Summary:

David gets diagnosed with prostate cancer a few months before Shane turns forty.

“It’s nothing for you to worry about,” he says, right before he drops the news. Family dinner: pasta with vodka sauce, roasted broccoli, a tower of garlic bread stacked just as high as ever, even though Ilya, retired now, no longer has the appetite he once had. Usually, he still manages to put most of it away, even if it means he ends up groaning on the coach afterwards, begging Shane to rub his belly. Shane rolls his eyes, but he always does it, if only for the happy little sighs Ilya makes, like a fat house cat.

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Or: there's a cancer diagnosis, then a cancer scare, and Shane contemplates retirement.