“No. I’m sorry if I gave you the impression that I want or need your approval for this decision, but I don’t. I’m an adult, and the decision is mine. You guys need to stop treating me like I’m that teenager back in the hospital who needs you for everything. I’mnot.” Hannah’s voice broke and she paused to clear her throat. “I’m not a teenager. I can take care of myself. You need to let me go.”
“But—”
“No, Mom. No buts, no howevers. This is it. You don’t have to agree with my decision, but you do have to accept it because you don’t get a vote.”
Mr. Allen covered his wife’s hands with his. “We love you, Banana. We only want the best for you. I can’tsay we’re happy with your decision, but of course it’s yours to make. We’ll be here for you when you come home. Or whenever you call.”
“Thank you, Dad. I appreciate it.”
“As long as Romeo here appreciates the wonderful woman he has, and the fact that her dad’s a mean son of a bitch who has access to plenty of construction sites and wet cement.”
“Oh, my god, Dad.” Hannah buried her face in herhands with a moan.
“Griff,” Mrs. Allen said warningly. “I think, of anyone here, Luc is the one who could get rid of a body the easiest. He could be on a private plane leaving the country in an instant, with all those burly bodyguards.”
“And I have diplomatic immunity.” I bared my teeth in a fake smile.
“Luc,” Hannah muttered as she jabbed me in the side. “Knock it off.”
Mr. Allen sat backin his chair with a sigh. “Now that we all know where we stand with regard to murder and body disposal, what’s for dessert?”
“Before we get to dessert, there’s something that I need to tell you guys.” Hannah rocked slightly in her chair. “God, this is hard. I know I said I’m not a teenager back in the hospital, but…I do have cancer.”
“What?” Mrs. Allen turned pale and swayed in her chair, muchlike Hannah had done at the doctor’s office.
“I have stage one thyroid cancer.” Tears welled in Hannah’s eyes as she saw the anguish of realization in her parents’ faces.
“Oh, baby.” Mrs. Allen pushed out of her chair and swept Hannah into her arms.
Mr. Allen watched them for a moment before he got out of his chair and enveloped both of them in his arms. They stood clutching each other in ashared moment of grief. After a minute or so, Mrs. Allen stepped back and turned to me.
“You knew about this? You’ve been helping our baby girl through this?”
I nodded slowly. “We only got the diagnosis last night, but I went with Hannah to her doctor appointment today, and—”
The rest of my sentence was cut off as Mrs. Allen’s arms came around me in an awkward hug, given that I was still sittingand she was standing. So I took care of that by standing up and accepting her hug like a man. She wept over my neck and I patted her on the back while I shed a few tears of my own.
“Okay.” Mrs. Allen took a step back and gently wiped her face in that way women do who wear makeup. “What’s next? Where do we start?”
—
“I don’t know why you were so afraid to tell your parents. They’re pretty great—atleast they were after your father was finished with his death threats. They want to be there for you. They love you.”
“They do, don’t they? I’m pretty lucky.” Hannah smiled next to me on the couch, then took another gulp of wine. “You know who else is gonna get lucky tonight? Yooooou!”
Since her parents left, Hannah had been downing the wine like an alcoholic at a wine tasting. I stood and pulledher up with me, then led the way to the bedroom. I had a feeling Hannah would need to be horizontal soon. Before she passed out. “I am lucky. I have you.”
Hannah nuzzled my neck as we entered the bedroom. “Good idea, I could go for a little nap right now.”
The way her hand slid up under my shirt had me thinking that sleeping was the last thing on her mind. “Hannah, no, we can’t—oh, uh—” I brokeoff with a grunt as her hand slid down over my rapidly growing erection. “Hannah, we can’t. You’re a little tipsy, and I don’t take advantage of drunk women.”
“I am in complete control of my faculties. Is that the right word? Doesn’t that mean schoolteachers or something? Faculties. Factualties. Is there atin it? Does that make it a different word?”
I chuckled as I guided her back to the bedroom.Her babbling was cute, and also a perfect example of why nothing was going to happen between us in there. “I think you got it right the first time. Not.”
“See, that’s what’s so great about you—you’re so smart but you don’t rub it in people’s faces. I hate it when that happens. So many people look down at me just because I do hair. I wanted to do more. I wanted to go to college, but I had tohelp my parents pay medical bills as soon as I could. That meant no college for Hannah. But that doesn’t make me stupid, just practical. Aside from the factualties thing. You know what? I think I am a little tipsy. Am I talking a lot? It feels like I’m talking a lot. But I can’t seem to stop. Tongue, stop talking. See? It won’t stop.”
“Maybe it would help if we got you naked.”
