Page 117 of Perfect Distraction
Speechless, Andrew stepped back and held the door open wide. His dad took a few steps inside and stopped.
Andrew walked past him and pulled out a chair at the kitchen table. “What are you doing here?”
His dad rubbed a hand along the back of his neck. He stood in the middle of the living room and turned to face Andrew. “I came to see how you were doing.”
Andrew just sat there, waiting for more. When none came, he simply said, “I’m fine. Last chemo is on Friday. At least, I hope it’s the last one.”
His dad swallowed. He stepped forward and sat at the table, directly across from Andrew. “You look good, son. I’m sorry I haven’t come before now.”
“You came at Thanksgiving.”
“For a day. Didn’t count.”
Andrew hadn’t thought so, either.
His dad gripped his hands together on the table. “I know we haven’t seen eye-to-eye for several years now, and your mom keeps telling me I’m being a stubborn asshole. She’s right. It was selfish of me to expect you to put your dreams aside to follow a plan I’d set out for you. It’s not easy to get through college and law school, and I want you to know I’m proud of you and what you’re doing.”
A lump formed in Andrew’s throat. Hearing his dad, the strongest, hardest-working man he’d ever met, say he was proud of him was something he’d wanted for a long, long time. “Thanks, Dad.”
“I’ve thought about you every day since your mother told me about the lymphoma. I want you to know that. I’m not good with this kind of thing, and the thought of my only son with cancer was more than I could handle. I avoid things that upset me, and I don’t talk about them. Thank God for your mother. You deserved at least one strong parent by your side through this. I’m sorry it wasn’t me.”
Those words shocked Andrew to his core. His dad was the rock of their family. A big, sturdy man who wrangled cattle and branded steers and threw bales of hay around like they weighed nothing. He worked from before dawn to dusk nearly every day, and treated his family well. He’d taught Andrew how to shoot a rifle, drive cars and tractors alike.
“You should see your face,” his dad said with a humorless chuckle. “You think I’m the strong one? Your mother is. Every time we’ve almost lost the farm, she’s been the one by my side to get me through it. I’ve done the hard labor to keep things going, sure. I’m not saying I don’t work for what we’ve got. But it takes a hell of a lot more inner strength to do what she does for our family, and I’d say that makes her the strongest of all of us. And she makes it look easy, to boot.”
Andrew had never thought about it like that.
“That’s why I wanted to come here,” his dad continued. “I’ve got that kind of grit inside me, too, and it’s time I showed it. So here I am, to tell you that I miss my son, and I hate the way things have been these last few years. I wish you wanted to stay around and take over the farm so my old ass could retire, but it’s not for you. I see that now. I respect and support your decision.
“I also don’t want to set a bad example for my only son about what it means to be a man. I hear you and Lauren are getting serious, but that you’re worrying too much about burdening her with your illness.”
Damn you, Jeni.Andrew made a mental note to stop telling her things.
“I want you to listen to me, Andrew. If a woman loves you and wants to take care of you, hold on tight and don’t let her go. You’re an incredibly strong man to be going through this treatment. You’ve dealt with cancer and chemotherapy while staying in school and keeping a job, and you have to know how impressive that is. You can do this by yourself. You’ve got it in you. But don’t do it on your own simply because you think that’s what makes you strong, or that it’s what makes you a man. A real man recognizes what he has in a partner, and what a blessing it is to have someone to share your burdens with. You’d do the same for her, wouldn’t you?”
“Always.”
“I don’t know what I’d do without your mother, and I hope she’d say the same about me. We’re a team, and we take turns bearing the different things that weigh us down in this life. If you’ve found someone like that, you’re not a strong man if you let her slip through your fingers. You’re a dammed stupid one.”
Andrew laughed at that. His dad was absolutely right, and he’d had no idea how badly he needed to hear it.
“I’m glad you came, Dad.”
“Me too. Now, where’s the best barbecue joint in this town?”
…
Two days later, Andrew was once again cautiously optimistic. He’d just completed the final chemo treatment of his sixth cycle. Lauren had taken the day off and had come with him, sitting on one side while Jeni maintained her usual spot on the other. He’d noticed that dickhead Gavin was nowhere to be found, and he asked Lauren about it during his infusion.
“He got fired,” Lauren had said, a hint of glee in her tone. “Apparently, he had a few sexual harassment complaints, and human resources finally put their foot down.”
“That’s better news than the fact that this is my last chemo,” Andrew said, smiling widely. A tiny voice in the back of his brain reminded him that there wasn’t a guarantee this was the last, but he shut it down.
Mandi finished applying the dressing to his port and looked at him. “Andrew, I can honestly say I hope I never see you here again.”
He laughed as he stood and wrapped her in a hug. “This may be the first time I won’t take offense to that statement.”
“I’ll be thinking about you next week,” Mandi continued, and he assumed she referred to his PET scan.
