But…
There was no way she should be imagining Vince and her future in the same breath.
Even though he’d professed his interest—which he’d assured her wasnotjust his support—once he started digging into whatwas ahead for her with her stage three diagnosis, he might smarten up and beg off.
But that worry wasn’t pertinent to the new information she now had about Inez, so she tamped down her own personal concerns, and got back to logistics.
Lace wanted to tell Vincent all about Inez, but she also didn’t want to interrupt the fun he was currently dishing out.
The kids were having such a ball.
She paused ten feet away from the spot where he was doing his entertaining, and while she waited for a break, she happened to look over at her IV pole.
Lace sighed, then glanced at the clock. Of course. On a day when she wouldn’t have minded if chemo lasted a little longer, she saw that she only had a few more minutes left with her own infusion. She needed to go back to the adult suite pretty much immediately to get un-attached, and she had to let Vince know.
Catching Inez’s eye, Lace indicated that she needed to speak with the clown-act-in-session, and Inez, understanding, immediately leaned forward and pulled on Vince’s big sleeve. She said something Lace couldn’t catch, but after the exchange, Vince finished his current trick of making pennies rain from one small patient’s nose, then turned to her, raising his bright blue eyebrows.
“I have to go back,” she told him softly, indicating her nearly empty bag-of-bane.
“Okay. I’ll come see you as soon as I’m finished here,” he returned quietly.
“Take your time,” Lace told him with a smile. She didn’t want any of the kids to be disappointed if he truncated his act.
Lace gave a wave, then walked the hall back to her infusion area where she took a seat.
What she didn’t expect, when her nurse of the day, Giliana, began the process of capping her off, was the woman’s giggle.
“I think your clown is cute,” she said, as she efficiently did her job.
“Oh. He’s not my…”
Ah, hell.Why not? If it made Lace feel all warm and fuzzy inside that the nurse thought they were together, why not go for it?
“He’s actually even cuter under the make-up and costume,” Lace amended, and hoped she wasn’t telling a lie. Hecouldhave a bad case of snake-skin, or an overflowing gut beneath those robes.
But she doubted it.
With Vince cockiness, everything pointed to the fact that he was probably blessed with a very pretty face, and a rockin’ bod.
Lace just needed to find out for sure.
Maybeshe’d get the chance.
Outside of the hospital.
Aaand…there she went again. Spiraling into fantasy. Except—please God—can this one be real?
Vince had truly acted like he wanted to get to know her better. The only question was, why? If itwasn’tfor that gotta-fix-stuff attitude he gave off, then what was it?
She looked like hell these days, and wasn’t exactly what anyone would call, “a catch”. If Vince barreled his way into her life right now, he’d see weeping, short-temperedness, and a bunch of bodily insecurities that had really only recently begun to register as Lace contemplated losing one or both of her breasts.
Dammit.
Why couldn’t they have met before?
Oh, yeah.She’d already gone over that in her head. It would have sucked even harder.
Because then he would havehadto stick around, since—from her experience knowing Buck—a Sothard was all about honorand all that entailed. If he’d already been onboard prior to her diagnosis, Lace would never have known if it was his choice to stand by her, or if he’d been doing it out of obligation.