties that Bind
Chapter One
Maggie
Hands on my hips, I stared critically at the wall. Three pairs of eyes stared back at me.
A second pair of hands joined mine, twining about my fingers and holding me steady. “It looks perfect there.” Marty rested his chin on my shoulder, and I felt his lips smile against my cheek as we both looked at the painting of three black kittens.
“You think? It might be better over the dresser in the bedroom.” Some distant relation of mine had painted these kittens and given them to my mother. In turn, knowing how much I loved animals and missed my cat while I was attending Tulane University, she had given them to me. But, no matter how much I liked their sleek painted fur and big round eyes, I wasn’t sure if the kittens should be right in the entryway to stare down anyone who opened the door.
“I don’t think. I know.” Arms circled my waist, and I leaned into them, picking out Marty’s heartbeat against my back. “We won’t be here for too much longer.”
“I know. I just want it to look a little less…meh.”
Before I had moved into this temporary apartment housing with Marty for patients who needed to stay close to the Tulane University Cancer Center, I had lived in a sorority house with my two best friends, Zoe Etienne, and Abigail O’Connor. My bed there and the room I shared with my friends had been decorated with little things I had collected over the years and brought from home; pictures of family and other items that made the little space more…me. Having things that reminded me of everything I cared about and the woman I had become was important to me.
So, when I had packed up my belongings and moved here to be with Marty, I had immediately set upon a quest to personalize the bland, light gray walls and nondescript furnishings. I knew Marty didn’t really understand my need to add little pops of color and hide sections of wall, but he had helped me anyway because it made me happy.
“What’s wrong?”
I loosened a grip on his hand that I hadn’t realized I had tightened. I turned around and drank in his brown eyes that always looked a little tired from the rounds of chemo treatments. His shaven jaw and his baseball cap hid slightly thinner-than-usual hair.
To me, Marty was just as handsome as ever and as strong, too. Fate had brought my high school sweetheart and me back together, and now our love would keep us that way.
“Just thinking about how lucky I am. And how happy I am.”
Marty didn’t have to answer. He just had to pull me into a hug that told me he agreed with all his heart. “I love you,” he murmured into my hair.
“I love you too.” We lingered there, sharing a long, thankful moment before I gently disentangled myself. “Alright, alright. I’ve got to finish this before I go to Zoe’s.”
Marty sat down to watch me contemplate a small box of family pictures. “Is Abigail still in town?”
“Yeah, she’s staying at Zoe and Aiden’s house until she goes back to Florida.” I placed a recent picture of my mother and grandmother dressed up for Mardi Gras on a shelf of a cabinet.
“I still haven’t met Al.”
“He’s…interesting. I still can’t believe Abigail got herself a rock star.”
“Jealous?” I turned in time to see Marty’s eyes crinkle.
“Not at all. I have a flower star.” I grinned widely and put a picture of my father next to my mother and grandma, so close it almost looked like they could be together in the same photo. A few more of my favorite pictures followed, then I stepped back to admire my handiwork. “Well, it looks less like a hotel suite now. I’ll do some more tomorrow. I don’t have time to finish now if I want to go to the gym.”
Marty glanced at my butt and opened his mouth, and I shushed him and let some of my bossiness slip through. “I’m going to find the perfect wedding dress, and I’m going to look great in it. There’ll still be plenty there for you to grab ahold of.” I dodged his hands, giggling, and ran into the bedroom to find some yoga pants and a comfortable T-shirt.
Forty-five minutes later, I stepped off the treadmill, huffing and puffing. I glanced over the statistics of my exercise as I wiped down the handles of the machine. Not great, nothing like the other girl who had been running since she got here and was still lightly trotting away on her treadmill, but not bad. I still walked a lot more than I jogged, but I could feel improvement slowly creeping into my lungs.
My lungs weren’t the only part of me showing improvement. A quick visit to the scales in the women’s bathroom put a small, proud smile on my face. It felt so good to know that even though I had gained a bit of weight during the course of nursing school, I could lose it again if I worked at it.
And I wasn’t afraid of a little work. I never would have gotten through nursing school otherwise.
Marty was in the bedroom when I pushed open the door to take a shower. Pillows propped him upright, and he held a book but didn’t look all that comfortable. As subtly as I could, I asked in a roundabout way if he was feeling alright and if he needed anything.
“I’m just tired. I’ll read for a while and then have a nap. Go get ready.” He shooed me into the bathroom.
I went without argument, for once. My running had made me…well, run late. Thirty minutes was what I had promised myself, but I had been feeling surprisingly good and pushed it to forty-five.Zoe and Abigail won’t care,I realized as I dropped the bottle of liquid soap in my rush to get ready. Both girls knew that I had been hitting the gym and were very supportive of my efforts.
The steaming water washed away the thin sheen of workout sweat. I stepped further into the stream, letting the calming jets soak my slightly frizzy hair and press it flat. Hopefully, some conditioner would help keep those adventurous ends down.
Now that I had realized there was no need to hurry to be perfectly on time to a casual sleepover with friends, I took my time with hair products. I emerged from the shower, wrapped in a towel, to find Marty in the same position as before. His eyes followed me around the room to the dresser, and I made sure to add a little extra swaying to my hips when I dropped my towel to put my clothes back on.
