Read LOVED for Free Online Page A

God damned mind.”
    “Sounds like it,” I said.
    Talking to Kelli’s father made me nervous. I don’t know what portion of the nervousness I attached to the fact that he believed I was arrogant, and what portion I attributed to the fact that he was her father. Either way, it made me nervous to talk to him.
    Nervous or not, I had some things that we needed to discuss.
    “You nervous, son?’ he asked as I shifted in my seat.
    “Well, as a matter of fact, I am a little, yes,” I responded.
    The hour that we talked went far better than I expected, and was a real wake-up call regarding what his thoughts, expectations, and beliefs were.
    “Well, son-of-a-bitch,” he placed his head in his hand s and exhaled.
    “You know men can talk to men about some things that they can’t comfortably talk to women about. You know that, don’t you?” he asked.
    “Yes sir,” I responded.
    “Not a word of what we speak of now is to leave here. Not one damned word. This is between you and I, son. Kelli isn’t to know about this,” he paused, and put his hands on his knees.
    I nodded.
    He slowly stood from his chair and began pacing across the floor of the living room.
    “Son, I don’t know how well I’m gonna do this, especially now. I’m just glad you talked to me about your concerns first. Makes me feel better about spillin’ my guts,” he paused.
    “ Well, I guess I have a few things I should talk to you about. I wasn’t going to, but now I am. That’s just how things work. Might make this easier for me to start talking, but keeping going isn’t going to be easy for me,” he took a breath and looked in my direction.
    “Keep your god damned mouth shut until I am done, alright?” he asked.
    “Okay,” I responded, nodding my head slowly.
    “It’s n othing against you, son. You have a tendency to run your mouth and interrupt a little. Not always in bad way, it’s just…well, it’s just. Oh, fuck it,” he said as he sat down into the chair again.
    I wondered what it was exactly that he wanted to talk about. We had already spoken about everything from family matters to Kelli’s future, love, and everything in between.
    “I know this isn’t going to be easy for me, and now the more I’m thinking, I know it isn’t going to be easy for you either. Just let me try to muddle through this, okay?” he asked.
    “That’s fine, Gene,” I responded, wishing he’d just get started.
    “Right around the time Kelli was born, I lost a kidney. God damned Agent Orange. Our fucking government sprayed all the foliage over there in Vietnam with the stuff. It was supposed to kill all of the plant life, give us a better idea of who was where, and keep our enemy from having a place to hide,” he took a breath.
    “Problem, Erik, was that the exposure of that shit to our troops caused all kinds of complications. Everyone that was within five miles of that crap when it was sprayed got cancer of some sort. Damned shame,” he stood from his chair and began to pace the floor.
    “So, I have lived the last twenty years with one kidney. Hell, I didn’t even tell Kelli. I never wanted her to worry. ”
    “Erik, it’s my other kidney. I’m having problems with it,” he said.
    He walked over and sat down in his chair. Clearly, based on his nervous nature, the problems with his kidney were serious - at least serious to him. I tried to act relaxed and wait for what else he had to say.
    “Dialysis. They’ve started dialysis, and it’ll be three or four days a week. My blood type is AB negative, and with my age…with my age…I’m not valuable…”
    His forearms on his knees, he looked down at the floor. He raised his hands, and placed his palms on either side of his face.
    And he began to sob.
    I stood and walked toward his chair. I reached over and placed my hand on his shoulder as he continued to cry.
    “Gene, whatever this is, we can…”
    “Three weeks to six months,” his voice cracked as he spoke.
    “Three weeks to