Free A Wedding in the Village by Abigail Gordon

Sara, who looked after the post office side of things, he had two sons in their thirties. Josh, the elder, was suffering from alcohol-related acute liver failure. He needed a transplant desperately.
    All the time that he’d been ill Tom and Sara had put on a brave front before their customers and staff, but today Tom looked like a man in deep despair. and what he had to say fitted in with that.
    ‘I wanted a word with you, Megan, before Sara and I approach the hospital,’ he told her. ‘Josh is going to die if a liver doesn’t become available soon. We’ve been wondering if part of one of our livers could be transplanted into him? We’ve heard of it being done successfully and we can’t stand by watching him like this any longer. What do you think the chances would be?’
    Her expression was grave. ‘Under normal circumstances I would say it might be possible, Tom. But your circumstances are different, aren’t they? Josh is adopted. So in the matching-up process you and Sara would be no different than any other member of the public.
    ‘By all means put it to those who are treating Josh, but I doubt if they’ll agree. If they operated and it wasn’t successful, he mightn’t be strong enough for further surgery when a liver comes through the usual channels.’
    He nodded sombrely. ‘Yes. I know what you mean, but I’m going to ask them. We just can’t face up to losing him. We love those lads as if they are our own, and now Josh is facing up to all the drinking he did when he was in his teens. The poor boy was so messed up when he came to us. He’s come a long way since then, and now this has happened.’
    He got up to go. ‘Thanks for your time, Megan,’ he said quietly. ‘Only a miracle will save him and there aren’t many of those about these days.’
    * * *
    When she told Luke about Tom and Sara’s dilemma he said, ‘They’ll have to hope that a liver comes available soon. I can’t see any other way. There might have been a slight chance if they’d been the lad’s natural parents, but as they’re not…’
    She nodded. ‘In times of desperate need we clutch at straws, don’t we? I’ve never yet been in that sort of situation, but I can imagine what it’s like, and time is running out for Josh.’
    ‘It can’t always be easy for you, treating people who are friends and acquaintances,’ Luke commented.
    ‘It isn’t. But there is often relief on the part of the patient to be dealing with someone who isn’t a stranger. Though it does make me inclined to take their problems home with me.’
    ‘That I can believe,’ he told her. ‘Yet you know, Megan, I’ve lived with someone high on the ladder of health care, in her opinion and everyone else’s. It’s good to work with someone who really cares about her patients.’
    Megan could feel her colour rising. She supposed it was something if Luke approved of her as a doctor. How he saw her as a woman was another matter. He may have been unhappy with Alexis Duncan, but she would be some act to follow when it came to style and allure.
    Luke’s glance was on her face. It had attracted him long ago in the days when she’d been a serious student and he’d been full of rage and bitterness at the loss of his child. A child that he hadn’t even known existed until Alexis had decided to put him in the picture.
    But now his attention had shifted. He was looking past her and said, ‘Hello, hello! Here comes trouble.’ When she turned Megan saw Owen standing just inside the doorway of the surgery.
    ‘I’ve lost my mobile, Uncle Luke,’ he said miserably. ‘Either that or someone’s taken it.’
    ‘Yes, but what are you doing here?’ Luke asked. ‘School isn’t over for another hour and a half.’
    ‘I slipped out at breaktime because I’m desperate to find it. I need my mobile.’
    ‘No, you don’t. Now get back to school fast before you’re missed.’
    ‘I can’t go back there without it!’
    ‘Oh, yes, you can. We’ll sort out