Stolen Dreams, Heather M. Borger [top novels of all time .txt] 📗

life what you want it to be; safe, secure, and sheltered isn’t what I want anymore.”

Brock slammed the door as he stormed up the stairs and out onto the deck. Guilt flooded through Skye. She wanted to race after him, but, instead, she sat quietly on the floor and cried.

It was just after seven and her appointment wasn’t for two hours. She had no idea how far they were from the hospital, so Skye ventured up on the deck to talk to Brock.

“When do I need to leave for a nine o’clock appointment?”

“I don’t know. How early do you want to be there?”

Skye heard the anger and resentment in his voice. It was new and unusual. He had never stayed angry with her before. “Come on. Please try to understand where I’m coming from.”

“Me, try to understand where you’re coming from? Skye, do you really think I haven’t tried to sympathize? Did you, for just a second, ever think that maybe that’s why I waited until one o’clock to start calling you? I get it, Skye. You think your life is over and you want to enjoy these last days. Your life, however, doesn’t have to end here. You need to deal with reality. Things will change for you, but you will survive this. And, quite frankly, I don’t think swimming in shark-infested water alone or one-night stands with strangers will prolong your life for even a second!”

“I’m not trying to prolong my life any more. I just want to enjoy it now.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“I told you. I don’t want to have regrets. What I did last night may have been crazy and stupid, but it felt good to forget about my problems.” Skye dropped down on the deck next to Brock, tears forming in her eyes. “I’m afraid that the surgery will show the cancer spread; or that it didn’t spread and you’ll guilt me into staying inside for the rest of my life. I’m scared that my dad won’t make it back to the island. I’m terrified that if I don’t start taking chances, I’ll die with too many regrets. I’ve always been a careful, deliberate person. Look where that’s gotten me.”

Brock softened at her distress. Taking her hand and pulling her close, he spoke gently. “It got you here. To a place in your life where you realize you want to do more than hide in the shadows. So, what good will that be if you die trying to prove that you can be crazy and reckless? Don’t go to extremes. There are other ways of living life to the fullest.”

“You haven’t told me not to worry about my dad.”

“I’m worried about him, too. All the craziness in the world isn’t going to bring him home any sooner, though. When he gets here, do you want him to find out all the trouble you’ve caused?”

Skye smiled hesitantly. “No. That’s why you’re the only one who knows about it. I can trust you to keep my secrets.”

Brock sighed, feeling guilty. “I’m sorry I’ve been so hard on you. I just really don’t get why you’re letting this change you. You’re going to be fine.”

“I wish I believed you. But, there are only two outcomes here, and neither seems agreeable to me.”

“How do you figure? The way I see it, you go in there today, schedule the surgery, find out nothing spread, come back to the island and start working as my partner by the end of the month. Life is good.”

“No offense, but, if I’m down in the lab, life is not good.”

“I tried.”

“You never answered my question. When do I need to leave to get to the hospital?”

“If we leave by eight thirty, we’ll be fine.”

“We?”

“I am going with you.”

“Why?”

“To be sure you do what needs to be done today.”

“Can you wake me in an hour?”

“Sure.” Brock answered dryly. He heard the hostility return to her voice. She wasn’t seeing anything his way today. Staring out over the ocean, he wondered what he could do or say that might encourage her to stop behaving like she has no viable future.

Seven

“I think we need to schedule the surgery immediately. I want to be certain we don’t give this a chance to spread if I didn’t get it all originally.”

Skye sat quietly listening to Dr. Miller explain what he thought was an inevitable surgery. She would let him finish before explaining she hadn’t decided to go through with it yet.

“Everything will take less than an hour, start to finish. When we’re done, you’ll have an incision in your thigh about three inches long. I’ll send the tissue away for testing. There’ll be a decent amount of pain the first day or two. After that, it should begin to feel better. Around ten days, you can come back and I’ll take the stitches out. I should have the test results by then as well. You’ll need to stay out of the water until it heals completely, of course, and as you already know, you should look for an indoor career if you want to stay out of my office in the future.”

Skye saw him glance at Brock as he spoke. As if he knew she didn’t want to listen to him any longer.

“Do you have any questions for me?”

Skye shook her head. “No. Thank you, though. I’ll give you a call to schedule it if I decide to have the surgery.”

She stood to leave, but Dr. Miller just stared, his face puzzled and concerned. “What do you mean, if you decide to have the surgery?”

“I’m not sure it’s the best thing for me.”

“How could this not be the best thing?” He looked at Brock and, seeing the concern on Brock’s face as well, realized he was not alone in his disappointment. “Brock, can I talk to Skye alone for a bit, please?”

Brock nodded and stood to go. He squeezed Skye’s shoulder as he walked past her. If only she knew how much she needed to see this through.

“Will you please tell me what you’re thinking? If you’re worried about the surgery, I can assure you, there’s nothing to be worried about.”

“I’m not afraid of the surgery.”

“What, then?”

“I’m afraid of losing the ability to do everything I’ve ever dreamed of doing in one rash decision.”

“You mean like the rash decision to not

have surgery that could save your life?”

“No, I mean the rash decision to

have surgery that will confirm one way or another that my life is over. I don’t want to spend my life indoors. So, if having the surgery isn’t going to change anything about what I do when I go back to the island, why do it?”

“You need to know if it spread. We’ll deal with life changes after the surgery. For now, schedule the surgery with me. Please.”

“Fine. I’ll schedule it.” Seeing Dr. Miller sit back and begin to appear relieved, Skye quickly continued, “I’m not saying you won’t get a call from me canceling it. I’ll schedule it to make you happy, and think about it a bit more before the time comes.”

“Be here at six thirty tomorrow morning. Don’t wear jewelry or anything tight over your legs. Loose sweat pants would be best. Don’t eat after dinner tonight and no drinking anything after midnight.” He stood to shake her hand, “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

“Whoa, tomorrow? I thought it would take weeks to get an appointment.”

“Skye, I know Billy well. We go way back. If I allowed you to walk out of here today with any chance of not going through with this, I couldn’t live with myself. You are everything to him. If you won’t do this for me, or for Brock, or even yourself; do it for your dad.”

Skye nodded, he was right. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Can you call Brock back in here before you leave?”

“Sure."

Skye waved Brock back into the office and sat down.

“Hi. Thanks for giving us a minute. When do you need to be back to work, Brock?”

“I didn’t really give them a time I’d be back, why?”

“Can you keep Skye here on the mainland until her surgery is over tomorrow morning?”

He smiled as he glanced at her. “Yeah, of course. I’ll call the lab as soon as we’re back on the boat. They’ll understand.”

“Thank you. She may need a little extra help for a day or two back on the island, as well.” Glancing at Skye, he continued bitterly, “I’m assuming your mother isn’t home these days?”

Skye shook her head, “No. She’s somewhere here on the mainland. I’m not sure when she’ll be back to the island.”

Brock spoke up quickly, “She can stay with me. We’ll take care of her.”

“Great. Then she’ll just need a follow-up in ten days to remove the stitches. We can schedule that tomorrow before you leave.”

Brock shook the doctor’s hand and followed Skye out of the office.

“Tomorrow morning, how do you rate?”

“He doesn’t want me to have a chance to back out of it. He guilted me into doing it right away.”

“How?”

“Like I’m going to tell you.”

Brock shrugged, “It was worth a try.”

Skye walked out of the hospital quickly, wanting to remove herself as if that would make her problems fade out of sight as well.

“I’ll stay at my own house, though. There’s no need to worry your parents about this. I’ll be fine.”

Brock looked down at the ground as he spoke, his voice almost inaudible, “My mom’s already concerned.”

“What? Why would she be concerned?” Skye eyed him suspiciously.

Taking a deep breath, he spoke softly, hoping to appear sorry for his actions, “She asked about why I was bringing you to the mainland and I told her what was going on.”

Fury raged through Skye over the betrayal she felt. “You told your mom? Brock, you promised you wouldn’t say anything!”

“I’m sorry. You know how much she cares about you. There’s no way I could keep this from her.”

“You seem to do a fine job keeping your own secrets from her.”

“This is completely different!”

“How, exactly, is this different? The way I see it, I’ve kept your secrets for years. Never buckling under pressure, never giving in when everyone questions me. Pretending to be someone I’m not so you can pretend to be who they think you are. I’ve allowed the giggles and the snickers behind my back, everyone planning out our wedding and what our kids will look like. Not once have I ever even