Free Halfway to Forever by Karen Kingsbury Page A

nor Tanner wanted to talk about the possibilities. Instead, Jade slept, and Tanner held tight to her hand while he called Matt.
    “Hey, listen, I’ll be out of the office for a few days.” He squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose, holding his tears at bay. His heart thudded hard against his chest. “Jade’s—” Fear stopped him from finishing the sentence. He couldn’t say it, couldn’t admit the truth this soon. His hands trembled and his throat refused to let him speak for several seconds.
Control, Tanner. Come on
. He swallowed hard and cleared his throat. “Something’s come up.”
    Matt paused. “Everything okay?”
    “Yeah.” Tanner’s answer was too fast, but he prayed Matt wouldn’t ask any hard questions. He wasn’t ready to talk about the doctor’s findings. Not yet. Not when he was still desperately tryingto catch his breath and believe the news himself. “Jade isn’t feeling well.”
    “Oh. Right.” Matt seemed relieved. “Morning sickness?”
    “Yep.” Tanner closed his eyes briefly as the lie left his lips.
If only it were true …
    “Tomorrow then?”
    “Sure.”
    The phone call ended and tiny sweat drops made their way down Tanner’s forehead. He hated lying to Matt, but he couldn’t admit the awful truth. Not to Matt or Hannah or the neighbor who was caring for Ty that day.
    Not even to himself.
    Using his wife’s name and the words
brain tumor
in the same sentence was too impossible to imagine. Maybe the tests were wrong. Maybe they’d insert a needle in Jade’s skull and find out there wasn’t any tumor there at all.
    The seizure medication made Jade sleep through the biopsy and into the afternoon. Tanner called about Ty and asked the neighbor if he could spend one more night with them.
    “Jade’s not feeling well.” He glanced at her, at the bandage on the small patch near the front of her head where they’d pulled out a sample of the tumor. Despite his sweatshirt, Tanner began to shiver.
    The neighbor agreed and put Ty on the phone. “Hi, Dad, the beach was so cool! Me and Karl bodysurfed three hours straight.”
    “That’s great.” Tanner dug deep down and found the courage to continue. “Hey, buddy … uh, your mom’s not feeling so well. Karl’s mom said you could stay over tonight and she’ll bring you home tomorrow before dinner.”
    “Okay.” Ty didn’t hesitate, and a small wave of relief splashed against Tanner’s taut body. Why tell the boy now, when they didn’t know anything about the monster they were about to battle? Thebad news could wait until tomorrow. Ty’s tone was light. “Give her a kiss for me, all right?”
    “All right. Be good.”
    “Okay, Dad. I love you.”
    “Love you, too.”
    When Tanner hung up, he was reminded, as he always was, of how many times he’d missed out on telling his son he loved him. Eleven years. Even now it was impossible to imagine that while he’d spent all those years pining away for Jade, wondering why she’d married someone else, Ty had been growing up without his father. It was a tragedy Tanner could only withstand because of the close bond he and the boy shared now.
    In the nearly two years since they’d found each other, Tanner had taught Ty how to throw a spiral using the laces of a football, and how to perform the crossover in basketball. He had pitched him a thousand baseballs in the field across the street from their house, and he jogged with him three times a week.
    Despite the constant blur of motion he generally made in their home, Ty had a sweet side as well. That semester at school he befriended Karl, their neighbor. The boy didn’t have a father. When Tanner and Ty played catch or hit balls, Ty often asked if Karl could come, too.
    “Karl reminds me of me back before I knew you,” Ty would say when the two of them were alone. “I wish he had a dad like you. You and Mom are the best parents in the world.”
    Tanner shuddered again. Telling Ty that his mother was