Healing Hearts

“Not bad.” Page dug into the rest of her pasta.

April wiped the corners of her mouth with a napkin and exhaled. “It’s magnificent. And to think we made that from scratch.”

He leaned in closer and dropped his voice so that only she could hear him. “We make a good team. Just think of what else we could do together.”

April jerked back, crushing one of her friend’s toes. She apologized, then put her half-eaten plate of pasta down. “I need to... I’ll be right back.”

Page frowned at him. “What are your intentions, exactly?”

He wasn’t sure how much to tell Page. If April didn’t want her friend to know what they’d discussed, then it would be better for him to stay silent. He shrugged. “Trying to get to know her better.” He quickly added, “And you, too.”

“Mmm-hmm.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Something tells me that she’s the one you really want to know.” She placed her empty plate on the table and came up close to him. “If you’re playing games, she’s not interested. She’s been through too much to let a guy mess with her head. And if you hurt her, you’ll deal with me.”

“I don’t plan on hurting anyone.”

Page scowled at him, then looked in the direction April had just headed for. He all but dropped his plate of ravioli on the table, no longer hungry. He held up his hands. “Fine. I’ll go talk to her.”

He paused long enough to grab his wool trench coat before leaving the kitchen and walking to the parking lot. April paced, her arms across her body, shivering in the cold. He took several long strides to reach her, then removed his coat and slid it over her shoulders. “It’s cold out here. You need a jacket.”

She pulled the lapels of the coat closer around her. “Thanks. I wasn’t thinking.”

“What were you doing?”

She looked up at him and sighed. “Why did you ask me out?”

“I told you. I can’t stop thinking about you. I figured it would be better to get to know you so I can have that time back to concentrate on my job.” He noticed the snowflakes that had frosted her curly hair. He longed to reach up and brush them away. Instead, he crossed his arms over his chest and hunched his shoulders together. “Could we talk about this inside where it’s warmer?”

April frowned at him for a few moments, then shook her head. “No, thank you.”

“You won’t talk to me inside?”

“No, I can’t go out with you. I don’t really like you, Mr. Harrison.” She offered a polite smile, turned on her heel and presumably headed for the kitchen.

He had no choice but to follow, his curiosity piqued. He was a likable guy, right?

CHAPTER FOUR (#u80d9f3d1-361a-5f14-84f1-dba24c3f0610)

FIVE WOMEN SHOWED up for the weekly breast cancer support group meeting at the Hope Center. April glanced at the other four women, one of them Lynn, the facilitator. “Where is Stephanie?” she asked as she took a seat in the circle.

Lynn winced as the other three women looked down at the ground. “She died over the weekend.”

“Oh.” Stephanie had been diagnosed with stage four breast cancer the same time that April had found the lump. She realized she’d been comparing the two of them at each stage of the disease, even though Stephanie’s cancer had been more advanced. “But she seemed to be doing so well.”

“Complications from pneumonia, they said.”

Page entered the center and took a seat next to April, glancing at the somber faces surrounding her. “Who died?”

“Stephanie.”

Page blew out a breath as she took off her coat. “Wow, I didn’t expect you to say that. She was doing better, I thought.”

Lynn nodded and took a seat, motioning the others to do the same. “That’s why we should talk tonight about being vigilant when it comes to our health. How many of you thought you were healthy when you first discovered you had cancer?”

Nearly everyone raised her hand. Page sat on hers and shrugged. “I figured it would get me one day, so I wasn’t really surprised. More like relieved that I could stop worrying about when it was going to happen. Now I could focus on getting it out.”

“For the most part, we figured we were okay until our diagnoses. But our bodies had been sending clues that we probably chose to ignore or dismiss.” Lynn sat forward in her chair. “I didn’t do monthly self-exams because no one in my family had ever had cancer. Diabetes and heart disease, sure. But cancer? I assumed I was safe.”

One of the women nodded. “I did my self-exams, but my cancer was too small to feel. So I thought I was okay, too.”

“Now that we’ve had cancer, we need to listen to our bodies even more. If something doesn’t feel right, have it checked out. Keep a journal. Talk to your doctor.” Lynn glanced around the circle, her gaze landing on April. “Just because you’ve had cancer doesn’t make you immune from everything else out there. Because you’re a cancer survivor doesn’t mean you won’t have a heart attack, or like Stephanie, die from complications with pneumonia. Being a survivor means that you faced down one demon, but we still need to be on the lookout for others.”

It made sense to April that having cancer didn’t give her a free pass on other potential health issues. Though in fairness, it seemed as if it should. She’d had to go through so much already that she shouldn’t have to worry about anything else. The reoccurrence of cancer was enough to keep her awake at night.

Lynn moved on to the sharing portion of the meeting, and one of the others talked about her recent scans. April noticed Page wasn’t even pretending to be listening but picking at one of her cuticles. April leaned toward her. “What’s going on?”

Page put her finger to her mouth. “Shh, it’s sharing time.”

Lynn turned to Page. “Did you want to share something with the group?”

Page shook her head. “Naw, I’m good for this week.”

Lynn looked at April. “How are you coming along with your second-chance list?”

The entire group knew about April’s list and had even brainstormed ideas to add to it. She shrugged. “We took a cooking class a few days ago. That was pretty cool.”

“Tell them about the hot guy.”

April frowned at Page. “The hot guy has nothing to do with my list.”

“So you admit that you’re attracted to him? Why won’t you go out with him?”

“Because I don’t like him. Sure, he’s good-looking, but he rubs me the wrong way.” April crossed her arms over her chest. “Why should I go out with someone like that?”

“You don’t know him well enough to not like him.” Page appealed to the group. “You should have seen the sparks between them when they rolled out the pasta dough.”

Lynn’s eyebrows shot up. “He asked you out?”

“Yes, and I shot him down.”

“Isn’t the point of your second-chance list to take you out of your comfort zone and see what else is out there?” Lynn pleaded, “Isn’t going out on one date with him part of that?”

April bit her lip. Part of her resented Page for bringing up Zach. Another part knew she and Lynn were right. April hadn’t given him a chance, but then why should she? If cancer had taught her anything it was that life was too short to waste on regrets. She couldn’t explain why she didn’t like Zach, but then, she didn’t need to. She knew she’d regret it if she tried to get close to him. “No. My second-chance list is about doing things I’ve wanted to do but didn’t have time for or the opportunity to pursue. It’s not about squandering time with pushy men who have a cell phone stuck to their ear.”

“Okay, okay. What’s next on your list?”

“I haven’t decided.” She hadn’t thought that far ahead yet. She figured she’d close her eyes and point to one.

“Wait.” Page sat up straighter in her chair. “There’s a doctor at the hospital that has tickets for an exclusive wine tasting. I couldn’t go with him, so I gave him your number.”