Page 77 of Free to Breathe
I stroke his chest. “I know. Is there anyone who could help?”
“Yes. No. Something’s not adding up.”
“What?”
He just shakes his head.
I want to be calm, I really do, but there’s no way I’m handling this discussion without some kind of anesthetic. I turn away from Colby.
“Where are you going?” His voice is anxious. He moves to follow me, but I hold up a hand. I just can’t.
“I need chocolate.”
Quickly slipping around the side of the freezer in the hall, I suddenly stop and rest my head against the cold wall. This is too much to handle. All of the emotional pain I’ve buried to give me and Colby a fighting chance comes back up with the force of a geyser. I slide down the wall until my butt is resting on my heels. One good weekend and here we are again, being victimized because of someone’s desperation for what? Acceptance? Jealousy? Greed? Prestige? How much more are we expected to take?
As the tears fall harder and faster down my face, I don’t see the booted feet move closer to me. I do feel the warmth from a body in contrast to the coldness at my back. My head snaps up. I see Colby’s ravaged face.
“I promise you, Cori, I’ll figure this out. This isn’t the most important concern right now. The most important thing…the most important thing,” he stresses, “is you. You’re back in my life. I’ll fight the Devil to keep you there.” Reaching out to wipe the tears that keep falling, he asks, “Okay?”
“Colby, we can’t just ignore…” I start, but I’m cut off.
“And I don’t plan on it. Right now, my woman is on a path to eliminating the enemy from her body. That’s the fight we’re focusing on today.”
I raise my hand to cup his jaw. “Then I wonder if I should call Greenwich Hospital to find someone else to perform my physical because there’s no way I trust that office after that call.”
He lets out a bark of laughter. “Good idea.” Standing to his full height, he offers me his hand.
And I take it. Willingly.
36
Colby
Thirty Nine Days Before Surgery
“So that’s everything.” I sigh wearily, scrubbing my hands up and down my face. I’ve just told Caleb, Keene, and Charlie everything about my family. Including the details they won’t find in any files. What happened with Corinna’s and my past, and how Jack might be entwined with it.
“And Corinna knows all of this?” Keene whips out sharply.
I give him a thin smile. “She mentioned something about you and Caleb,” I nod to the other man before continuing. “Almost ruining your relationships with Ali and Cassidy because of not laying your cards on the table.”
Charlie lets out a bark of laughter. “She’s not wrong.”
Keene glares at him. “Can we keep the focus on the immediate problem with Colby and not on my mistakes with Alison which are long over?”
I stretch my legs out in front of me. “I don’t know. I’d like to hear about them sometime.”
Caleb laughs.
“Laugh all you want, my friend, but I seem to remember giving you the same advice you shoved back at me. And you almost lost my sister because of it,” Keene taunts.
“That’s different,” Caleb argues.
“How?” Keene’s voice is full of disbelief.
“Because it was Cassidy.”
“And this is why you’re not our lawyer. That argument is bullshit. At least Corinna holds a lick of sense in this family.” Keene holds up his hand. “And if anyone tells her I said that after she threw a pie in my face, I’ll fire them immediately.”
