Hearing him admit his faults, owning up to them and willing to accept whatever my ma or me gave him in return really made it hit home that what he had done was just a mistake. A massive one, a life changing one, but still a mistake. I believed that everyone deserved a second chance, and as I hugged my da, I knew I would give him that chance. Just like I knew my ma would when he and she spoke about his infidelity. That conversation would be the most important one we would have as a family, after learning about my ma’s cancer, of course, but I knew, deep down, that we’d get through it.
My ma was right when she said there was nothing the three of us couldn’t get through together.
“I’m cryin’ all over you,” Da said with a little laugh as we broke apart. “Bronagh and that lad you came with are smilin’ at us, too.”
I could imagine.
“That lad is me boyfriend,” I said, lifting my hands to my face so I could wipe away my tears. “His name is Damien Slater.”
My da quickly rid his face of tears, stood up straight, and said, “Your ma told me about ’im. I’d like to meet ’im, if that’s okay?”
My ma had met Damien a few days ago, and it went off without a hitch. Damien even took it on the chin when she started teasing him over his fight with Dante, assuring him she found it all rather romantic. I was mortified, of course, but Damien thought it was hilarious. By the time we left my parents’ house, he and my ma were practically best friends.
“Of course, you can meet ’im.”
As we walked, I looked down at my da’s hand then without a word, I took his hand in mine, and gave a squeeze as I led him over to the observant duo.
“Da,” I began went we stopped in front of them, “this is Damien Slater, me boyfriend.”
Damien was already on his feet with his hand extended in my da’s direction.
“It’s great to finally meet you, sir.”
Da shook Damien’s hand firmly. “And you, son.”
Son. That one word made my heart melt.
“Bronagh, love.” Da smiled at my friend. “You’re lookin’ as lovely as ever.”
She snorted as she gave him a hug in greeting since she hadn’t done so when she entered the hospital because he was pacing back and forth the entire time. Coming over to talk to me was the first time he took a break from his routine.
“Where were you to tell me that this mornin’ when I was stuck with me head in the toilet vomitin’?”
Da grinned. “I’m sure that lad of yours had it covered.”
Bronagh snorted.
“Congratulations on your pregnancy,” Da continued. “I still can’t believe you have Georgie, and now you’ll have another little one.”
“I’ll have a tribe by the time I’m thirty if Dominic gets his way.”
“He will,” Damien and I said in chorus.
“Well—” Bronagh’s lips twitched “—maybe.”
I moved to Damien’s side, and I watched as my da’s eyes fell to my side. When I felt Damien’s fingers thread through mine, my heart leaped when a smile tugged at the corner of my da’s mouth. I had never thought of what my parents would think of Damien, but knowing that my ma practically loved him and my da’s first encounter with him went well really relaxed me. I couldn’t imagine staying with someone long term if he and my parents didn’t get along, not with how family orientated I was.
“Alannah,” Bronagh suddenly said. “That’s your ma.”
My attention was pulled to the doors of the operating theatre, and when I recognised the nurse who brought my ma in for her operation that walking by a bed that a man pushed, I knew Bronagh was right. It was my ma. My da and I quickly moved over to the bed, and we relaxed when we saw that my ma was sleeping, but she looked perfectly fine.
“She’s okay,” the nurse said, gaining our attention as we mutely walked. “You can come up to ’er room with us, but she may remain sleepin’ for a few hours.”
I didn’t want to mention that we were going up to her room with her no matter what, so with a bob of our heads, we all followed the nurse and the man who pushed my ma on her hospital bed. I grabbed Damien’s hand when he came to my side, and I squeezed it. My heart was pounding against my chest, and I was sweating.
“Hey,” Damien said, gaining my attention. “She’s okay.”
I repeated that over and over in my mind until we were in my ma’s private room, and we were sat around her bed, just staring at her. I kept looking at her chest, watching it rise and fall, before I’d switch my eyes to the heart monitor that she was hooked up to, keeping an eye on her heartbeat. I wanted her to wake up, just so I could ask for myself if she was okay, but I knew I had to be patient even though it was hard.
“She looks like she could be your older sister, Alannah,” Bronagh said as she stared at my ma with her head tilted. “I hope I look half as good as ’er when I’m fifty.”
“It’s all the laughin’ she does.” Da smiled, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand that he had held from the moment we entered the room. “It keeps ’er young, bein’ happy.”
“If that’s the case, Alec Slater will never die,” I commented. “He’s always happy.”
Bronagh and my da chuckled, but Damien remained quiet, and that drew my attention.
“Are you okay?”
He nodded. “Just thinking.”
“About?”
“Where I’m goin’ to take you on our first date.”
I paused. “Can it be somethin’ simple?”
“Simple?”
“Yeah, like goin’ to the cinema, to dinner, a trail hike when it’s pretty outside. Ye’know, simple.”
Damien considered this. “That seems a little too simple.”
“I’m a simple girl.” I shrugged. “I don’t like things that are over the top.”
“I’d listen to ’er if I were you,” Da chimed in. “When me and ’er mother threw ’er a twenty-first birthday party, she was so mad that we spent money on ’er that we had to listen to ’er lecturin’ us about it for weeks.”
“That’s true.” I nodded. “I did do that.”
Damien’s lips twitched. “A dinner and movie date it is.”
“Oh, can we go and see The Greatest Showman?”
I had looked it up when Morgan mentioned bringing his girlfriend to see a Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron musical and had been itching to go see it ever since.
“And that would be?”
“A musical with Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron.”
Damien rolled his eyes; Bronagh gasped.
“Shut up,” she said. “I love Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron.”
I snorted. “Who doesn’t?”
“I’m sitting right here, woman.”
I looked at Damien and grinned.
“It’s Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron. Like I have a chance.”
“If they saw you, you would.”
I laughed. “I wish.”
Bronagh snickered over Damien’s scowl, but all our attention was turned to the door when a light knock sounded and in stepped the head doctor on my ma’s team, the one who had just performed surgery on her.
“We’ll go and get some tea,” Bronagh said, getting to her feet at the same time as Damien. “Excuse us.”
When they left the room, myself and my da got to our feet, and after we greeted the doctor with a handshake and nod of our heads, we waited.
“The surgery went beautifully,” the doctor said in a thick accent that I couldn’t detect, folding his arms across his chest. “I removed the tumour and very little breast tissue. Once she is all healed up, a small scar is all that will be left behind.”
I deflated with relief. “Thank you so much.”
“My pleasure.” The doctor bowed his head a little. “Now, she will be a little sore when she wakes up, and her breast, as well as some of the surrounding area, will be swollen, but that is all perfectly normal.”
“When can she come home?”
“Tomorrow morning,” the doctor answered. “She’ll be kept overnight just for observation.”