“You okay, man?”
Jed nodded slowly, buying time before he could trust himself to speak. “Yeah, sorry, what were you saying?”
“Christmas,” Dan said, looking puzzled. “My mom wanted me to invite you. Max too.”
Jed shook his head. Max had already warned him that despite the disaster of Thanksgiving, the kids were expecting him at the Cooper house on Christmas Day. Coupled with the looming task of gift shopping, Christmas had become a prospect that made his skin crawl. He offered Dan a vague shrug, but his mind was abruptly diverted by the painful roll of his stomach. His blood ran cold, and all at once, he knew he had to get home before he puked all over the shiny gym floor.
“Can you give Max a ride home?”
Dan frowned. “Sure. Are you…?”
Jed backed away, dodging Dan’s outstretched hands. “I’m fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Jed didn’t see Dan the next day, or the day after that. His cell phone rang again and again, but he ignored it, too caught up trying to cope with the pain his collision with Tess had caused.
CHRISTMASWASalmost upon him before he felt halfway human again.
He stood at a hospital window with Carla beside him. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.” Carla grinned. “Next time, we’ll run through the grounds together, and if you make it without falling on your ass, you can start running at home.”
“Outside?”
Carla rolled her eyes. “No, on the secret treadmill you have stashed at the cabin. Yes, outside. I know you’re dying to get out there. You’ve got that look—like my dog gets when I forget to walk him.”
Jed didn’t appreciate being compared to a Labrador, but he was too excited by the prospect of regaining his freedom to care much. He hadn’t been up to PT for most of the week, and the positive news caught him off guard. With a grin of his own, he slung his arm around her slim shoulders. It was the second lot of good news she’d given him that day. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me,” Carla said. “I know you haven’t felt good this week, but what you’ve achieved so far is amazing. You’ll get there. I promise.”
Jed made his way home with a lightness in his bones he hadn’t felt in months, maybe even years. He’d known for a while that Carla was fast becoming a good friend, but that morning she’d come through for him on a whole new level. Passing over his credit card so she could do his Christmas shopping had been a huge weight off his mind. The only snag was her parting shot about Max.
“You’ll have to figure him out yourself. He loves presents, but he hates material crap.”
THATEVENING,Max came in from a long day in the boat shed to find Jed sitting on the floor by the fire with his laptop. He looked like he’d been there a while, judging by the number of books spread out on the coffee table.
Max studied him for a moment unnoticed, taking in the focused, intelligent green eyes and soft blond waves growing out of a military buzz cut. It was rare that he caught Jed unawares. He seemed to hear and see everything.
Yeah, including that batch of seizures.
A shot of embarrassment rippled through Max. Things had been a little odd since then. Between them, they’d managed to figure out he’d had a mild seizure on his walk with Flo, and another, more serious, grand mal seizure when he’d returned to the boat shed to compulsively check his tools.
Heat flooded Max’s cheeks as he pictured the scene. He supposed he was lucky Jed found him, but a big part of him wished he hadn’t. He’d learned to live with his epilepsy, but it pissed him off that Jed had to see it. He must’ve been quite a mess for Jed to spend two nights in bed with him.
Max recalled waking up on the second night to find Jed sleeping peacefully beside him, and a different warmth rushed through him. With a book by his side, it was clear Jed hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but even in the darkness Max found he couldn’t stop staring. He’d seen Jed sleep before—on the couch, at the kitchen table with his head on his arms—but that night, curled on his side in Max’s bed, he’d seemed different. The weathered lines had fallen away and revealed his boyish face, for once untouched by fatigue and pain.
Entranced, it was all Max could do not to trace a path along his stubble-dusted jaw. In an effort to control himself, he’d retracted his already reaching hand and rolled over, and when he woke next, Jed was gone, leaving Max to wonder if he’d imagined his presence altogether.
A little while later, Max considered the contents of the kitchen cupboards. He hadn’t been grocery shopping for more than a week, and combined with the bare fridge, there wasn’t much inspiration to be found. Frowning, he reached for some rice noodles and opened another cabinet. Peanut butter, sesame seeds, and a tired bunch of scallions followed, but he was unimpressed by the wok of spicy noodles they turned into ten minutes later.
He carried a plate into the living room for Jed, though he knew he was probably wasting his time. Jed had been off his food ever since Tess had walloped him at softball practice. Max wasn’t sure if the two things were connected, but the unhealthy gray tinge to his face had remained in place for days. Out of desperation, Max had attempted to pick Carla’s brain, but his efforts at subtlety went down like a lead balloon.
“Honey, you probably know better than me, shacked up in that cozy cabin.”
Her knowing smirk had gotten under Max’s skin, but she had nothing on the grin Jed shot his way when he finally looked up from his work and took the plate from his outstretched hand. “Smells good. What is it?”
“Um, noodles? There wasn’t much to work with.”
“Do we need to go shopping?” Jed took a cautious bite. “Hey, this is good.”