What The Heart Craves (Complete)

Chapter 12 - Part 1

Lacey

Deliriously happy was a correct description of how I felt as we drove back to my house. Thoughts of being sick and what that meant no longer played in my mind on repeat. I was a nervous about telling my family about us, but Adonis wasn't.

"Don't be afraid. I'm pretty certain they'll be happy for us." He covered my hands with his.

I did not know how my family was going to react. My family adored him, but I wasn't confident how they would feel about the two of us together. I glanced to Adonis, and he smiled at me. My stomach flipped, which made me return his infectious smile.

"I like to see you happy," he said. His eyes studied me for a moment before he looked back to the road.

"You make me happy," I said. Just being with around him lightened my heart.

"Good." He squeezed my hands under his.

It just seemed too good to be true, but no matter how many times I pinched myself I didn't wake up, this was real. It was late morning by the time he parked in the driveway of my house. He switched off the car and faced me.

"Come on." He opened his door.

I wanted to spend more time just the two of us, but after hearing my diagnosis, my family would need me.

I opened the door and got out. Adonis waited beside me. He reached his hand out for mine in a possessive clasp that did weird things to my insides.

The gloomy thoughts crept back in as we got to the front door. There was no hiding from it. I was sick, very sick. There was no forgetting it. I shook my head while squeezing his hand tightly, feeling uneasy. He stopped and looked down at me.

"We don't have to do this if you don't want to," he whispered. "I don't want to rush you into something you're not ready to do."

"I'm ready," I said, trying to disguise my nervousness.

"Are you sure?" His eyes held mine.

I nodded my head, and he smiled. The flash of his dimples was enough for my knees to weaken.

I'd never really thought of what my family's reaction would be if we'd ever got together, perhaps it was because I never believed it would happen.

He opened the door and led me inside. Voices were coming from the kitchen. I followed him into the kitchen.

"Hi baby," my mom said. I smiled at her. She was trying so hard to be her normal self, but I could see the emotion blended with the fear in her eyes. I wanted to hug her and tell her everything would be all right, even if I didn't know it for a fact.

"Hi." The knots in my stomach tightened.

My mom was the first to see our connected hands. She gave us a questioning glance, and I smiled sheepishly before meeting Adonis' intense gaze that left our audience with no doubt how he felt about me. When I looked back to my mother for her reaction, she beamed at us. My father smiled as well.

"It's about time." My brother stood and came over to shake his friend's hand. He even leaned over and gave me a brief hug. About time? Had he known how his friend had felt? "But as the brother, I still have to give you the 'Break her heart and I'll break your face' warning." He winked.

"I expected nothing less." Adonis nodded.

I gave Adonis a questioning look.

"Yeah, he knew." I felt like I'd been nervous for nothing.

"This is amazing!" My mom hugged both of us. To them he was the nice and trustworthy boy that had been a part of our family for years, not the bad boy rocker the rest of the world saw.

Even my dad shook his hand before he hugged me. "I'm pleased for you. You deserve to be happy."

"Thanks." I couldn't help thinking about the tumor and how much time I still had.

As if sensing my abrupt change in my mood, Adonis squeezed my hand, and I looked to him. There was no mistaking what I was thinking about.

"It'll be okay," he said, and I nodded my head. I wanted to believe his words, but the reality was no one knew what was going to happen.

My mom made us breakfast, and we sat down beside my brother. The pleasant atmosphere couldn't get rid of the underlying worry that we were all busy trying to hide.

"When is do we see the specialist?" my mom asked.

"At two," he said.

I looked down at my watch. I had two-and-a-half hours still to go. A knot of nervousness settled into my stomach and when my mom offered me some scrambled eggs, I shook my head.

The next two hours dragged, but it was time to get in the car and drive to the specialist.

Bringing my entire family to the appointment seemed much. Adonis said he would take me, and it was a given that the other person to go with would be my mom. It was strange that I was eighteen years old and enough to make my decision, but at that moment I wanted nothing more than to have my mom with me.

Adonis drove us while I sat in the passenger side. My mom sat in the backseat. Some traffic made us a few minutes late for the appointment, and it only added to the stress that had been steadily building.

"He'll wait." Adonis parked the car outside the building. I tried to calm my nerves as I got out the car and looked up the glass building in front of me.

I can do this, I kept repeating in my head. Even when I had to fight the urge to put my head in the sand. And pretend it wasn't happening.

Adonis opened the back door and helped my mom out as I clasped my hands together. I'd already gotten terrible news, so I wasn't sure why I was stressing so much. It couldn't get worse, could it?

This time he didn't take my hand into his as he led us into the building. No one other than our family knew we were dating, so we could keep it a secret. I had so much going on; I didn't want the press to find out about us yet.

A short lift ride and we were on the fourth floor.

I sat down with my mom in reception while Adonis spoke to the receptionist. The girl was our age. One smile from Adonis and she was star struck. It still surprised me to see girls act that way around him. Even knowing how he felt about me, I couldn't help feeling a little annoyed when she seemed to hang onto every word he said. She even leaned forward to display her cleavage, and I tightened my hands into fists so I didn't go over to her and tell her he was mine.

The receptionist ushered us into our appointment with the specialist.

"Mr. Grayson." The specialist he extended a hand to Adonis, and he shook it.

"Mr. Clark." Adonis introduced him to me. "This is Lacey Harper."

"Hi Miss Harper." Dr Clark shook my hand. Adonis introduced my mom, and I took a moment to look the doctor over. He was much older than the specialist I'd seen before. Did that make him more experienced? I hoped so.

Once the introductions were over, we sat, and the specialist took a seat behind an enormous oak desk. He opened a few files and saw him shift through some pages. It was probably my files from the other specialist, so he wouldn't have to repeat the same test.

I watched the doctor's face for any sign of bad news, but this guy had the best poker face. I had no clue what he was thinking as he went through my file.