“A statement? Please,” Max says, rolling his eyes.
“Max,” Allison says quietly, trying to calm Alex.
“No!” he roars, pointing at me. Jack and Michael startle beside Denise. “You need to fix this.”
“I love her!” I shout back and see Denise’s eyes go big while Steve goes to Olivier and gives him a high-five. “I love her, and I’m going to fix this.”
“I love her too,” Jack says, whispering beside her.
“Oh, god,” Allison says, going to grab Jack and putting her hand out. “Come on, honey, let’s go get a snack.”
“I don’t want to leave Denise,” he says, and Max looks down at him.
“It’s okay, buddy. Your dad is going to take care of her,” Max says, looking at him, and then he leaves to go with Allison who turns and looks at her husband.
“You need to remember what it felt like when the whole world found out we were married.” She looks at him and walks out with Alex now lying on her mother’s shoulder.
My eyes never leave Denise’s as she leaves her brother and comes over to me. “Can we have a minute?” I look at her, seeing if she will follow me. Hoping like fuck she will follow me.
I grab her hand and walk up the stairs. Entering my bedroom, I see her things on the floor mixed with mine. I close the door and walk to the bed. Sitting down, I watch as she pulls her hand from mine as she stands in front of me. She walks into my open legs and sits down on my lap, putting an arm around my shoulder. I look down and finally let the past thirty minutes catch up with me as my arms wrap around her waist. A tear escapes and runs down my cheek. “I’m so, so sorry,” I whisper to her. “I never …”
She puts her fingers on my lips. “I love you too,” she says, and my heart finally settles. “I wanted to tell you before when you came in and gave me flowers,” she says, putting her hand on my cheek, “but I didn’t want you to think I was doing it just because of Chantal.”
“I love you,” I tell her again, and she leans forward, kissing my lips softly. “I love you enough to understand if you want to take a break.” My throat tightens when I say the words while she looks at me. “You’ve worked your whole life to get out from under the cloud, and you did it with beauty and grace, and I refuse to be the one to tarnish it.”
“Funny thing about this thing called love is when you do it, you do it with your whole heart, and you stick together through the hard times.” She tries to get closer to me.
I shake my head. “This is a clusterfuck,” I tell her. “She …” I shake my head.
“She’s a bitch,” she finally says. “If she wants to fight, we fight.”
“What about your patients?” I ask her.
“I work on Tuesday, and I’m going to go in, and if my patients aren’t comfortable with me, then I have no problem switching them out,” she says. “I’m a good doctor.”
“No,” I interrupt her, “you’re a great doctor.”
She smiles at me. “You already got me.”
“Yeah, and I’m not giving you back.” I lean in and kiss her and hear a soft knock on the door. “Come in.”
Max opens the door and pops his head in. I sit up straight this time, and Denise must feel me get tense. “Your lawyer is here. So is the lawyer and the PR for the hospital.”
“Fuck.” I close my eyes.
“So are Matthew and Karrie, and Doug is on his way with his lawyer.”
“Where is Jack?” Denise asks.
“He’s downstairs,” he says. “He said he wanted to put his hat on in case his mom came back.” He shakes his head and looks down. “He didn’t want her to be mad at Denise.”
“That’s it,” Denise says. “She doesn’t get to make him feel like that.”
“Baby,” I say quietly when she gets up and walks out of the room, leaving Max and me by ourselves.
I get up, looking at him. “You love her?” he asks me.
“Two people in this world I would die for and she’s one of them,”
I tell him, and he laughs a bit.
“I said the same thing to my mother-in-law when she found out about us.” He puts his hands in his back pockets. “The difference was I knew I wasn’t good enough for her. I knew she deserved so much more than me.” I don’t say anything. “That’s the difference between us, because she deserves you. She deserves to have the love that Jack gives her, the love that you are going to give her.”
“I don’t know if I can ever make this up to her,” I say honestly.