Natalie sat on the couch trying to get her thoughts in order. “It was the worry I might have cancer that set me off, made me look at my life under a microscope. Then I got the all-clear and I was determined to make the best of the soul-searching I’d done. I think I almost flew out of the consulting room. I wanted to grab you and jump up and down and laugh and dance and…” She swallowed as she remembered arriving in the waiting room.

“Instead you found me consoling Vee.”

“Yes. It was selfish of me but you and I never talked about what happened…what nearly happened.”

“Vee had a cancer diagnosis, you didn’t.”

She lifted her gaze from her hands and stared straight into Milt’s eyes. She could see his confusion. “I know that, Milt. We couldn’t do a happy dance in front of Vee but there were plenty of times after that…you didn’t once ask me how I was, how I felt.”

“Relieved? Happy? Guilty?” She frowned, tipped her head to one side. “What a release it was after the worry,” he said. “I felt that way and assumed you did too. I kept thinking it would be nothing and imagined us celebrating. I’d planned to take you out to dinner and a show that night.”

“You…how?”

“I researched it while you were having the tests. I kept thinking it would be positive news and I was all ready to ring and make bookings as soon as you came out but then…when I came across Vee, I was swamped with guilt when she was in the position I feared you might have been. If Bob had been with her… well, anyway, there wasn’t a chance to talk about it then and life went on.”

Natalie was amazed he’d felt the release and then the guilt like she had. And the fact that he’d been planning to surprise her… She stopped herself from being distracted. She needed to tell him the rest.

“I didn’t want life to go on as it had been, Milt. It was a wake-up call for me and I’ve had plenty of thinking time since.” She drew herself up straighter in the chair. “I’ve come to some decisions about changes I want to make to my life.”

“Hell, Nat.” He sat forward. “What changes? That sounds serious.”

“Some of it’s simple stuff, more about streamlining for me, but others, well, all of it really, rests with you.”

“Me!”

“I need you to speak to me honestly about Jack.”

Milt leaped to his feet but she held up a hand. “Don’t brush me off. I think I can deal with it if Jack is your son but I need to know the truth…now.” She blew out a breath. She’d said it and very soon she’d have her answer.