Read Just Destiny for Free Online Page B

words.
    “I don’t want to sound cruel, but you need to know the reality of the situation. If a miracle like that happened,” Ken’s forehead wrinkled over wide eyes, clearly doubting the possibility, “I guarantee you he’d be a vegetable.” He paused, letting the statement sink in. “Gabe was a doctor—the best. He’d have seen poor souls like that and I don’t know a man who would want to exist that way.”
    Jenny wanted to shout, “Who cares? I want him alive. I need him .” Images of Gabe flashed through her mind. Sweaty Gabe gliding up the driveway after a long ride with Steve. Grinning in satisfaction, he’d salute Steve as they headed for their showers. Gabe’s face lifted to the sun, at the helm of their boat. Gabe serving, then rushing the net to best his son at tennis. Jenny saw him confidently striding down the hospital hallway, hurrying to surgery or to check on a patient. Tears filled her eyes with the weight of the truth. Gabe was a dynamic man. If he could breathe without the machine and was even remotely aware of his helpless condition, it’d kill him.
    “He’d hate it.” She blinked back tears. “It’d break my heart too, but I can’t. I can’t do it.”
    “You don’t have to make a decision right away, but you do need to gather the family.” Ken looked hesitant, like he had something to offer but was unsure.
    “What?”
    He expelled a breath. “Have you thought about organ donation?”
    Jenny stared at Ken and blinked.
    “Most of his organs are in good shape. Gabe could live on through other people.”
    “Are you kidding me?” She vaulted to her feet and rounded on him. “Cut Gabe up and give bits and pieces of him to other people? Are you nuts?”
    “I know it sounds callous, but he could save a lot of lives.”
    “No!” Jenny glared at him.
    “I understand. But as Gabe’s friend, I had to bring it up. As a doctor I want to give you as much information as possible. You need to fully understand the gravity of the situation—”
    “He’s dead. I get it.” Jenny wrapped her arms tightly around her quivering stomach.
    “Jenny, you need to consider what Gabe would want.” He picked up Gabe’s wallet from the foot the bed and held it out to her. “I suspect he wanted to be an organ donor.”
    Jenny stared in horror at the billfold, then looked at Ken. The sympathy in his eyes gave her courage. She reached out and took it. Her hand sank as if the wallet weighed twenty pounds. With a deep breath and trembling fingers, Jenny flipped the billfold open.
    She ignored the driver’s license tucked inside the slot under the credit cards and slowly turned the plastic rectangles protecting his family pictures. The first was a photo of her, then one of her and Gabe, then Alex and Ted’s high school graduation pictures. The regular assortment of insurance cards stacked the back. Jenny pulled out Gabe’s Blue Cross Blue Shield card and blindly handed it to Ken, mumbling, “They’ll need this.”
    Though sorely tempted to slam the wallet shut, Jenny worked the driver’s license back and forth until she’d freed it from its plastic slot. God, her husband was a handsome man. She loved the way his light brown hair lay close-cropped to his head in tidy layers, and the deep crinkle lines at the corner of his pewter gray eyes made him look totally adorable. Though not pretty-boy handsome, he had that Harrison Ford every-day rugged look.
    A smile creased Jenny’s face when she looked at his documented weight, one hundred seventy pounds. Hmmm. He’d put on a few pounds since then. Moving her thumb, Jenny looked for the little red heart signifying an organ donor. She flipped the card over. Eyes popping wide, she looked at Ken. “It’s not there.”
    Ken frowned. “Really?”
    Jenny felt lightheaded, almost giddy. Knowing Gabe, she’d fully expected to find the heart, but it wasn’t there. Though Jenny believed in organ donation, even made sure she was registered as an organ