that.”
Melody decided not to respond. Sometimes it was easier to let Luna have the last word. That girl had the stamina of a Tour de France cyclist when it came to talking. But really, she didn’t have to convince herself of anything. Melody knew doing anything with Dr. Aria besides speaking to him about Mama Annie’s care was out of the question. Maybe he had her eating out of the palm of his hands when she was a teenager, but she was a grown-ass woman. Her resolve was strong enough to combat his allure.
I can be strong. Really. I can.
Two excruciatingly long hours later, Melody’s heart raced when she saw Jordan coming down the hall in his blue scrubs. The procedure had gone longer than expected, and she had lost count of the various horrific scenarios that ran through her head as she waited for an update on Mama Annie. Of course, none of them ended well. At one point, she had brought herself to tears, imagining Jordan coming down the hall like he was right then to tell her they had complications, and her mother had died. Luna was wrong. Like her daughter, she watched way too much television. She really did need to get a handle on her imagination. She couldn’t go around crying for no good reason, yet there she was getting overly sensitive about anything and everything. Cancer had a crappy way of intensifying her emotions. If it wasn’t for her non-existent sex-life, she might have thought she was pregnant, but not even pregnancy brought on this level of waterworks.
She stood as Jordan got closer, eager to hear Mama Annie was in recovery and doing just fine. She closed her eyes and quickly said a silent prayer for positive news.
“You mom is in recovery and—”
“Is she okay?” Melody blurted.
“She’s doing well. The procedure was successful. We got the samples we need, and they’ve been sent to the lab.”
“When can I see her?” She knew it would be a while. He had gone over the details the day of the consultation and again this morning, but she needed to hear it again.
“It will be at least an hour before she’s in a room. The cafeteria has great food and okay coffee. You might want to kill some time and grab a bite to eat or a snack to calm the nerves. I know this can be a stressful time.”
Stressful was an understatement. She had been on edge since the first mention of cancer. How one small word could scare the shit out of a person was insane. Mass. Tumor. Cancer. Those three words turned her world upside down. Melody was so grateful they were able to catch it early. Mama Annie was experiencing back pain. She went to the emergency room, because she thought she had kidney stones. She did have stones, but she also had something else. When her doctor ordered a CT to confirm, that’s when they saw the spot on her kidney.
“I want to hit the bookstore,” Luna said. Melody knew she had been eyeballing the school of medicine campus since they arrived. “Dr. Aria, maybe you can keep my mom company and grab a cup of mediocre coffee until my grams wakes up.”
Melody’s gaze jumped from Luna to Jordan and back to Luna. She was going to kill her when they got home… or take away all her electronics which was basically the same.
“I can do that,” Jordan said, surprising her.
She felt her eyes go wide as she looked up at him.
“Cool,” Luna said. “Text me when Grams is awake.” She walked away before Melody could find the words to say anything.
JORDAN
He wanted to take the words back just as quickly as they came out of his big, fat mouth. If he could have kicked his own ass, he would have. He had no business having coffee with Melody. He had no business doing anything with her. Hadn’t he spent the last week telling himself he was not going to have any more contact with her than absolutely necessary?
Well, guess what, Jordan? Coffee is not necessary.
“Shall we?” he said, gesturing in the direction of the cafeteria.
“Uh… yeah.” Melody didn’t make eye contact with him, but she did follow his lead.
He clinched his fist, inhaling and silently counting to five, then he relaxed, exhaling and counting again. He rolled his eyes, mocking himself for getting so worked up over a cup of coffee with an old friend.
Jordan could feel the heat between them as