Cascade (36 page)

“
Tomorrow, the first round of
Lipson Construction shares will be sold to the employees,” Jacob
said. “It’s all happening.”

She nestled into his lap.

“
Is it everything you’d hoped
for?”

“
Oh.” Jacob shifted to look into
her face. “It’s more than I hoped for, more than I could ever dream
of. I’d never expected to be so happy and feel so complete…
whole.”

“
I’m glad.”

He pressed her head back to his shoulder then
kissed the top of it.

“
Why are you here in the middle of
the night?” she asked.

“
I’m not sure… Marking the moment,
I guess,” he said. “After so much longing for such a long time, I’m
not very sure what will happen next.”

“
But you’re…”

“
A psychic, I know.” Jacob kissed
her forehead. “It’s hard to explain. I wanted all of this to happen
but I wasn’t sure it would.”

“
Can’t know your own future?” she
asked.

“
Exactly,” he said. “I can stretch
out to see what’s next but it’s out of context. I don’t really get
what it means. For some reason, there’s a gaping hole in the middle
of it – like I’m not allowed to see a part of it.”

“
Sounds like Delphie’s issue a
month ago,” Jill said.

“
Good point,” Jacob
said.

“
What about babies? A few months
ago, you were excited to have more babies but lately, you’ve been
reluctant lately.”

“
Seems like Katy keeps our hands
pretty full,” he said. “I’m glad she’s feeling better.”

“
Me too. It’s like a switch — one
moment she’s was sick, the next she’s all better,” Jill
said.

“
She’s very strong, like her
Mommy.”

“
Like her Daddy.” Jill touched his
face. “But Katy is not the reason you don’t want to get pregnant. I
know it’s not it. You see something.”

“
I see something,” he
said.

“
What?”

“
I wish I knew.”

~~~~~~~

Monday morning — 8:16 A.M.
Anschutz Hospital

“
So that’s it?” Blane asked. He
looked over at Heather’s smiling face. “We’re done?”

“
That’s it,” his doctor said. “We
haven’t found Hep C virus in your system since the end of last
year. We’ll check again in a month, two months, and then six
months.

“
But he can stop taking the
Ribavirin now?” Heather asked.

“
Stop taking the Ribavirin and
Interferon. For all intents and purposes, Blane is
cured.”

“
Of course, we’re delighted,”
Heather said. “It’s just that he’s been so sick this
month.”

“
It’s going to take your body a
while to adjust but I bet in a week or so you’ll feel better,” the
doctor said. “Looks like it’s just in time. When’s the baby
due?”

“
Next week,” Blane
said.

“
There’s no treatment like this
for HIV?” Heather asked.

“
The Interferon helped reduce his
overall viral count,” the doctor said. “So far, there’s no cure for
HIV. There isn’t even a lot of money going into that kind of
research. A lot of people think it’s impossible.”

Heather shifted her body in such a way as
almost to protect Blane from the information.

“
We won’t give up hope,” Heather
said.

“
No, we’d be foolish to give up
hope,” the doctor smiled at her protective stance. “I’ve seen too
much to believe it’s impossible. There are a couple of interesting
trials here at the University. Would you like me to look into
it?”

“
I have a lot to live for,” Blane
said. “I want do everything I can to make that happen.”

“
Big changes in your life,” the
doctor smiled.

Blane nodded.

“
First, you must recover from the
Ribavirin,” the doctor said. “You need to get strong and healthy
again. That has to happen now. Use your acupuncture. Get back to
exercising. Stay on your clean eating diet. No alcohol. No drugs.
No junk food. These things make the biggest difference. When you’re
strong again, we’ll look at our treatment options.”

“
We’ll do it,” Heather
said.

Blane stood to shake the doctor’s
hand.

“
When are you finished with your
program?” the doctor asked.

“
Six weeks,” Blane said. “As soon
as I feel better, I’m planning on seeing more private
patients.”

“
Do you have an
office?”

“
We have one in the house,”
Heather said. “Why do you ask?”

“
I have a lot of patients who
could benefit from acupuncture with someone who can understand what
it’s like to live with chronic illness,” the doctor
said.

“
Happy to help,” Blane
said.

“
I’ll see you in a month for the
next blood draw and we’ll talk about it then.”

Blane followed Heather from the doctor’s
office. They stopped to make his next appointment and then went
through the maze of hallways to the entrance. Outside, they began
the hike across the campus to the patient parking lot. Blane opened
Heather’s door and went around to the driver’s seat. He pulled out
onto Colfax.

“
You’re awfully quiet,” Blane
said.

“
I was wondering what will happen
now that you don’t need me anymore,” Heather said.

“
You mean because the Ribavirin
treatment is over?”

Heather nodded. Her hands instinctively went
to her big belly.

“
I thought we were a family,”
Blane said.

“
I’m really just a freeloader,”
she said. “I’ve lived in your house, eaten your food… I should get
on my way.”

“
We’re married. I was going to be
the father of the baby.”

“
Oh come on! That was just on
paper.”

“
Heather,” Blane pulled over to
the curb. “What’s going on?”

Heather shrugged.

“
Please tell me what’s going on,”
Blane said. “You’ve been a rock for me. Every step along the way,
you’ve been positive and confident. What’s happened to ‘We’re a
family’?”

Heather shrugged. Lost in her own thoughts,
she looked away from him.

“
Sandy’s going to live at the
Castle for a while,” Heather said. “I can live at her place until I
get on my feet again.”

“
Please stop this,” Blane’s voice
echoed the panic he felt inside. “You’re making all of this up. I
don’t want you to go. You’ve been through hell and back with me.
Please Heather talk to me. What happened?”

“
I saw my mother yesterday,”
Heather said. “She saw Sandy on television and said she wanted to
talk. I went over…”

“
Why didn’t you tell
me?”

“
You’ve been working to finish
getting the Lipson sale ready. I didn’t want to bother
you.”

“
What did your mother
say?”

“
That gay boy is going to break
your heart.” Heather looked over at him. “Mark my words, he’ll
abandon you and the baby to go sex it up around town. Then where
will you be?”

“
Like I’ve sexed it up so far?”
Blane’s rage and indignation bled into his words.

“
You’ve been sick,” Heather
said.

“
That’s what you think? I’ve made
all this commitment to our life together because I was
sick?”

Heather looked away from him. Staring out on
Colfax, she watched a group of homeless men leaning against the
boarded front door of an abandoned restaurant. Moving in slowly,
the men shifted in the morning cold.

“
I know it’s dumb. I believe what
Mom says,” Heather said into the passenger window. “Even though I
know she’s bitter and angry with me, I still believe
her.”

“
I know.”

Heather turned back to look at him.

“
Are you going to abandon
me?”

“
No,” he said. “I don’t abandon
people. I never have. I never will.”

“
What if you and Enrique get back
together again?”

“
What if you and the doctor start
dating?”

“
What doctor?”

“
You haven’t noticed my doctor?
The one back there?”

“
Noticed what?” Heather
asked.

“
He’s totally hot for you,” Blane
said.

“
He is not,” Heather said. “Look
at me! I’m a cow! I’ve never been this huge! I…”

“
You’re gorgeous,” Blane said.
“Listen. You have to listen to me. Just listen.”

Heather nodded.

“
There’s an idea about gay men,” Blane said. “We’re all
promiscuous, fuck each other anywhere, any time. And some men are
like that. But some straight men are like that too. I had my fill
of it when I was a kid. Since I’ve been clean and had a choice, I
have been sexual within the context of my relationships. No orgies,
no bath houses, no book clubs, no sex through a wall or
whatever.
My
choice. Long before I met
you.”

“
But we don’t have sex,” Heather
said. “Isn’t that hard on you?”

“
No,” Blane said. “If you were a
man and we were in a relationship, that would be hard. Is it hard
on you?”

Heather shook her head. He tilted his head to
ask again.

“
I mean, I miss it,” Heather said.
“But not the one night stand sex.”

“
You thought you’d be with that
guy,” Blane said. “The tool.”

“
The sperminator. I guess with the
baby coming, I think about him,” Heather said. “I didn’t think he
would be such an ass. God, this custody crap is stupid. Now, he has
to pay child support and will have to prove he’s capable of
custody. Social services doesn’t care about the money he gave me
already. What an idiot.”

“
He’s pretty dumb,” Blane said.
“The social worker told me he wants to stop the proceedings. But
once they know he’s the father, he’s going to pay for the next
eighteen years of his life.”

“
Or think he will,” Heather said.
“We’ll let him off the hook when you adopt the baby. If you still
want to…”

“
Adopt my baby? I can hardly wait
to meet him.”

Blane beamed at Heather and she smiled in
return.

“
I want what Jacob and Jill have,
what you and Enrique had,” Heather said.

“
Enrique’s with a guy named
Calvin,” Blane said. He moved the car into the Colfax traffic. “I
saw them together at the acupuncture clinic. The guy told the desk
clerk that Enrique quit smoking for him. I checked Enrique’s file.
It says they’re living together.”

“
So he’s been with this guy all
along?”

“
Yep,” Blane said.

“
Are you all right about
it?”

“
I’m not broken up about it, if
that’s what you mean,” Blane said. “I have too many great things in
my life to worry about Enrique right now.”

“
We have shitty taste in men,”
Heather said.

“
We have shitty taste in
men.”

“
I’m glad we have each other,”
Heather said.

“
Can you trust me? Is it possible
just to trust me?”

Heather nodded.

“
Do you trust me?” Heather
asked.

“
After the last three months? I
trust you with my life,” Blane said. “I’m tired of talking about me
being gay and you being straight. We have so many great things to
talk about. This gets just stupid.”

“
You’ll tell me if…”

“
I will,” Blane said. “The second
I fall in love, you’ll be the first to know. You’ll tell
me?”

Heather nodded.

“
And we won’t talk about it
again?”

“
I won’t,” Heather
said.

“
Good. I won’t either,” Blane
said. “And we’re a family right?”

“
You’re my only family
now.”

“
You’re my only family,” Blane
said. “I don’t have to be in until noon. Let’s go get your car.
What did you pick?”

“
Subaru Outback,” Heather
said.

“
That’s not very
fancy.”

“
I’m not a very fancy girl.”
Heather said.

Blane smiled and turned the car down Havana
toward the dealership.

~~~~~~~~
Monday afternoon — 4:11 P.M.

“
That’s the best we can expect,
Aden,” Samantha Hargreaves said.

“
One year in county, one year work
release, three years probation,” Aden said. “It doesn’t seem like
much of a bargain.”

“
Third degree assault has a
possible sentence of two years in county. A year sentence is a
reduction. You should be out in six months with good behavior,”
Samantha said. “You’ve had a lot of press attention. The Denver
Post is calling you a hero. If they don’t prosecute, the police and
D.A. think there will be more vigilante justice. With all of these
men arrested for child pornography, they have to lay down the law.
That’s what they say.”