Chapter 2
Two
R ita hadn’t been feeling the greatest, and Becky had talked her into going to the doctor, who had sent her for a few tests.
After all, her job afforded her health insurance, and Becky said she ought to take advantage of it.
Whatever it was, it was probably something that would be easily taken care of.
At her age, it wouldn’t be anything serious, but if a person had insurance that would cover taking care of the little things, she ought to get it done.
She had missed seeing her sister over the holidays, because Rita hadn’t felt well, and Becky didn’t have anyone dependable with whom she could entrust her horses.
Still, she was looking forward to spring, and she was going to make a point of going to see her sister. It had been way too long, almost a year.
“So what are they saying?” she asked, relieved that Rita had some answers, obviously. Whatever the problem was, they would be able to figure it out; it was the fear of the unknown that usually made things so bad.
“Well, there are a couple of things I didn’t tell you.”
“Okay,” Becky said slowly, reaching over, and against everything that she wanted to do, she turned the heater off.
She sat back, huddled on the chair, holding her phone in her gloved hands. She could see her frozen breath coming out in puffs.
“All right. So the first thing I didn’t tell you was that before Brian broke up with me, there was a guy.”
“Okay,” Becky said, not sure how this had anything to do with anything.
“His name was Chad, and I saw him off and on for about three months.”
“He wasn’t a drug dealer, was he?” Becky said, knowing that she was using her stern older sister’s voice.
“No,” Rita said, like it was obvious. “Of course not.”
“Okay.”
“Well, anyway. I got pregnant.”
Becky stilled. Then, she swallowed before she said, “So you had an abortion?” That was the only thing she could think of. After all, Rita hadn’t talked about any pregnancy symptoms at all. Although…they didn’t talk that much.
“No. And it turned out to be twins.”
“Okay,” Becky said slowly. They weren’t born yet?
Was she still pregnant? And why in the world hadn’t she told her older sister that she was pregnant, for goodness’ sake?
After all, wouldn’t it have been her job to throw a shower for Rita at the very least?
She wanted to celebrate it. Not that she had any money to do any kind of celebrating or even to buy her a pair of booties, but still.
“So, when I told you that I wasn’t feeling well, it was on top of the uncomfortableness of pregnancy.”
“Okay.” Becky couldn’t think of anything else to say. She still was missing key pieces of information. She hoped her sister just kept talking.
“Anyway. They did a biopsy. That was the test.”
“Okay. A biopsy. Usually I think of that in connotation with cancer. Obviously this is something different.”
“No. It’s cancer.”
Becky sat, stunned. Trying to compute, to figure out what her sister had said, what this meant, and what she was supposed to do.
Suddenly, Becky felt like she wanted to throw up.
Forgetting about the cold, she gripped her phone and stood, the folding chair toppling over behind her as she paced from one side of the small office room to the other.
There wasn’t anything in it other than the chair and the heater, and a small stool on which she kept her record books.
Along with a pen. There were no electronic records here.
It was her phone, her notebook, and her trusty old pen.
But she wasn’t thinking about any of that now.
“You have cancer, or the babies have cancer?”
“I do. They recommended a C-section immediately to take the twins and then have me starting on chemo right away. But…the doctor honestly thought there wasn’t much hope.
He can save the babies, but he thinks that a C-section might cause the cancer to spread.
Sometimes when you operate and you open it up to the air, it…
explodes kind of… That wasn’t exactly what he said, but it was the picture I got when he was talking. ”
“So cancer explodes?”
“No…kind of. I don’t know. But I scheduled a C-section for this Friday.”
“Okay.” Becky was running over in her mind what in the world she could do. She had to be there with her sister. She wasn’t quite sure how it was going to work out, but she said, “I’ll be there.”
“Good. Because this is what I need from you.”
Wait. Just being there wasn’t what she wanted?
“Anything. I’ll do anything. Of course I’ll do anything for you. You’re my sister.”
“I love you, Becky. I knew you would say that.” Her voice broke, and there was a short pause. “I need you to take my babies.”
Wait. She was supposed to take her babies? “Your twins?”
“Yeah. They’re almost full term. Thirty-seven weeks.
The doctor said they’re going to be small, but as far as he can see, they’re both healthy, and he doesn’t expect any complications for them.
For me…he’s not sure. The only thing I know for sure is that I’m not going to be able to take care of them right away. ”
“No, of course not. You gotta fight this cancer.”
Rita had cancer. It still hadn’t sunk in. Becky was going to have to help her with her twins. That was a little easier to process, even though it was a surprise. But one question stuck in her head. How?
She looked around the small office. Pacing furiously, it was four steps across.
Four small steps. This was the only place where she had extra heat.
Upstairs…she kept it so cold that even she could barely stand it.
Not to mention, it was one room. Her bed, a sink and counter, and a toilet was all together.
There was no room for a crib, let alone… two.
“I knew you would help me out.” It sounded a little bit like her sister was sniffling or maybe crying. “I don’t want to die. But even more, I don’t want my babies to die. They didn’t ask for this. And I’ve got to take care of them. You know how things went for us.”
“Yeah. I know.”
“And I need my babies to have a solid, stable home.”
“Of course you do.”
“That’s why I want Rodney to help you.”
Becky paused midstride. “I…thought I told you that I haven’t talked to Rodney in years.”
“Yes. You had. But Matt knew how to contact him, and I’ve already spoken with him. He told me yes immediately.”
“Wait. You’ve already talked to Rodney?” She talked to Rodney, Rodney jerk-face Blackstone who ghosted her years ago, after promising her the moon and the stars and all the romantic things, and then totally ditched her? Her sister went to him before she came to Becky?
Becky’s fingers had tightened on the phone so much that she was surprised the thing didn’t crack.
“Yes. I’m sorry. I knew I could ask and you would do it. You…have so much on your plate. But I want you. I want you more than anyone else. And you and Rodney will take care of my babies like no one else would.”
“Of course we will.”
She forced the words out, even though her entire heart and soul and spirit and everything within her was rebelling.
She was not going to do anything with Rodney.
The only way what he did to her would have been acceptable was if he would have been dead.
And obviously he wasn’t if her sister spoke with him. How dare he. How dare she ?
She wanted to strangle both of them. And she wasn’t normally a violent person.
Well, maybe she was more violent than what she thought, because she didn’t want to just strangle Rodney, she wanted to reach into his chest to pull out his beating heart and throw it on the snow and stomp on it and?—
Okay. Maybe that was a little much. Even for her.
But that wasn’t the important thing. Not right now. Right now, she still hadn’t fully grasped that her beloved little sister had…cancer.
“Becky?”
“Yeah?” she said.
“I got the early appointment today so I would know as soon as possible. I…have a bad feeling.”
“Of course you do. Cancer would give anyone a bad feeling,” Becky said, not wanting to believe for one second that Rita’s bad feeling could be anything more than that.
“No. I mean, like a really bad feeling.”
“Rita Sue Rivers. You are not going to die. You are going to fight this cancer, and you are going to win. I will take care of your babies, but only on the condition that you are going to fight as hard as you can.”
“I’m sorry. You already agreed. You have no room to put any conditions on, because you said you’d do anything for me.”
Now Rita sounded like a little sister. Like she was taunting in Becky’s face the fact that she had Becky in a hard spot, and knew it, and didn’t care.
“Okay. You’re right. That’s what I said.”
“And you’ve told me a million times that a man is only as good as his word. And you also said, you don’t have anything but your word, so it has to be good.”
Nothing like having one’s words thrown up in one’s face when one wanted to go against everything she believed.
She wanted to tell Rita that she would only watch the babies for a set amount of time; that was how long Rita would have to fight the cancer and win.
But she knew those things couldn’t have such stipulations put on them, and she also knew that Rita was right. She couldn’t put stipulations on anything, because she had promised that she would care for the twins. No matter what. And that she would do anything for Rita.
“I need to go. The doctor’s office just emailed me, and I need to look it over. Don’t forget, Friday is the C-section.”
“I love you,” Becky said. Not knowing how she was going to pull any of this off, but her love was stronger than anything else. Her sister was the one thing she had in life that she constantly fought for. And she wasn’t going to let her go.
“I love you too.”
Becky swiped off on her phone and looked at it for a second, the pain of knowing her sister had a hard road ahead flowing through her.
She had to push it aside. She couldn’t even think about that, so she focused on the next best thing.
Her jaw tightened as she gripped her phone and then threw it as hard as she could into the far corner and screamed at the top of her lungs, “I hate you, Rodney Blackstone!”
It made her feel marginally better.
“That is going to make things rather uncomfortable, I would say.”
She spun around, the voice from the doorway of the room startling her. She didn’t recognize it immediately.
Not until her gaze landed on the familiar dark eyes, the shock of black hair, the beloved Roman nose, and the strong chin.
The face that she had looked to all through her youth for comfort and security and help and for kindness and for everything.
He had been her everything. And he had ditched her without looking back.
“Rodney,” she said, keeping her hand from going to her throat with the last shred of her self-control. Her eyes narrowed. She hated him. Hated him with a passion.
“Becky.” The way he said her name, the way it curled off his tongue, shimmered in the air, slid down her backbone, made something warm want to burst in her chest, but she would not allow it. She squashed it down and narrowed her eyes even further.
“Yeah. Things are going to be uncomfortable.” She believed in meeting one’s trials head-on, so she marched in high gear toward the doorway, giving Rodney no choice but to step aside. She had horses to take care of.