Page 2 of Don't Forget Me
“I have to—”
“Go,” she urged him. “Get to her. I’ll come when I get my break.”
It was her excuse for not going with Booker right then. Molly didn’t need her friend, only her doctor, but the truth was Elizabeth hadn’t talked to her in months.
Her mom was wrong. Skinned knees didn’t mean courage, only a habit of falling.
Booker gave her one last long look, his gaze telling her he didn’t believe her. Turning on his heel, he sprinted toward the state-of-the-art cancer wing.
“Liz.” Miranda’s voice snapped Elizabeth back to the problem at hand. A line formed at the register as doctors and nurses needed their caffeine fix for the morning.
Booker had been early on the birthday wishes. As she took money mindlessly and yelled orders to Miranda, she realized she jumped into a new decade of life tomorrow, and she was the same person she’d always been, yet it would be a new season, one with opportunities she couldn’t foresee.
This time, she wanted real love, the kind that could make her heart pound. Not like what she’d had with Corey, which inevitably broke under the pressure they put on themselves.
Now, she wanted toe-curling kisses that were never enough, soft touches that never ended.
The problem? She wasn’t sure she believed in that kind of love because she was too used to people walking away, not prepared to stay when things got hard.
When she’d been dying.
Maybe she should’ve mentioned that.
It was the “but” to every hope, the “are you sure” to every action. This time a year ago, she hadn’t known if she’d make it to thirty. And now? It still felt like something would go horribly wrong.
Cancer, it was the one constant in the early seasons of her life, twisting its vines of hopelessness around every word, every relationship.
No one expected Elizabeth Ross to be standing behind this counter, making sure the hospital staff who’d saved her life received at least one smile each day. It wasn’t so easy with tomorrow coming because Elizabeth was alone now, her constant companion deciding she’d had more time. She had to step into her new season cancer free, and that terrified her.
She had no idea what to do, what to dream of or hope for in her life. For so long, her dream had been to continue opening her eyes each morning, to see the relief on her dad’s face, the tears in his eyes when she was declared cancer free.
To watch her babies grow and change.
Who was she if she wasn’t the sick one? The cancer girl?
Shaking off the dark thoughts, she pasted on the smile the staff here knew her for. Only Booker got to see beneath the cheery words and bright eyes. He’d been there at her worst… but everyone else? All she wanted was to brighten their days, to remind them that what they do matters.
Elizabeth had experienced so many awful times in her life.
She needed one thing to be good.
She couldn’t do it. Visit Molly.
Booker texted her that it was bad, that this time, there might not be another chance. He couldn’t tell her more because of the whole doctor confidentiality thing, but it was enough to send Elizabeth running from the hospital at the end of her shift, not stopping until she reached her old Accord with chipped navy paint.
It didn’t take long to reach the single story, light blue concrete house with orange roof tiles that she called home.
She parked in the driveway and cut the engine, smiling as she caught sight of her family chasing the remaining sunlight as they ran across the lawn.
As soon as they saw her, the two people who made surviving worth it yelled for her.
“Mama!” Evelyn raced toward her, outrunning her twin brother, Owen.
Elizabeth laughed as she stepped from the car, and they barreled in to her, their six-year-old voices going a mile a minute, telling her about their day at school.
“Ev.” Elizabeth looked down at her. “How many times have I told you to wear shoes in the grass? We live in Florida, honey. There are fire ants.”
“But, Mom, they didn’t bite me.”
