Last Things, First Things

ISBN: 0595269427

Author: Draughon, Wells

Condition: New

Review This is a compelling and heart-wrenching story of two souls who find romance through adversity. Val and Erin plunge... -- Romantic Times Book Club Magazine, August, 2004 Product Description Val believes his life is ending. Erin believes hers is not. Both may be wrong. Erin, while waiting to adopt an infant, takes her niece on a trip to the Greek Islands. Amy is a teenage girl eager for adventure of all kinds, and Erin tries to rein her in while at the same time fending off a local lothario eager to show young women the sights and a rich yachtsman offering a taste of luxury. Val, unable to trust doctors to tell him the awful truth, plans for the last months of his life. To party? To splurge? To travel? Or something else? Faced with the last things in his life, which things come first? When Erin and Val meet, a profound attraction develops between them, but they don't know each other's secret any more than they know their own. From the Author Val and Erin each visit an outpatient clinic, and each ends up with mistaken beliefs. Erin continues making important changes in her life. Val realizes hes been letting his life slip by. When they meet and fall in love, the misinformation puts an insurmountable barrier between them. The clock is ticking, and only luck will decide whether they find out the truth in time. About the Author Wells Earl Draughon is the author of the novels Always, Heather, Traci, and Lies. He studied writing at Duke, UNC/Chapel Hill and Harvard Summer School and has published articles in a number of journals. Born in Durham, NC, he now lives in the Boston area. Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter One In the coffee shop off the lobby that served the two-story outpatient clinic on the left and the huge hospital on the right, Erin Stacey was sipping the last of her chamomile tea and struggling to calm herself. Shed been in hospitals a few times visiting friends or relatives, but it had never felt like this. "Oh, Im just tired," Erin said. "Ive had a slight temperature, but its probably only a summer virus." "You look great," Janie said and raised her little chin defiantly. Erin looked away from what she saw in Janies eyes. She didnt need this! She had the second half of her life to get on with. Not that she hadnt done well with the first part, she had: Finished college near the top of her class. Had her share of marriage proposals, including one from a wealthy, gorgeous man after another trophy wife. And shed overcome the condescension of the partners and forced them to recognize how valuable she was to the firm. Not bad, but not good enough. She hadnt succeeded, yet, in perfecting her design, the stepping stone to a firm of her own. She still had no children. And she hadnt found a suitable male companion. But shed manage all that and in the near future too and she didnt need health problems getting in her way. The large watch on Erins wrist told her she had one minute. "It was dumb to obsess so long about getting the tests," she said. "It doesnt do any harm, and the group insurance covers it." But her voice refused to be as cool as she meant it to be. It quavered in places and she couldnt seem to look Janie in the eye. She bent over and rummaged in her canvas bag on the floor. "Last week they called me in for more tests." She pulled up a drawing pad, glanced at it, shoved it back and flipped through memos and notes. "That nearly freaked me." The air conditioning sent a shiver through her. Janie released another flock of reassurances. Erin nodded and tried not to hear a word, surveying her tuna sandwich with one bite gone, her ersatz orange juice with one sip taken, the pile of wadded napkins in her lap. Im okay, she said to herself. Ill be out of here in another hour and this place will be history. But every time she looked up, there was Janies face across the table, the concern, the earnest effort to hide what she r