“You okay?” he asked.
My throat went dry, and I sighed, forcing myself to sit up. Taking a deep breath, I let it all out. “When you kicked me out of the hospital, I didn’t leave. I went downstairs and gave a sample with your Gran to be tested as a donor liver for your dad.”
His eyes went as wide as saucers but he didn’t say anything, so I continued.
“They called today and I’m a perfect match. Surgery is Monday.”
I could hear the crunch of his teeth when his jaw clenched; his nostrils flared and he got up, left the room and slammed the door.
Shit.
I heard him rustling around on the couch. I planned to give him a few minutes to cool off and go after him to talk but then I accidently fell asleep.
Ashton
Millie came out of the bedroom the next morning, puffy-eyed and hair tied in a top-knot. She still looked adorable but I was in no mood to tell her that. She was holding the papers I’d stayed up all night printing. The ones I’d left on the bed for her.
“Ashton.” She shook them at me, frowning.
“You wanna be a living transplant donor, you need to know the side effects,” I told her curtly.
The fact that she even thought her and my father’s lives were equal was laughable. If Millie died on the operating table and my father lived, I’d lose my fucking mind.
It was preposterous, the whole thing. But I didn’t want to push away the woman I’d just won back by yelling at her, so I decided to scare her instead.
“Have you ever had general anesthesia before?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “I dunno. I got my wisdom teeth out…”
I scowled at her. “That’s not the same, and do you know how many people die from bleeding with the surgery? Did you know you have to give seventy percent of your right lobe? Or forty percent of your left depending what my dad needs?”
She nodded. “Yep. I researched it back when I was flying home, you know, right after you kicked me out of Tennessee.” She glared at me.
I flinched.
“It grows back in eight weeks, Ashton. I’m in the hospital for seven days and fully back to normal in only two months, and for that small amount of discomfort, I can save your dad’s life.”
I frowned. She didn’t get it. “He’s not worth saving, Millie.” My voice was low.
She stepped closer to me, bringing the scent of her coconut shampoo with her. “He is to me.”
I put my head in my hands. She was so much like Jenna that it physically hurt me sometimes. Like all of a sudden I realized I’d gone and fallen for someone with a heart big enough to rival my twin sister.
This is exactly something Jenna would do.
“He’ll drink your new liver to mush within a year!” I yelled.
She shook her head. “Oh hell no he won’t. I’m going to see him today. If he doesn’t agree to a sober living facility of my choosing for a full year, I’ll let him die.”
I swallowed hard. He would agree, that was the thing. Wayne always agreed, moped, said sorry, and then he just fell off the wagon again.
Millie clearly had no experience with a lifelong alcoholic.
Raising my head, I met her gaze. “Okay, if you’re serious about this, then I’ll go down today and get tested. If I’m a match, I’ll give it to him.”
She frowned, tears building in her eyes. “Ash, you can’t. The doctor came out while you were back in ICU and said you weren’t a candidate based on the heart rejection. That’s when he asked Gran and I to get tested.”
“Fuck!” I stepped away from her and started to pace the room.
For the first time in my life I felt like I could breathe, like I wasn’t drowning, and that’s because Millie was my fucking life vest. I couldn’t lose her before I’d ever gotten a chance to love her fully.
She stepped in front of me, cutting me off, forcing me to meet her gaze.
“Ashton, if you wanna be with me, you’re going to have to get used to supporting my decisions. I’m a saver. I save dying bars, birds with broken wings, stray cats … it’s just who I am.”
I frowned. “Boys with broken hearts.” I tapped the scar on my chest.
She grinned. “I think in this case…” She stepped closer. “This broken-hearted boy saved me.”
She leaned forward and brought her lips to my mouth.
God, I loved her. I could fully admit that I loved her, and wasn’t part of that love for her passion for saving people like my piece of shit father? Maybe he needed her. Maybe Wayne needed Millie, because me and Gran had surely given up on him. Maybe Millie could turn him around … I just didn’t know.
A need to be closer to her burst inside my chest and I reached out, grabbing the back of her neck and pushing her lips harder into mine. She moaned, parting them and our tongues met in a fevered rush.
Reaching out, I cupped my hands under her ass and hoisted her on top of me, walking her back to the bedroom. She pulled back and looked in my eyes, her pert little mouth swollen from my kiss.
“Everything will be fine.”
My heart stopped beating for a few seconds.
It was the last thing Jenna said to me before she ran after Wayne the night she died.
Chapter 20
Millie
Wayne had been in the hospital about five days now. He had medically dried out from alcohol and was fully clean and sober. If I could get him to agree to the sober living facility I’d called this morning, I was going ahead with the surgery on Monday.
At my request Ashton stayed back at the bar to prep for the brunch opening. I stood outside Wayne’s door, gathering my nerve to ask a grown man who was pretty much a
