Always and Forever Read Online Free PDF Page B

and now they just had to hope they’d caught her cancer early enough that the surgeons could work their magic.
    “Matt,” she whispered when he bent to kiss her.
    He held tight, smiled down at her. “You’re gonna be fine. Absolutely fine.”
    “Tell him I need to be able to have kids. Please tell him how important that is to me.”
    Matt took a deep breath. “Baby, he knows that. We’ve told him already.”
    “But . . .”
    “Lisa, the most important thing is beating this. Kicking cancer’s butt, yeah? He’s already told us that there is a small chance they’ll have to be more invasive, but they’re not going to do that unless they have to. To save you. Nothing is more important than saving you.”
    She looked away, but not before he saw tears fill her eyes. He stroked her face, wished she got the fact that he didn’t give a damn about anything other than saving her. Sure, he wanted kids, but he wanted kids with Lisa around; he wanted to raise them together, or not at all. He wasn’t going to lose her.
    “Okay, I’ll tell him,” Matt said, not wanting to say the wrong thing before her surgery. She was scared and he needed to step up and show her that he was there for her. He just wasn’t used to feeling like they were on different teams.
    “Promise?” she whispered.
    “Promise,” he said, giving her a little wave as he stepped back. “You’ll be great; it’ll all be okay.”
    Her smile was small but it was there. Matt watched her go before turning around and heading for the waiting room. Then he changed his mind and decided to go grab a coffee. He made his way to the hospital café and ordered, then sat down and pulled out his phone. He had jobs to organize, calls to make; he’d rather keep busy instead of thinking about what Lisa was going through. He’d been there in another lifetime, seen his mom suffer and then silently, strongly end her battle with the disease. But Lisa was going to be fine. Because she’d had the termination, the oncologist and surgeons were confident they could eliminate the cancer.
    He went on the Internet instead, stared at his Google homepage and forced himself to smile when the waitress bought his coffee over. Lisa was so damn upset about not being able to have kids, but all he cared about right now was not losing her. Cancer wasn’t going to take his wife, not on his watch.
    Adoption. Matt grinned when he saw how many links came up. If she couldn’t carry their kids, then they could adopt. There was another link to fostering. Hmmm . He frowned. It wasn’t something he’d have chosen to do, taking in an older child, but . . . He kept scrolling. Surrogacy. Why the hell not? So what if they had to take a different route to have kids? He’d have to read more about it, but he was pretty open-minded.
    Matt sipped his coffee. Everything was going to be fine, he told himself, over and over. If she couldn’t carry a baby, if it was worse than they thought during surgery and it ended up being more radical, he’d find a way to give them a family. To keep Lisa happy. This was his time to look after her, and everything was going to be okay. Smiles and fun , he reminded himself, swallowing a lump in his throat that he didn’t want to acknowledge. Just because she had cancer didn’t mean he couldn’t make her laugh while he was looking after her. Once this surgery was over, everything was going to go back to normal and they’d be fine.
    Because everything was going to be fine. She was going to be fine. He couldn’t cope with losing her, not after what he’d been through in the past. Lisa was the bright light that had kept shining when he’d needed it most, and once this was over he hoped like hell he’d get his wife back. Because she’d been nothing like the woman he was used to since her diagnosis, and he wanted her back so bad.

    “Matt?” Lisa was groggy, her lips so dry that it felt like she’d had to crack them apart just to speak.
    She opened her eyes,