Teach You to Love Me (Lindon U #4)

Epilogue Two

Matt

My hands are clammy. When was the last time my palms were this sweaty? I can’t remember.

I try acting nonchalant as we wait in the waiting room. Rachel’s leg bounces with nerves as she stares at the door that the doctor disappeared behind. If I touch her to calm her down, she’ll probably feel how nervous I am too.

But not for the same reasons.

Rachel’s hand rises to her mouth, where her front teeth bite down on her thumbnail. We’ve been waiting for this day for over a month, and when we were told the results were in, I knew there was no point in waiting to get them.

“You okay?” I ask softly.

Rachel turns to me, lowering her thumb with a sheepish smile. “Yes. No.” She frowns. “I’m not sure.”

Understandable. “It’ll be okay,” I promise, nudging her knee with mine. “No matter what the results are, we’re in this together.”

My heart starts beating ten times faster at those words that she smiles over. I can see the hesitation in her eyes as she asks, “No matter what the test results are?”

She’s scared, but nothing about what the lab tests say will change my mind. “No matter what they say,” I say, “we’re in this together.”

She reaches for my leg, squeezing just above my knee as the door opens, and we’re called back.

There’s no small talk. No conversation about the weather or the seasons quickly changing. They know why we’re here and what we’re here for, so they get down to it.

The woman who guided us into the little private room in the back hands us a folded piece of paper.

It was Brie’s second baby announcement that sparked Rachel’s interest in finding out if she was a carrier of Huntington’s disease. There was a fifty percent chance she had the gene, and it’d taken months of back and forth for her to take the step that would finally answer her question.

The woman leaves us alone to read the results.

As Rachel stares at the paper, I kneel in front of her in the chair she occupies. “Look at me,” I say gently.

Her eyes peek at me through her lashes.

I reach into the pocket of my pants and wrap my fingers around something velvet. “No matter what,” I remind her, pulling the jewelry box out and revealing it to her in my palm. “We’re in this together. Regardless of the results. No matter what we might have to face.”

Rachel’s eyes grow twice the size they were when I open the ring box to show her what’s inside. It’s not much, but I know the simple gold band and diamond are exactly her style. Nothing too flashy or gaudy, but classy and elegant.

“Matthew…”

“You don’t have to give me an answer right now,” I tell her, closing the box and setting it on her lap. “I just wanted to let you know that today doesn’t change a thing for me. It never will.”

I’ve known the girl in front of me for years. Gotten the chance to truly be with her for the past fourteen months. We see each other every day. Talk to each other every day on the off chance we can’t spend the night together at one of our places, and we’ve talked about moving in together before our leases have to be renewed.

Her eyes become glassy as she stares at the ring and then the paper in her hand.

“Together,” she repeats, opening the results.

She stares.

And stares.

And stares.

Then a puff of air releases from her parted lips as she lowers the paper.

She closes her eyes.

“Together,” she says again.

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