Carla relinquished the knife and took a seat at the counter. “So….”
Max kept his back to her. He should’ve known her request for brunch was loaded. “So?”
Carla sighed. Max heard her aging old Labrador get up and go to her for a back scratch. “Don’t give me that. As much as Loki and I love your company, have you thought about what you’re going to do? You can’t hide from Jed forever.”
“I’m not hiding.”
“Looks that way to me.”
Max said nothing, concentrating on dicing chili peppers into teeny, tiny squares. He’d spent the best part of a decade hiding from one thing or another, but he didn’t feel like he was hiding from Jed. It wasn’t like Jed had come looking for him.
“What did you fight about, anyway? Jed’s got a lot going on, but he doesn’t seem the type to start an argument over household chores, and I know you’re not. Something happen between you two?”
Again, Max held his tongue. He’d never talked to Carla about his sex life, and he wasn’t going to start now. Besides, despite the bad feeling between them, he couldn’t betray Jed like that.
“I’m right, aren’t I? Did you sleep with him?”
“Shut up.” Max tipped onions and peppers into a skillet. “Can we talk about something else?”
Carla drummed her nails on the granite counter. Max could tell without even looking that she was going to completely ignore him. “He’s not that different from the guy I remember, you know. I was a little kid back then, but he was always really nice. He didn’t let Dan tease me too much.”
She paused. Max heard her take a sip of coffee and set the mug down before she went on, “I remember my mom crying when we found out he’d gone for good, and Dan didn’t speak to anyone for days. I didn’t get it at the time, but I do now. I can’t imagine not having him in my life.”
Max knew that feeling. He lived and breathed that feeling, dammit. He hadn’t meant to fall head over heels in love with Jed, but he had. And now the weight of their individual secrets threatened to tear them apart before he even knew if Jed loved him back.
Carla’s apartment phone rang. She got up to answer it, granting him a well-earned reprieve. She’d never questioned his past, but he knew she wouldn’t let his present slide so easily. He heard her regress into Spanish and tuned her out, not looking up until he heard his name.
“… yeah, he’s here. Why didn’t you call me sooner?”
Max shot her a quizzical look. Carla frowned and raised her hand. “Did they say what’s causing it?”
Max watched as she listened. She seemed worried—worried and annoyed. He wondered who she was talking to. Dan, probably. He had a knack for yanking her chain.
“What? Oh, for God’s sake, Dan. You know I couldn’t, even if I wanted to….”
Yep. Definitely Dan. Max shut off the stove. He had a feeling Carla would be too irate to eat once she got off the phone, and he didn’t feel much like eating himself. Flo appeared at his feet. She pawed restlessly at his legs, attuned to his mood, as ever.
Carla said his name again. He swiveled his attention back to her. “Look, just stop yelling at me, okay? I’m coming. And I’m bringing Max with me.”
She hung up the phone. Max raised a curious eyebrow. “What’s up?”
Carla reached for her keys and stamped into her sneakers. “We need to go. Jed’s in the hospital.”
MAXSTOODin the waiting room of the gastroenterology ward, trying to keep up with the running argument between Carla and Dan. Trying and failing, since he could make no sense of their angry Spanish gibberish.
He glanced around, looking for any clue that could tell him why Jed was there, but found nothing.Gastroenterology. What the hell did it even mean?
Carla’s angry voice broke into his thoughts. “Icouldn’ttell you, Dan. How many times do I have to explain this to you? Jed’s my patient. I have to respect his privacy. Besides, don’t you think if he wanted you to know, he would’ve told you himself?”
“No!” Dan exploded. “Don’t you get it? This is Jed. He doesn’t know how to trust people. He never has. Why do you think he ran off to join the fucking Army in the first place?”
Max stepped between them. He’d had enough. He’d been at the hospital for fifteen minutes, and he had no idea why. “Enough. Dan, what happened?”
Dan tore his heated, angry glare from Carla. He shrugged, and the helplessness in the gesture worried Max. “I don’t know. I saw him yesterday and he seemed fine, but my mom said he wasn’t right. She sent me to check on him this morning, and I found him so sick he couldn’t stand up. The ER doc said there’s something wrong with his blood, but they won’t tell me what, and neither will she.”
Carla took a breath to respond. Max cut her off. “What do you mean he couldn’t stand up? Was he conscious?”
“Conscious enough for me to drag him here kicking and screaming, but he was pretty out of it by the time they admitted him up here. Man, I’ve never seen someone puke like that. They had to give him something to knock him out. He’s sleeping now.”