Page 68 of Reckless Curves
“Kettle—pot—black. When did you ever need a man for anything but pleasure?”
Kendra watched her friend’s face and her smile faded away. “Like I said. It’s lonely sometimes. I envy you Tom.”
They sat in silence until the nurse arrived to check her vitals once again. Once the nurse left, Stella said, “Tom’s bringing Connor this evening to see his father. Please think about seeing them both. Connor won’t notice a thing, you look fine.”
Just then the door opened and the doctors and residents walked in. Dr. Spencer was smiling, so Kendra took that as a good sign.
“Miss. Black, can we chat if you have a moment?”
Kendra looked at Stella who promptly reached for her hand and said, “I’m staying.”
Dr. Spencer merely nodded. “We have run an exhausted set of tests and it’s relatively good news. You have infectious mononucleosis commonly known as mono, ‘the kissing disease’.”
Kendra swallowed hard and squeezed Stella’s hand. “So, no cancer?”
“No. You made the right decision to come in for tests given your history, and the symptoms are similar. Fatigue, fever, nausea. But we cannot find any signs of cancer at all. You just need to go home and get plenty of rest and drink lots of fluids. Your spleen is slightly enlarged so no physical activity, and we’ll check you again in a few weeks.”
She wanted to burst into hysterical laughter or song. The relief dancing through her body could have powered a city. She wasn’t terminal. She didn’t have cancer.
She wanted Tom.
Even though she was bursting with joy, she calmly said to the team of doctors standing in her room, “Thank you. You say it’s infectious. I have a three-year-old boy.”
“What I suggest is you keep your distance, no hugging or kissing. Keep a separate set of cooking and eating utensils and a separate bathroom if that is possible.” She nodded that it was. “You’ll be infectious for about another two weeks but you may feel fatigue for a few months so you must have no stress and rest.”
She’d kissed Tom a few hours ago. Shit. And Tom was with Connor. She better ring him. Taking the coward's way out she asked Stella, “Can you ring Tom and let him know. I kissed him this morning or he kissed me. Either way, we both have to be careful around Connor.”
“You ring him,” and Stella promptly broke down in tears. “I am just so happy. I was so scared.”
Kendra laughed. “You hid it well.”
“One of us had to stay strong and you were falling apart.” Stella pulled out her phone. “Call Tom. I’ll call Marcus and let him know.” She slipped off the bed. “I’ll call from the corridor and give you some privacy. I suspect you’ll need to do some heavy duty groveling. Do you want me to call your parents?”
“I don’t think they know I’m sick.”
“Marcus rang them.”
“And they didn’t visit me?” Hurt replaced her joy for one brief moment. “It’s their loss. Let Marcus tell them. I don’t care.” But she did. Why couldn’t her parents love her the way she was—faults and all? They really didn’t care about her or Connor. She had a long memory and her parents were slipping out of her life for good.
As the door clicked shut behind Stella, Kendra stared at the phone in hand and didn’t know how she would tell Tom. How did she make a man who feared nothing understand how afraid she’d been? Would he be angry at her? She hadn’t trusted him. He’d been right, she had overreacted, pushing him away because her life suddenly seemed to be spinning out of control and she liked being in control. When she’d been diagnosed with cancer in her teens, she’d lost the ability to control what happened to her. Unless you’d been in a similar situation, you could not understand what that was like.
She pressed his name on her phone as she tried not to chew her lip off while she waited for him to answer. But he didn’t answer and it went to voice mail. Relief escaped on a whoosh of breath. For a second she debated not leaving a message, but he’d want to know.
“Hi, Tom. It’s me—Kendra. The doctors cleared me to go home. I have mono, the kissing disease. So don’t kiss Connor, let Jackie look after him, and if you start to feel unwell… you can blame me. Anyway… Stella is taking me home soon.”
She hung up and tears welled. What she wanted to say was she was sorry. But just because she was well didn’t mean she suddenly trusted him. This whole thing made her realize she still had issues with the past. This was all happening too soon. It wasn’t fair on Tom that she had trust issues. This was her problem and she had to have some space to see if she could get over the fact he only came back into her life because of Connor. Things were moving far too fast and having lost her heart to him once before she was petrified he only wanted her because of Connor. That would never be enough for her.
Did he even know his heart? Was he simply confused about how he felt for her? He loved Connor that was not in doubt but he couldn’t have Connor as a family without her.
She changed into her clothes, happy to shed the hospital gown. She hoped she’d never wear one again. She’d just slipped on her brogues when Stella waltzed back in all smiles. “Marcus is over the moon. He said he’d come around to your house tonight to see how you are. What did Tom say?”
“He didn’t answer his phone, so I left a message.”
“Chicken.”
She ignored the truth. “Before we leave, I’d like to visit Tom’s father if that’s all right?”
Stella nodded. “We just have to wait for your release papers.”
