Chapter 6
The two young men sat silently by the
water's edge, neither had spoken a word in hours, neither knew exactly what to
say. AJ dug his feet down deep into the sand, wiggling his toes before
sprawling himself backwards onto his towel to stare up into the evening sky. He
turned his head towards his best friend and wondered silently what was going on
in his mind. They had been here three days already and Nick had refused to talk
about anything but the upcoming tour and the new album and he knew in his heart
that he couldn't keep this up for long, that eventually he would either have to
talk or he would end up having a breakdown.
~~~~~~~
Nick stared out at the ocean, watching
the waves rolling up onto the shore and a sailboat going by in the distance. He
couldn't help but think about how much his life had changed in the past month.
He had gone from being the happiest he'd ever been in his life, at the height
of his success with the woman of his dreams, thinking about love and commitment
and engaged to be married -- something he'd honestly thought would never happen
-- to this. Here he was, sitting by the ocean with AJ, having purposely missed
his third scheduled flight to Kentucky to be with his fiance at the time when
she needed him most.
He didn't know why he couldn't do this,
but he couldn't, at least not right now. He'd been there that night in the
hotel when she'd been so sick he thought he might lose her. He remembered
riding in the ambulance with her the entire way to the hospital, her fever
dangerously high. She had squeezed his hand so tightly he thought his fingers
might actually break, but he hadn't cared. He fell in love with her all over
again that night as she lay in the hospital bed in as much pain as he'd ever
seen a person experience and yet, she had been so strong his love for her grew
tenfold.
They'd flown back to Kentucky the next
day, all of them together to take Grace home to see her gynecologist. The
doctors in California had told Grace they believed she had suffered from a
ruptured ovarian cyst and they had given her enough medication to make the
flight, but they'd wanted her to see a specialist as soon as possible.
The flight home had been hell. Grace
had been in pain most of the way, her cheeks were flushed and tear stained and
when Nick wasn't doing everything in his power to make her comfortable, he was
acting as her pillow so that she could get some much needed rest. It seemed to
take an eternity to make it to Lexington and once there they had bypassed a
quiet night at home and headed straight to the emergency room at Central
Baptist Hospital.
It was still several days before the
official diagnosis of cancer was heard. Grace had been sent home on strong pain
medications and had spent several days laying in bed where Nick had stayed by
her side. The day of the diagnosis however, Nick and Brian had been out playing
golf when Grace had been at the doctors office receiving the worst news of her
life. She had called in tears and Brian had answered. They had driven over to
the hospital immediately and spent the next week in a worldwind of chaos which
included more medical terminology and procedures then Nick would ever be able
to remember. It was the worst week of his life and yet, he had stayed there
with her through it all.
***
