Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 72856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
He looked around the bay to make sure we were completely alone, then offered me a seat on the big chrome bumper of the fire truck.
I took it, glancing around nervously.
“I have a son. His name is Colt. He's sick. He has leukemia. He had his first chemotherapy treatment two days ago. He needs stem cells for a transplant. Our first option is to hope he finds a donor. As a backup I was going to have a child just in case they needed to harvest the stem cells from his cord blood,” I blurted. “But the match has to be perfect. You were a perfect match. But then you withdrew your specimen…and now, well, I’m here to beg you to rethink it.”
He frowned and took a seat on the massive bumper on the front of the fire truck.
“What was so special about me?” He asked.
“Your blood type. Your health status. Your heritage. You were the closest I could come to actually getting his biological father, which is something I can no longer do since he’s already refused,” I told him bluntly. “And I have to have the best possible match, because I need this to work. I need this…for Colt. Just in case the bone marrow transplant doesn’t work or another donor isn’t found.”
“How much time does he have?” Tai asked.
I looked down at my hands that were fisted between my knees.
“I don’t know. It’s very advanced,” I said, looking up at him. “He started chemotherapy two days ago. Right now they’re watching to see how he responds to it. Then, once they get those results, which we should have in about two weeks or so, we can move on from there. However, the doctor is fairly positive that he’s going to need the stem cell transplant due to the advanced stage of the disease.”
Tai look tortured.
“What if I tested my bone marrow? What if we held a rally, and we got a lot of people to get tested?” He offered hopefully. “What if we do that, first, and then we go from there?”
I thought about that for a moment.
What if?
Could that work?
Could that possibly help Colt?
The longer I thought about it, the more I realized that it really was a good idea.
If a match was found faster, then the transplant could be done sooner and then that would be better for Colt, right?
And we could always explore the stem cell option later, if it was needed.
Which it might not be.
Right?
“Okay,” I said once I’d thought his suggestion through. “We can try that. Can I…will you take my number? Maybe give me a call, and I can tell you where to go and what to do?”
He nodded.
“I can do that. I’ll give you mine, too,” he said, fishing his phone out of his pocket and handing it over to me. “Put your digits in there and call yourself so you’ll have my number.”
I did as he asked and quickly typed in the numbers.
My phone didn’t ring because it was on vibrate, but I heard it buzzing from the bottom of my purse.
When I handed it back, he looked at me for a long moment.
“We do visits at the hospital…does Colt like firefighters? I’m sure I can convince the boys to make a run by there later on,” he offered.
I smiled.
“I think he’ll like that,” I said softly. “Right now he’s in the children’s wing at Good Shepherd Medical Center in Longview. But you’ll have to do it soon, because by this time next week, he won’t be able to have any visitors, except me and my mother, due to his compromised immune system.”
Tai frowned.
“How does Friday work for you?”
Chapter 2
Answer my text messages, or you’ll get even more text messages saying to answer your text messages. Nobody wants that, now, do they?
-Tai to Mia
Tai
I was nervous.
I couldn’t tell you why.
We did this sort of thing all the time.
But this time was different. This was someone I knew.
Well, knew of, anyway.
I didn’t know what to expect.
Most of the time, when we visited, it was to the healthier kids in the unit. This time I’d be in a part of the children’s wing that I’d never been to before.
After Mia had left on Wednesday, I’d started calling around to see who I could get to help.
I didn’t know why I was so invested. Maybe it was the desperation in her eyes. Maybe it was penance for doing that shit in the first place. Maybe it was just because she was pretty.
And she was that.
As I turned the corner and entered the hospital room that, according to Mia’s text earlier, Colt had been moved to following some complications with one of his medications, I once again caught my breath.
I’d done the same when I saw her the first time as well.
She’d walked into the training room at the station, and all eyes, even Fatbaby’s, had been on her.