Score

by Jessica Ashe

  Once again, the doctor asked a few quick questions and then sent me for a scan. Even if I received good news today, I would still have to come back for regular checkups, but I hoped not to see the inside of this machine again for at least a year.

  I went back and waited in the doctor’s office while he analyzed the results. This was it now; the moment of truth. Within just a few minutes I would know what the rest of my life would hold. Either way, I knew Jenny would be a huge part of it, regardless of whether I lived for eight months or eighty years.

  “What’s taking so long?” Jenny asked. She hadn’t stopped fidgeting since I’d come back from the scan.

  “Calm down, it’s only been a few minutes.”

  “No it hasn’t,” she replied. “It’s been nearly half an hour. He never usually takes that long.”

  I looked at the clock on the wall and realized she was right. Doctor Lee was spending a lot longer analyzing the results than usual.

  “Don’t worry,” I said calmly. “He’s a doctor; he’s probably just been asked to give a consult or something.”

  My lie calmed Jenny down a touch, but only a touch. The doctor wouldn’t be giving a consult. I had paid for the best care available, and Doctor Lee wasn’t the type to get sidetracked in the middle of an appointment.

  The minutes ticked by until we had been sat there for forty-five minutes. “I’ll go see if I can track him down,” I said to Jenny, desperate to get outside. Something was wrong and I didn’t want Jenny to notice how scared I was.

  I walked to the door, but the doctor walked inside when I was just a few feet away.

  “Sorry to keep you waiting,” he said.

  “You were beginning to get us worried,” I said casually. “Let’s get this over with shall we.”

  “Actually, Mr. Foster, I’d like you to go and have another scan please.”

  “Why?” Jenny snapped. “What’s wrong?”

  “There was an anomaly,” Doctor Lee said. “But it could have just been a fault from the test. Just to be sure, I want you to use a different machine this time. I’ve checked with the technician and there is a machine available now. Please follow the nurse and she’ll show you the way.”

  “What anomaly?” I asked the nurse as I walked out of the room.

  “It’s probably nothing,” the nurse said. “The image wasn’t crystal clear so we couldn’t identify the tumor correctly.”

  “So the tumor’s still there?” I asked.

  The nurse remained silent. The tumor was supposed to be gone by now. If there was still something there… Best not to think about it.

  “This was a newer machine,” I told Jenny when I returned from the second scan. “I reckon the other one is old and on its way out.”

  Jenny didn’t even move. She looked terrified and I didn’t feel much better myself. The doctor only took a few minutes to do his analyses this time. Was that a good thing? Or did it mean that the machine had confirmed whatever anomaly he’d seen before?

  “I don’t need another test, do I?” I asked. “I’m getting kind of bored of those things.”

  “No, I have the results now. I apologize for the confusion. The first set of results were… unclear, so I wanted to run another test.”

  “What’s the deal here, Doctor?” I asked. “Should I avoid making any long term plans?”

  The doctor dug out the images of my brain. I just wanted an answer, but he insisted on showing me all the details. I took hold of Jenny’s hand and squeezed it firmly. Her hand was cold and she didn’t react in any way to my touch.

  “The first scan showed some signs that the tumor was still there,” Doctor Lee said, pointing to the images. I nodded as he pointed at various colors and blotches on the images, but I didn’t understand much of what I was looking at.

  “My concern was that the tumor had grown since the last scan,” he continued. “However, there’s a reason why we often run these tests more than once. The second scan gave us a much clearer image. Mr. Foster, you are in the clear. Hopefully for good this time. The tumor and all traces of it seem to have disappeared.”

  I felt light-headed, as if my mind were drifting out of my body. Typically, people breathed a sigh of relief at moments like this, but I’m not even sure I breathed at all.

  “He’s going to be okay?” Jenny asked. The words came out quietly as if she didn’t believe them.

  “He’s going to be just fine,” the doctor said. “Make whatever long term plans you like. Given your history, I would still like you to come in for regular checkups, but I don’t expect there to be any problems.”

  I expected Jenny to leap into my arms with delight, but she just sat there looking utterly drained and exhausted. The doctor popped out and came back with two plastic cups of water. I gave them both to Jenny and made her drink them.

  “That was good news, Jenny,” I teased. “You can smile now.” She did smile, but also broke out into tears at the same time. I hugged her close to me and let her cry on my chest. It would take a few days before the news sunk in, but by that time we would be packing, ready to begin our new life together.

  “What will you do to celebrate?” Doctor Lee asked.

  “We’re moving to England soon,” I replied.

  The doctor nodded. “If I may be so bold, I would recommend you take a vacation first. Somewhere hot and relaxing where there’s nothing to do but sunbathe and swim in the sea. I think she needs it.”

  I nodded and took the doctor’s advice on board. In the taxi on the way home I sent a message to Sheridan letting him know the good news—Jenny’s hands were shaking too much to use her phone—and then a more formal message to Mom. After some thought, I also sent a message to Dad, but deleted his response before I could read it. He deserved to know I was going to be okay, but he didn’t get to talk to me about it.

  By the time we arrived home, I’d already booked a vacation. The doctor was right; Jenny did need it and so did I. Two days later we were relaxing with cocktails on the beach. Life was good.

  “Is it bad that I’m getting used to this?” I asked Jaxon, as we relaxed in first class on a flight back to New York.

  “You deserve the best,” Jaxon replied.

  First class flights were one of the luxuries we afforded ourselves. First class flights and a lovely home. We had to travel a lot, so flying in comfort was important and it was always nice to come home and relax in a mansion. Other than that, we kept our spending modest.

  We had the money. Jaxon’s job working for his old club paid more than enough to live comfortably, but Jaxon and I both saw so much hardship on a regular basis that it was hard not to feel guilty about spending lavishly. We gave a significant chunk of our money to charity, and I insisted on only being paid a minimum wage for my job with an NGO.

  Minimum wage was an improvement on my year as a student. Even though I could rely on Jaxon for support, it still felt strange to go from taking home a decent paycheck, as I had done with New York United, to earning nothing at all. Still, it had only been a year, and the master’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies had helped me get a job with an NGO doing charity work and infrastructure support in the region.

  “Are you going to see your mom at all while we’re in New York?” I asked.

  “Not if I can help it,” Jaxon replied. He barely spoke to his mother and never spoke to his father at all. Sometimes I answered the phone when they called and let them know that Jaxon was in good health before promptly hanging up. I took a slightly twisted satisfaction from listening to his dad’s voice. The man sounded weak and pathetic these days. It was a far cry from the arrogant man who’d tried to make me sleep with him five years ago.

  I usually hated leaving the plane when we were in first class. Lying in a comfortable bed was infinitely better than lining up to get through security, but this time I jumped up and was off the plane the second the flight staff gave us the okay. I’d not been so excited about a trip in a long time.

  -*-

  D
ad opened the door as we walked up the driveway. The second I saw him, I ran up and threw my arms around him. Dad and I had gotten so much closer since I’d moved to England, mainly because he’d changed so much since he split up with Carrie.

  “Did you have a good flight?” Dad asked.

  “It was wonderful,” I replied. “It feels so good to be back.” I hadn’t been home in nearly a year, but the place was so familiar, I felt like I’d never left. Some of the furniture had been moved around, but nothing overly drastic.

  “It’s great to have you back dear. You’ll have to excuse the mess,” he said, “we’re keeping all the stuff inside in case it rains before the ceremony.”

  “I still can’t believe you’re getting married again,” I said. “Have I mentioned how happy I am?”

  “You might have mentioned it once or twice in passing, dear,” Dad said with a smile. “Remember, it’s not really a full wedding. More of a ceremony. We’re keeping it small.”

  “I don’t care if it’s just the four of us,” I said. “Speaking of which, where is the blushing bride?”

  “It’s been a long time since I was described as a blushing bride, sweetie,” Mom said, as she walked into the living room. I gave her a hug and introduced her to Jaxon.

  Mom and Jaxon had spoken plenty of times over video chats, but had never met in person. After some initial nerves from Jaxon, the two of them had connected quickly and loved joking around about me. This trip would likely consist of hundreds of old baby photos doing the rounds once the two of them got talking.

  Mom and Dad had reconnected soon after Dad’s divorce with Carrie had been finalized—perhaps before, but I didn’t like to pry—and after just a year they decided to get remarried.

  My parents had the glow of two young people in love which made me cringe a little bit, because I knew only too well what young people in love did all the time. They were happy though; that much was obvious.

  “How is your work going, Jaxon?” Dad asked. “I follow the Premier League a little bit now and I saw your club in the top four. That’s good right?”

  Jaxon laughed. “Yes, that’s good. I don’t have a lot to do with that though. I’m just the community liaison manager. That means I make sure the players fulfill their obligations to the community when they’re not playing. I don’t have a lot to do with what happens on the pitch.”

  I wasn’t so sure that was true, but Jaxon was too modest to admit it. I’d spoken to a few of the players and they always spoke about how impactful it was to meet those less fortunate than themselves. It made the players appreciate what they had and a happy player often did what was required on the field.

  The last time I went to a game, the team had won three to zero and each of the three different goal scorers had specifically run over to the section of the ground with wheelchair support for the disabled supporters and celebrated with them. That never used to happen and I knew Jaxon had something to do with it.

  “What about you, Jennifer?” Mom asked. “How is work? Do you have any more dangerous trips to make that I need to worry about?”

  I’d made the mistake of mentioning to Mom that work sometimes required me to travel to the Middle East and parts of Africa that were not exactly tourist friendly. Fortunately, I wasn’t a tourist, but there was real danger involved and I had to take precautions where possible.

  “I’m doing my best to keep her at home,” Jaxon said. “I’m not a fan of her little trips either.”

  “I’m going to cut back,” I said. “In fact, I spoke to my boss at work last week and asked not to travel so much.”

  I needed to cut down on traveling now anyway and, other than my language skills, I wasn’t a lot of use on those trips.

  “Well, I hope you’re both hungry,” Mom said.

  “Starving,” Jaxon and I replied at the same time.

  “Good, because dinner’s ready. It’ll be my last meal as a single lady.”

  “Forever this time,” Dad added. “I’m not letting you out of my sight again.”

  I quickly went to wash up for dinner to avoid my parents kissing. I’d seen Dad get married to Carrie, but I’d hated every minute of it. This time his marriage would be one of the happiest days of my life.

  -*-

  Mom and Dad kept the invite list small, so it was just family and a few close friends. The ceremony was over in twenty minutes, and then everyone started drinking and mingling in the back garden. I laid off the alcohol, but more than made up for it by consuming my own body weight in food.

  “I lived here for a year, but never realized there was so much land behind your parents’ house,” Jaxon said, as we went for a walk after dinner. “Where are we going?”

  The back garden was of a modest size, but it was close to a lot of public land that few people used. I half-expected it to get developed at some point, but it never did. I’d taken Jaxon down a path that wound through a small wooded area with trees just the right size for overly-adventurous kids to try to climb. Fortunately for my parents, I had never been an overly-adventurous child.

  “I used to walk along here a lot as a kid,” I said. “These paths go on for about a mile and then you end up at a small lake. Of course, when I was a kid it felt like a huge lake. My parents would get the canoe out, and we would paddle around all day.”

  After another ten minutes, we walked through a clearing in the trees and arrived at the lake. There was a pier stretching out about one hundred feet over the water, so we walked to the edge of that and sat down, dangling our feet out over the edge.

  “Did you ever go swimming in there?” Jaxon asked.

  “No. And don’t you dare do something silly like throwing me in the water,” I added quickly, before gripping hold of the edge of the pier.

  “You don’t think very highly of me, do you?”

  “I just know you too well.”

  “Your parents had a beautiful ceremony,” he said. “I’m so happy for them.”

  “Me too. It’s just a shame they had to spend so many years apart.”

  “We did the same and I think we ended up stronger for it.”

  “True,” I agreed. “I thought the ceremony would be a little more extravagant though.”

  “I think it was just right, considering the circumstances. I don’t think your Mom wanted to do the whole ‘white dress’ thing again.”

  “No, I know, but I heard you and Mom talking about preparations for the wedding once over Skype. It sounded like she had grand plans.”

  “Ah,” Jaxon replied. “Yes, I suppose she did.”

  “She must have changed her mind.”

  “Not really. She had grand plans for a big wedding, but not her own.”

  I looked down at my lap and saw Jaxon’s hand holding an open box containing a large diamond ring.

  “I know I’m supposed to be on one knee,” Jaxon said, “but I might fall off the end of the pier if you say yes. Jenny… Jennifer, will you marry me?”

  My eyes went blurry and I couldn’t focus on the ring any more. I turned to look at Jaxon and nodded my head. It was all I could manage. The tears rolling down my face said more than words ever could anyway.

  Jaxon took the ring out of the box and carefully placed it on my ring finger, even though my hands were shaking.

  “I did ask your father’s permission,” he said. “And your mother’s, so I’m not completely breaking with tradition. You’re going to get a big white wedding after all.”

  “Can we have it soon?” I asked.

  “How soon?”

  “Next two months?”

  “Sure,” Jaxon said slowly. “It’ll be a rush, but we can manage. Why so soon? I’m not going anywhere.”

  “I know,” I said, admiring the diamond ring on my finger. “But it’s going to get much harder to fit me into a wedding dress in six months’ time.”

  “Why?” Jaxon asked. “Do you put on weight over winter or something?”

  I slapped Jaxon on the arm and then laughed
at him. “You can be a little slow sometimes, you know that?”

  “I don’t… oh. You’re kidding?”

  “Good news?” I asked uncertainly. We hadn’t exactly planned for any additions to our family, but with all the traveling I’d been doing, I’d made a mess of taking the pill regularly, and had forgotten that fact when Jaxon swept me off my feet the second I walked in the door after a week in Turkey.

  “Good news,” he agreed. “Definitely good news. Boy or girl, this kid is going to be the best soccer player ever.”

  THE END

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  The debut stepbrother romance novel from Jessica Ashe

  Last week I made the biggest mistake of my life--Caiden Ramsden. He's a cocky, arrogant prick who is sleeping his way around London. I normally stay well clear of bad-boys, but he's ripped, sexy, and impossible to resist.

  I'm supposed to be clever. I'm a straight A student going to the University of Cambridge. So why was I attracted to such an arsehole? I should know better.

  Sleeping with him was a big mistake, but I had no idea just how big until he showed up at my house with his mom. Caiden is about to be my new stepbrother. I have to forget what happened between us, but I don't know how to get him out of my head. And I'm not sure I want to.