Page 105 of Second Chance Saloon

Fred drew in a sharp inhale as he sat on the couch, cradling his face in his hands.

“Why are you asking me about Huntington’s in the middle of the night, Dad?”

He didn’t respond right away, instead blowing a pained breath through his fingers.

Jackie’s heart froze mid-beat. “Please tell me you don’t have Huntington’s.”

Slowly, Fred lifted his head and put his hands on his knees. He looked her in the eye, and the weight of utter anguish in their depths stole her breath away. “No, sweetheart. I’m fine. But Weronika has it. And she’s been declining over the past few months. That’s why she sent you those letters. She wanted to get to know you before she dies. She wanted to apologize. That’s why she called me yesterday. Apparently, she doesn’t have much time left.”

Jackie frowned, feeling like either her brain was too dazed by the tequila, or her father wasn’t making much sense. “Apologize for what? Leaving me?”

He shook his head, his face crumpling. “For giving you a fifty-fifty chance of inheriting it from her.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

February, ten years ago

Jackie

A month. That was apparently how long genetic testing would take, according to the doctor she’d seen. Jackie thought she would be climbing the walls until she knew, but what was there to do? She could only breathe in and out, get up in the morning, go about her day, sleep, and then repeat it all over again the next day. Counting down the days, praying the stupid fifty-fifty chance would work out in her favor. Because she wanted to still dream the big dreams. She didn’t want to …

“What’s the matter, love?” Mitch asked.

They were sitting in a busy Mexican place serving the best tacos in Austin, or at least that was the word around.

Jackie blinked at the plate that she’d hardly touched. She shook her head, folding the taco and lifting it into her mouth. “Nothing, just daydreaming.”

He held up his bottle of soda, concern pinching his forehead. “You look worried.”

It had been a week since her father’s late-night revelation about Weronika. She had been blowing Mitch off during that time, grateful that he had an upcoming swim meet and spent most of his time in the pool. Today was the first day she’d seen him after the tense conversation with her father. She figured if she came up with any more excuses of a headache or wanting to stay in her room and study, he’d get suspicious.

How was she ever going to tell him?

Soul-crushing fear grabbed her by the throat and wouldn’t loosen its grip, no matter how many deep breaths she took or how much she tried telling herself that everything would be all right. She wasn’t naive, she knew only two things were certain in life: death and taxes. And that people died due to different reasons, at different ages. But to have this hanging over her, knowing it’d be the way she went? It was unthinkable.

She couldn’t wrap her head around it. Her family’s betrayal didn’t help matters. Everyone knew, and they had all hid it from her for years. Her parents, Mimi, even Albert and Gilbert; traitors, every single one of them. Jackie went to see the doctor herself, despite Sharon pleading to go with her. She couldn’t face any of them, she couldn’t talk to them—it was all too much.

After only a week of obsessive reading, she could recite Huntington’s signs and symptoms by heart. If she had the gene, they’d appear in her thirties or forties. Dementia, psychiatric disturbances, abnormal movements, tourettism—eventually leading to the inability to walk, inability to swallow and inability to remember anything or anyone, with death following shortly after. The internet was a scary place, full of contradictory information, but one thing was consistent across all platforms and pieces she had stumbled across: there was no cure.

Jackie swallowed a bite, forcing herself to remember what Mitch had said. “Not worried. Just thinking about how things will be at med school. Remember how much I struggled with chemistry, and then some other classes. Med school will be much harder.”

Mitch reached across the table, his hand covering hers. “You can do it, I know it.”

A blush tickled up the back of her neck at the absolute conviction in his voice. The way he looked at her, the way he believed in her, the way he loved her …

A stiff rubber band encircled her chest and squeezed it tight. How was she meant to handle a month of not knowing whether she could have any future with him?

To her, that price was unacceptable.

And Mitch had only just started really living as his own person, freeing himself from his father’s influence. She couldn’t take away his freedom.

Heart lodged in her ribs, Jackie closed her eyes, begging the tears stinging them to stay put. She feared that if she cried now, she’d never stop. That wasn’t the way she wanted to live the rest of her life, however long she had.

“I love you so much, you know that, right?” She rubbed the corner of her right eye.

Mitch flashed her a smile so gorgeous that it struck an arrow right into the bullseye of her core memories. “I love you more.”

She shot him an undiluted grin. “But we both know I love you better.”