Page 19 of Good Time Boyfriend
“What did your sister say about that?” she asked as she got in the car. I frowned, wondering how to explain that. It was always awkward to bring up that we hadn’t been raised with our sister.
I moved around the car and got in on my side, starting the engine.
“That was during the years Greer wasn’t living with us.”
She frowned as I moved us down the street and out of the neighborhood to get on the highway. There were tons of trails all around West Denver, and it was super easy to find a trailhead and hike without needing a permit. We wouldn’t be hiking for long, but I did have a backpack of snacks and water. Just enough to enjoy ourselves.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Well, since it is our second date I should get into the details.”
“Second? Oh my,” she said with a laugh, and I grinned.
“Moving fast,” I said quickly. “My parents didn’t have the most typical relationship.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I mean, there’s nothing you can do about it. My parents suck. They still do. Not the greatest thing for a son to say, but they do. The first time that they got divorced, it was right after I got healthy.”
I cursed, realizing I had started their story in the wrong part.
She frowned at me as I sighed.
“Long story even longer. When I was a kid, I had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.”
“Heath, I’m so sorry. I’m glad you’re okay now. I mean, you are okay now, right?”
I nodded and gripped her hand. I watched the long lines of her throat as she swallowed. She was so damn beautiful, and it made it hard to think. Hell, it just made me hard.
“I am fine. Seriously. Yes, it sucked. I had to go through chemo and all the things you do when cancer’s trying to kick your ass, but non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, even in children, is treatable. My lymph nodes were swollen, and it sucked, and it hurt. I don’t even remember the first time they started to hurt. I just remember my mom getting really scared, and my parents fighting. I had a bone marrow biopsy, which I remember hurt like hell. And then we did chemotherapy, but we didn’t need to do radiation. Because I didn’t have complications and things worked out and I didn’t need anything extra, it was relatively easy compared to some of my friends in the hospital with me.”
I turned down the highway, facing the majestic Rockies, reminding me that I was settled, that I was here. That I wasn’t that scared little boy anymore.
“That must have been a lot for your whole family.”
“It was. My baby sister and brother were far too young to understand what was going on, hell, I was too young to understand what was going on. I just knew it hurt and I was tired and I was throwing up all the time. And my twin really didn’t know what was going on, either.”
“I didn’t know you had a twin.”
“Yeah, August. Luca’s the youngest, Greer’s right above him. And then it’s me and August. We’re identical, but we don’t do anything alike. He’s a nerdy chemistry teacher who is brilliant, and a jock, and was the quarterback of our football team. He got a full ride to our university just on academics alone, and he could have played sports in college if he hadn’t been going for dual degrees.”
“August does sound pretty amazing.”
I reached over and tapped her nose before I turned down the street towards the trailhead.
“You’re with this twin here. Just making sure you know.”
“Oh, I do.”
“I went to college too, but for business. It was a little harder for me, but August was always there to help, and made sure I always passed.”
“You didn’t like trade spaces in classes, did you?”
I laughed. “No, we couldn’t really do that, not till we were older. And then we ended up having different beards. When we were kids though, you could always tell us apart because I was skinnier, a little sicklier.” I shrugged it off as if I couldn’t remember, but I could. And I was fine.
We got out of the car after I parked and made our way down the trail, not hand in hand, but close enough that our hands brushed against one another.
“Anyway, I was fine, August was fine, the rest of us were fine. My parents were not.”
