Sixty Days Left, So He Asked the Deacon's Son for Every One novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Whose Kidney

"Put it down, Coop."

Cooper put it down.

He laid the folder on the blotter, squared it to the edge as Jonas had, and stood up from the Deacon's chair.

His knees held. He was grateful for that.

"How long?" he asked.

"Since May."

"Say it plain."

Jonas stayed in the doorway with one hand on the frame, still in his Atlanta clothes, a gray shirt rumpled from the drive.

He looked ten years older than he had that morning.

"In May I took the Deacon to therapy at the plaza," he said. "I was sitting in the lot, and I saw Rudy walk you out of the dialysis clinic. You had the bag over your shoulder. You couldn't stand straight."

"I remember May."

"I sat there until you were gone. Then I went inside and asked the front desk what the clinic did, and the girl told me, and I looked up the rest on my phone in the truck." His jaw worked. "I had no idea, Cooper. Your mother died of it. I should have known."

"You didn't ask."

"I didn't. We weren't speaking," Jonas said.

"We weren't speaking because you left my mother's funeral without saying a word."

Jonas flinched.

"I'll answer that. I swear to you, I'll answer all of it. Let me finish."

Cooper crossed his arms.

"Go on."

"The next month I drove to Emory. I told them I wanted to be tested for a recipient I couldn't name yet. They said I'd have to bring the recipient in. I said I'd do my best." Jonas let out a hard breath. "Then I got my results back. Everything matched. Blood, tissue, the crossmatch."

"And you didn't say."

"I asked your doctor's office to send you a letter," Jonas said.

"They sent me three."

"I know," Jonas said.

"I threw them away."

"I know that too." Jonas's voice cracked. "That's why I couldn't just walk up and tell you. You'd said it at the funeral, to the minister, where I could hear: Nobody cuts me for a hope. I heard it from the back pew. I was standing right there."

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