Fate (29 page)

For the first time since he’d walked in
,
his expression eased up a bit. “We’ll have to be aggressive. I don’t like these numbers at all.”

After giving her a shot of B12, he explained the condition was too far gone for B12 supplements. She needed bi-weekly injections.
“You can come in twice weekly
.
” S
he didn’t have time to do
that
. Neither did she think she could pull it off without Grace getting suspicious
,
and she’d already decided she wasn’t telling her
.
“
Or
I can prescribe the injections
,
but you’ll have to make sure you do it twice a week. It’s not that difficult.”

“I’ll do that,” she said quickly then shrugged. “There’s a YouTube video for everything. I’ll look one up.”

The doctor eyed her then began writing out the prescription. “I want you back here in a month. I need to see if twice a week is enough. But I want you to understand the seriousness of this
,
young lady. You can’t miss even one injection.” She nodded wide-eyed
,
hoping that would assure him she understood. “It’s my hope that after a month
,
we can bring the dose down
,
not up, but I’ll be honest with you. You’ll need to get used to this. You’ll probably need the injections for good. We can’t allow these numbers to get this low again. The consequences can be very adverse. The only reason I’m not more worried is because you’re so young.”

Rose made another trip to the lab. The doctor said he was almost one hundred percent
certain
what she had was pernicious anemia
,
but he wanted to rule a few other things out
,
so he had them do more blood work.

As she sat there
unable to even look at the blood being drawn,
she thought about the doctor
’
s last words of advice. “And don’t stress. That only makes things worse.”

Great.

Vince

It could’ve been a few hours
,
or maybe even a few days that he’d been
lying
there
,
still next to Will’s already cold body. Vince had lost track of time. He hadn’t realized until all the dust had settled that his leg had been cut pretty badly by the flying debris from the bombs. The pain in his leg throbbed
,
and though he was sure he could walk
,
even if it was a few steps at a time after crawling back to Will’s side
,
he’d lost all resolve to do so
.

Either t
hey’d come back and find him alive right there next to his good friend
,
his
only
friend
,
or Vince would share Will’s fate and die right there with him. Why should Vince have a second chance if Will hadn’t been given one?

Feeling the bitter tears beg
i
n once again
,
Vince lay down squeezing his eyes shut. Life sucked so bad
ly
. Vince felt drained. He was completely spent from all the worrying and torment he’d gone through this past year
,
wondering if he’d ever get Rose back.

He thought coming to Iraq had been his way of leaving the past behind him for good
:
f
inally accepting that things were
so
fucked up that there was no way of fixing things. Rose was with someone else now. She’d moved on.

“She fucking moved on!” He spit out the words, slamming his fist into the sand and ignoring the pain.
How could she have moved on?
How was she not still feeling the very thing that tore his insides up? How could he have been so wrong thinking that she felt for him what he felt for her? A love that held no limits—no amount of time
,
no distance could ever sever it.

Foolishly he’d begun to believe that being this far from her
would
help him get over her
,
but he’d been unequivocally wrong in every sense of the word. He lay
t
here
,
almost wishing he’d be killed
rather
than go back
,
knowing she wasn’t his anymore.

As usual his beat
-
up and dehydrated body gave into exhaustion
,
and he let it, falling into a deep sleep like he had been doing ever since he crawled back next to Will
.

~*~

“You make me happier than I’ve ever been in my life.” Rose
’
s beautiful eyes stared into his. “Do you know that feeling in your stomach? That craziness you feel like the day you first held my hand?” Vince nodded
,
knowing exactly what she meant. “Then again when you first kissed me?”

“And every kiss after that,” he whispered
staring deep in her beautiful eyes. The feeling, the one she’d just described overwhelmed his insides
.
Along with it an emotion he’d only ever felt when he was with her
—w
hen he kissed her
.
It
was one of the most beautiful and most intense emotions he’d ever experienced in his life.

She squeezed his hand
,
her eyes suddenly frightened. “Don’t let go, Vincent.”

He shook his head
,
rapidly feeling her fear inundate him. “I won’t.”
B
ut the fear was still there
,
and he hated it. He hated her being frightened. “I won’t ever. I promise, Rose.”

“Then run.”

“Huh?”

“Run!”

Vince sat up as the sound of the explosion sucked him right out of his dream.

“Run!”
a
soldier who jumped over him yelled. He turned one last time
,
his terrified eyes meeting Vince’s for an instant as more soldiers began running past him. “Fucking
run
!”

In the next instant his entire area was flooded with gunfire. He barely felt the pain in his leg as he scrambled for cover. The second he had a chance
,
he ran
:
r
an with every ounce of life he had left in him. With the adrenaline pumping through him
,
but most importantly Rose’s voice still so fresh in his mind, Vince ran for his life.
He r
an for every single tear he’d shed that year—ran for every tormented breath he’d taken every time he’d been convinced he’d heard her say she loved him for the very last time. He ran for Rose.

Rose

Staring at the bracelet once
again
,
Rose obsessed about her never
-
ending theories as to
why
for the last time. Rose’s latest theory? She now suspected maybe he’d done this on purpose. Maybe this was his way of getting away from her. Maybe her too
-
eager response about moving in together had scared him. He hadn’t asked her much about her mother when she mentioned she might be moving back
,
and that conversation had felt so awkward
.
M
aybe he hadn’t believed her. Maybe he really thought she was apartment shopping even though he hadn’t brought it up once since the first time. So when the idea of him leaving was brought up, maybe that was why he’d accepted so easily.

Taking the bracelet off a little brusquer than she’d originally intended, she blinked away the hot tears that had begun to fill her eyes once again. She was so sick of driving herself crazy with all the maybes.
The b
ottom line
was
he knowing and willingly did something that could cost them time together. That alone was enough to infuriate her.
Why
shouldn’t even matter
.

She was g
lad that the day she’d found out he went to Iraq she shredded every single one of his letters without even opening them. She wouldn’t put herself through reading even one more word from him. She
had
to move on. But how much longer would she be crying for Vincent already? How much longer would she be such a mess?

The doctor said no stress. She
had
to stop this. The symptoms of her deficiency had already begun to lessen. Though it could be her imagination
,
the
sympto
m
s
seemed
to
act up when she cried. It just drained her to the point she could barely get out of bed
e
ven with the injections. And this whole thing had confirmed something she’d always sort of known
;
she’d never make it in the medical field.

The YouTube videos she’d watched had been absolutely informative
,
and on paper she now knew exactly how to inject herself or someone else. Unfortunately in the videos it didn’t show you how
not
to be squeamish. There was no way she was going to inject herself if she didn’t even want to look at the needle breaking through her skin.

Luckily Ben
’s
being pre-med was coming in handier than she’d ever expected
.
He’d already given her
t
he first two injections
,
and he promised to continue as long as he was around. If he
hadn’t,
she’d be looking at wasting hours at the clinic because there was no way she was injecting herself.

She now blamed her diagnosis for everything including her blubbering episodes, especially during that time of the month when she’d cry at the drop of the dime. Of course she did all this in the privacy of her own room, usually at night when everyone was asleep. You’d think with all the time that had passed
,
she’d be better about not getting emotional anytime something brought back memories of
him
.

She even cried when she found out Lorenzo was coming to work at the restaurant for the entire summer
.
She hated that he’d be around so often now because here she was trying her damn
e
dest to forget Vincent
,
and Lorenzo reminded her so much of him. Thankfully he’d be working at Sal’s brother’s restaurant on the marina
,
not the La Jolla Shores restaurant that Sal and Grace owned where Rose worked. It’d be torture to be around him so much. He even laughed just like Vincent
:
t
hat carefree yet sexy laugh she’d loved and heard so often when they’d been together.

It was bad enough she had to brace herself to see him at all with all the memories he brought back, but now she’d have to see him tonight at this stupid party they were having for her
,
and he’d see her with Ben. All hope of things ever working out with Vincent were long gone
,
but she knew tonight would seal it. Physically Ben hadn’t changed much since that day at the park
,
and she was sure Lorenzo would remember him as the jerk that tried
to piss
Vincent off. More importantly the fact that she’d be introducing Ben to everyone as her boyfriend would stop any more letters from Vincent.

Even though she hadn’t read his letters since the first few,
each new one
that arrived
had been the tiniest
bit
of consolation
,
knowing he was still thinking of her after all this time. It had been over a year now since he’d left
,
and only now did it feel like the real beginning of the end. Vincent would never forgive her for this.

Before any of this happened Rose wouldn’t even consider being with
anyone
else.
Like she’d always assured him, h
e owned her body and soul forever. She now saw tonight as symbolic way of moving on because
,
even if
she
couldn’t move on, Vincent would for sure once he found out about Ben. It’d be a slap in the face
,
but Rose couldn’t help that things turned out this way.