“If you see Ty, would you please tell him that I look forward to reading his letter?” Rachel asked Janie. “He doesn’t owe me anything, but I would like to hear him out. And I would like to make amends for the harsh things I said to him.”
Janie nodded slowly. “I will. I was just with him. That’s why I came in here, to tell them he’s awake and doing well. Just focus on getting better, okay? I know it feels like you have to take care of everything now, but you have time to work things out.”
Maybe, but having been so close to death, Rachel didn’t want to waste any more of the time she’d been given. This transplant was her new chance at life, when everything had seemed hopeless.
Now she just had to make things right with Ty so they could give their relationship a chance.
Maybe it was selfish of Ty to wait to see Rachel, but he’d been home from the hospital contemplating his next move for almost a week now. He’d given Rachel the letter, and he knew she’d read it, but they hadn’t spoken.
He hadn’t wanted to see her in the hospital, even though it nearly killed him not to. He didn’t want either of them to see one another in a weakened state and have it affect the discussion they needed to have.
Which was why, as he relaxed in his dad’s recliner, sipping a glass of iced tea, he was surprised when Rachel showed up in his parents’ living room.
“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be resting?” Ty asked. Rachel smiled, and even though he had no business admiring her, he couldn’t help noticing how the color had returned to her cheeks. She seemed so much more peaceful and at ease than he’d ever seen her.
It was all he needed to see to know that giving her a kidney had been the right decision.
Not that he’d ever questioned it for a minute.
“That’s what Wanda said when I made her drive me out here,” Rachel said. “But I told her that if she didn’t drive me, I’d do it myself.”
Ty stared at her. “If I can’t drive yet, then you can’t drive yet. What were you thinking?”
He shouldn’t have been surprised, since Rachel was as tough-minded as a person could be. But his recovery was easy compared to hers, and her need to rest was even greater than his.
Rachel gestured at the couch. “Mind if I sit?”
He wasn’t sure he had a choice, but either way, he didn’t want her tiring herself out. He’d had the easy part of the surgery, and he wouldn’t be running any marathons anytime soon.
“Sure. You probably already saw my mom on the way in, but if you want something, she’ll get it for you. I’d do it, but every time I get out of this chair, she yells at me.”
“And don’t you forget it,” his mom said, entering the room with a glass of iced tea for Rachel. “No matter how old they are, they’re still your baby. Mine just had major surgery, so I am taking full advantage of the opportunity to coddle him as much as I want.”
It was something that would have annoyed him in the past, but now he was starting to realize that everyone had their own way of showing love and needing to be shown love in return. If this was what his mom needed, then he’d give it to her. Now, if he could only find a way to give Rachel the love she needed.
His mom handed the tea to Rachel. “You just sit back and relax, and if you need anything, I’ll be right in the other room. And if either of you overextend yourselves while you’re supposed to be resting, don’t think that I’m above giving either of you a good thump.”
Ty grinned. “Thanks. I think we’ll both behave.”
He’d talked at length to his mom about how he’d messed everything up, and though she’d agreed with him that he’d been wrong, she’d also told him that it wasn’t too late to fix things. He just didn’t know how.
“You’d better,” she said as she left the room.
When Ty looked over at Rachel, she looked a little scared.
“Your mom might be a small woman, but I’d be afraid of meeting up with her in a dark alley,” she said.
Ty chuckled. “She taught preteens for a long time. My mom is tough as nails. But you’re not here to talk about her. So tell me what’s on your mind.”
Rachel smiled at him, a warm, comforting look, one he would take with him for the rest of his life.
“I read your letter, and I decided that a response needed to come in person. I know you said that donating a kidney was something you thought was the right thing to do, and that you didn’t want me influenced by that decision, but surely you can understand how it would influence me anyway. You don’t just give your kidney to someone you hate, which means there has to be something there.”
“I never hated you,” he said. “Where would you get that idea?”
“I never thought that. I’m just saying things haven’t always been clear between us,” she said, looking nervous.
“It was all there, black-and-white.”
Maybe it was dumb of him to say, but he also didn’t want to put his heart on the line when he’d already done so and wasn’t sure where Rachel was going with all this. Was she nervous because he hadn’t made his feelings clear? Or had the space he’d given her made her realize that what she felt for him wasn’t love after all?
“I know,” she said. “And that’s why I’m here. I have feelings for you, too. I just fought them for a long time because I didn’t know what a healthy
