She almost choked on her chips. Coughing, she grabbed her water and gulped it down.
“Are you okay?”
Of course I’m not okay. Your hand is still touching my arm, and you just asked me to move in with you.
“I’m fine. My potato chip just got stuck.”
“We should get your things tonight and move you in. I’d feel a lot better.” His hand squeezed. “This is what friends do, Laurie. Like you were there for me at dinner the other night.”
“You’re out of your mind. Asking me to move in is not equal to me spouting off at dinner Wednesday night.”
“It is to me.” He took his hand away to push his fingers through his hair. “I want to help. Why won’t you let me?”
“I’m perfectly safe in my apartment.”
“Oh…” His nostrils flared, and he looked away. “If it helps, my bedroom is soundproofed.”
“Why on earth would you tell me that?” Her voice trembled from shock.
He answered with stiff lips and a challenging glare. “I thought it might make a difference if you knew you wouldn’t hear me coughing for an hour every morning. It’s an awful sound.”
She burst out laughing. “Thank goodness! I thought you were into some kind of kinky stuff, telling me your bedroom was soundproof.”
“I didn’t… I never…” His face turned redder by the second. “Of course not.”
His mortified expression made her laugh even harder. When she finally gained control, she declared, “I could care less about hearing you cough in the morning. I lived with Steph and Ellie for four years. I helped Ellie with her morning treatments during the week, and on the weekends, I could hear her anyway.”
“Surely it got on your nerves, though.” He had this odd expression—half disbelieving, half hopeful—as if her answer really mattered to him.
“It took me two weeks to get to the point where I could sleep through it,” she confessed. “But when I learned more about CF, that awful coughing sound was music to my ears. It meant the treatment was working. I loved Ellie, and the only thing that mattered was keeping her healthy.”
“My sisters said the same thing.” His eyes blinked rapidly as he traced the design on his cup. “I know my family can be nosy and pushy, but they’re also really supportive.”
“Of course they are. They love you. That’s how it’s supposed to be in a healthy family.” Though I wouldn’t know from experience.
“Then you’ll move in? Tonight?”
If only he knew how it hurts to have him prove his friendship, when I’m wishing for something more.
“Thanks for asking, but I can’t move in with you. I don’t need to. I promise he can’t find me. Even if he did, he’s not dangerous. He’d probably just try to make me like him by giving me a bunch of money.”
Finn frowned. “Is that such a bad thing?”
“It’s not bad or good, really. It’s nothing. Money is nothing to him, so the gesture is meaningless. Money’s the one thing he was always willing to give up. It shows he doesn’t really care about me at all.”
His mouth twisted to one side, his shoulders lifting. “Or maybe it’s all he knows to do.”
“Now you’re defending him?”
“I had to.” Finn scowled as he put his trash in the paper sack and wadded it into a ball. “The dude sounds like me. And I think this may be why you haven’t been talking to me.”
“I talked to you,” she retorted, though she knew what he meant. She’d avoided any conversations, except those needed to get her work done.
Finn stood and tossed his sack in the trash, then sat down directly across from her, elbows on the table, head in his hands, and peered at her with sad sapphire eyes.
Now that’s cheating.
“I’m sorry, Laurie. I don’t know how to be friends with a woman. Bran told me I probably offended you with the money thing. But I promise, I didn’t mean to. I don’t want to end up like this guy you hate so much.”
“First of all, I don’t hate him. I just don’t respect him, and I wish I never had to deal with him again. And second, he’s not like you at all.” How could she explain? She’d already said too much about her father. Finn would start putting two and two together if she wasn’t careful. “You can be extremely irritating when you want to be, but down deep, you have a good soul. You care about people. You wouldn’t be working this hard for Limitless if that wasn’t true.”
“Does that mean we’re friends again?”
“Sure.” She forced the word through gritted teeth.
Or, I could pick up a hammer and pound it on my thumb about a hundred times. Either one—equally fun.
CHAPTER 8
Finn felt conspicuous in the waiting room, wearing a mask and gloves, but a person with cystic fibrosis had to take precautions. Hospitals were dangerous places, teaming with bacteria.
“I still can’t believe he didn’t tell us it was more than a biopsy. This is major surgery, removing part of his lung.” Cole returned to his seat, handing Finn one of the coffee cups in his hands. Finn stowed his mask in his pocket and took a sip, wincing at the harsh flavor. But he wouldn’t complain—he needed the caffeine to stay awake. He’d only slept for three hours before rising to complete his cystic fibrosis treatment in order to be at the airport for a five a.m. flight. Even in a private jet, they had to arrive forty-five minutes early.
“He didn’t want us to come and make a big deal about it.” Finn understood. He would’ve done the same. He often kept his hospital stays on the down-low. It was almost as if having his friends there made him admit it was actually happening. If he was alone, he could pretend he was simply living in a dream-world, waiting to return to real life.
“The good news is it was only in one lung, and they think they got it all.” Bran was only repeating what they’d all heard when the surgeon gave his report, but it was worth repeating.
