Free Love Me: Oakville Series:Book 5 by Kathy-Jo Reinhart Page A

will rear its ugly head and change him forever.
    “What if we have a family weekend somewhere? Build one last amazing memory for him, one where we are all happy and I’m not sick. We can wait until we get back home to tell him,” I suggest. I almost feel like a terrible mom for even considering it, but I’m doing something good by making him happy and giving him a good memory of us he can carry with him for the rest of his life. I want him to remember something about me other than me being sick and dying, and maybe a fun trip will end up overshadowing that image for him. That’s my hope at least.
    Marcus pulls away from me, a smile gracing his lips. My heart flutters in my chest at the sight. God, I love his smile. Just another thing this fucking cancer is going to take away from him. I have to figure out a way to help him move on after I’m gone. I’m terrified he’ll spend his life grieving me and miss out on all the happiness he deserves. He’s so young, with so much life ahead of him, I can’t bear the thought of him spending it alone and miserable.
    “I think that’s a great idea, sweetness. What kind of weekend do you have in mind?” he asks, excitement lacing his voice. Like me, it’s probably a mixture of being excited about our family weekend and the fact that we have a little more time before we crush our son with this news.
    “Well, he’s been wanting to go to Legoland for a while now. Maybe now is the perfect time,” I say. Just thinking about the gigantic smile he’ll be wearing warms my heart and has tears filling my eyes. With his thumb, Marcus swipes the tears away as they spill over.
    “That sounds perfect. Chase will love that,” Marcus whispers, then tenderly brushes his lips against mine. He places feather light kisses all over my face before coming back to my lips. Butterflies invade my belly from the contact. I love that his kisses still cause me to have butterflies after all these years. “How ‘bout we finish this at home in bed,” Marcus says as he plants a few more kisses along my neck.
    “I like that idea,” I tell him. He hesitantly moves from me and back behind the wheel. He pulls the car onto the road and we’re racing off to home. For the first time in a week or so, my mind is not on the cancer or the pain and devastation it’s causing us all. For now, and until we take Chase on our trip, I’m thinking about today and not tomorrow.

 
    T he weekend at Legoland was exactly what we needed for our family. We thought it would be fun not to tell Chase where we were going. We left here early in the morning when it was still dark outside with Chase fast asleep in the backseat. Just before we pulled up to the entrance, we woke our sleepy little man. When his eyes landed on the huge Legoland entrance, they widened to the size of saucers. Using his fists, he wiped at his eyes.
    “Am I still asweep, momma?” he asked in a sweet, sleepy voice.
    “No, baby, you’re awake. Daddy and I are taking you to Legoland,” Taryn explained after her laughter subsided. He began dancing around in his booster seat and fist pumping into the air. When we were parked and getting out of the car, he ran up and gave us each huge hugs.
    “Thank you so much. I can’t believe you brought me to the best place on earth. You guys are the best,” he shouted, over excited. After he finished jumping around and yelling, he took our hands, and together, the three of us started our adventure.
    We built some amazing memories Chase and I will be able to hang on to for the rest of our lives and the shit storm about to hit was forgotten for three full days. We were able to laugh and have fun without the dark luminous clouds hanging over our heads. It was almost as if cancer hadn’t entered our lives at all. Every time she smiled, I burned the image into my brain, so I could go back and see those images again when I needed them the most. Taryn was getting tired a lot easier than normal, but like the strong