The hospital doors slide open smoothly in front of us. Reese squeezes my hand. I glance down at her, and possessive pride bubbles inside me. This is my woman and only mine. It makes me sad that she must go through this pain. Thank God, I’m here to support her through it. She’ll never have to deal with anything like this on her own again.

“Are you ready?”

“Almost,” I say, and wrapping one arm around her waist and the other in her long hair, I pull her towards me. Caught off guard, she gasps and I claim her open mouth. Her fingers come up and grasp at my shirt trying to pull me closer, closer, and closer still. Her curvy body pushes into mine, molding herself against my hardness. All the passion and fervor I feel for her comes to the fore and all I want to do is pull her into a quiet corner and fuck her so hard she screams, but I don’t. I pull back and look into her eyes. They are glazed and heavy-lidded. Her lips are red, swollen, and slightly parted, as she takes short, quick breaths. At that moment, she is mind-blowingly beautiful. There is no woman more beautiful than her in this whole world.

“I’m ready now,” I say.

“Well, I’m not,” she says hoarsely. She is pretending to be cross. It’s cute, and my cock hardens even more.

“Be patient. I’ve got a rock-hard dick for you to suck on when we get home,” I tell her.

She grins at me goofily. “Do you realize that you said that really loud?”

“Are you ashamed of sucking my dick?”

“No, I love it,” she says immediately.

That’s hot. There’s nothing hotter than having a woman say that and mean it. She entwines her fingers with mine and we enter the hospital together.

I’m a bit nervous about seeing Morgan again. The first time I met her it was a whirlwind of emotions, recriminations, and misunderstandings, and I didn’t have a chance to understand how I really felt about her. Now that I have come to terms with it, and all the drama has been swept away, I think, I simply want to get to know her. My mother. While I still have the chance.

We go up to the reception, and the nurse behind the desk stares at me. There is a flicker of recognition on her face as she smiles.

“Can I help you?” she asks.

“We’re here to see Morgan Stanford.” My nervousness makes my voice come out tense and harsh, and the woman blinks up at me in surprise. I smile apologetically, and she drops her eyes down to her computer screen. She types in Morgan’s name, and looking back up at me, asks, “Family?”

For a second, I freeze. Then, I nod slowly. “Yeah, she’s family. She’s my mother.” I glance down at my beautiful Reese and she beams at me. I cannot look away from the expression in her eyes. I stare at her entranced, by her beauty, her grace, her innocence. From somewhere at the fringes of my consciousness, I hear the nurse say, “Room five-eight-one.”

“Thanks,” Reese says softly, not breaking our stare.

Then, we turn away from the receptionist, and head towards the elevators. My heart is beating hard in my chest. We don’t speak in the elevator, just look into each other’s eyes. We have to pass another reception desk and walk down a corridor until we stand outside room five-eight-one.

I push the door open.

Morgan is propped up on pillows in the bright room. The enormous bunch of flowers I sent, I know it’s mine because Tanya always sends me a pic of the flowers she sends out on my behalf, is sitting on the counter beside her, adding glorious color to the room. She smiles at us. Reese’s dad glances up from where he’s been keeping a vigil at her side, and immediately gets to his feet.

We greet each other. Reese goes to talk to her father, and I walk up to the bed and take a seat at Morgan’s side. She immediately reaches for my hand and squeezes it.

“Good to see you again,” I say.

I know it’s a cliché, but surrounded by all the white pillows and sheets, Morgan looks how I always imagined angels would. If you want to know what a woman whose heart is literally bursting with pure love looks like you only have to look at her.

She smiles up at me like a child, her face filled with a mixture of love, happiness, and pride and gestures around her. “You didn’t have to do any of this.”

“I wanted to. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do, and I want to keep you around me for as long as I can.”

“Oh, Drake,” she cries blinking back tears. “When you left that day, I wasn’t even sure you would be coming back.”

“I’m sorry. I was confused. It was such a shock, and I needed to speak to my Dad.”

“No, it’s me who’s sorry,” she shakes her head. “Reese told me what happened in your parents’ house. It was never my intention to drive a wedge between you and your family. I assumed they’d told you that you were my son. I should have known better after…”

She trails off, as though the words are still too painful to get out of her mouth. I smile at her. “It doesn’t matter anymore. I know the truth now, and that’s all that counts.” She smiles back at me, but I can see a hint of sadness in her eyes. I know how she feels. I haven’t spoken to my Dad or my adopted mother since yesterday. A part of me mourns for the loss of that family. I will eventually make up with them, but for now, the time I have with Morgan is very short, and I intend to make the best of it. When she goes there should be no regret in my heart.

Before I can say anything else, a doctor enters the room. He glances around at us all, and then focuses his attention on his patient.

“How are you feeling today, Morgan?” he asks, picking up her chart, and glancing at the notes.

“Much better, thank you,” she looks around the room at all of us, “now that my entire family is here with me.”

“Yes, family is a wonderful thing,” the doctor nods, smiling at all of us. “Soothes the soul.”

“It does indeed,” Morgan agrees.

“Can I speak to one of you for a moment?” the doctor asks, and I stand up immediately. If its news about her condition, it’s about time that I was the one to take that burden, but I look at Doug and he nods slightly as if to tell me to go ahead.

Reese and her dad move to Morgan’s bedside and begin laughing about something, an inside joke, no doubt, built from years of family. I feel a little stab of jealousy, but soothe it with the knowledge I still have time to make myself a part of it. The doctor smiles at me broadly as soon as the door clicks shut. Huh. That’s odd. Isn’t exactly the expression I associate with bad medical news!

“What’s up, doc?”

“We’ve got some great news about your mother,” he announces, and I can hear the bubble of excitement in his voice as he says it.

My head jerks back in surprise. “What?”

“We’ve reviewed her condition,” he goes on, “and we believe that the doctors at her previous treatment center may have misdiagnosed her condition.”

“What kind of mistake?” I lean forward eagerly, urging him to go on. Urging him to tell me what I want to hear more than anything in the world.

“We still need to run more tests, of course,” he warns, “but we are starting to conclude that your mother’s condition may not be terminal.”

My mouth drops open and I stare at him incredulously. No. Way. No fucking way. I can’t be that lucky. To be handed this, like some kind of redemption after everything that’s happened. I feel as though my heart is going to explode with joy. I fight the urge to throw my arms around him. I roll back my shoulders so I’m standing up straight.

“Thank you,” I nod, and glance over my shoulder at the closed door. “Do you mind if … do you mind if I tell them?”

“Of course not,” he smiles kindly. “But do let them know this is the preliminary stage. We’ve got a lot more to do before we can give her a clean bill of health.”

“I know,” I return his smile, so wide it feels as though my face will crack in two. “Thank you. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He nods a couple of time. “By the way, do you think my son can have your autograph. He’s nine years old and you’re one of his greatest heroes.”

With a massive grin, I take my baseball cap off, reaching over, pull a pen from the doctor’s coat pocket.

“His name is James,” the doctor says.

I sign my cap and hand it over to him. He is so eager and excited he literally snatches it from me, but I don’t think I have ever been happier to give someone an autograph before. He thanks me profusely and heads back down the corridor. I place my hand against the door, pause for a second, and then open it. This is going to be the best part of my day. My month. My year. My life. I step into the room with my family, and they all clock the look on my face at the same moment.