I winked before going back to getting dinner ready, but a few minutes later, the music stopped again, and this time, Reid was bent over the keys, clutching his head.
“Are you okay? Reid?” Dropping the lettuce I’d been shredding, I rushed over to him and crouched down.
“I’m fine,” he said, holding his head.
“What’s happening? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. It’ll pass.” But with his eyes still closed and his face scrunched up, whatever was causing him pain evidently wasn’t stopping.
“What’ll pass? Excruciating pain?”
He grunted. “It’s just a headache.”
“Where does it hurt?”
“On the side. Right here,” he said, covering the scarred left side.
“Just a headache where your skull smashed against the glass and cracked it? Anywhere else?”
“No. And it’s not a big deal.”
My mind went back to last night, when he’d been in this very spot and had paused and shaken his head like he’d had to ward off something. Something like a fuckingheadache, maybe?
“How long have you been having this kind of pain?”
“Ollie—”
“How long, Reid?”
“A couple of days—” He inhaled sharply and doubled over with his head in his hands, and that was it. My adrenaline kicked in.
With a curse, I squeezed his knee and ran over to turn the stove off. Then I grabbed my keys off the counter.
“Where are you…ah…going?”
I spun back to face him. “Correction: where arewegoing. And you know the answer to that.” I reached down to feel for my wallet in my pockets, but when it wasn’t there, I raced through the house to check my bedroom. Finding what I was looking for on the dresser, I shoved the wallet into my pants pocket and went to get Reid.
“Ollie, this is crazy. It’s easing up now.”
“Crazy?” I shook my head. He may not understand the implications of what could be happening, but I’d be damned if I let something go down on my watch. I wasn’t taking my chances,not with Reid. “No, what’s crazy is not telling anyone you’re in pain. Crazy is not doing anything about it.” I held out my hand for him to take, and as he got to his feet, I said, “We need to get you looked at, and I’d feel better if we did that now. Okay?”
Something in my face must’ve told him not to argue, because he nodded. “Okay.”
As we went out to my car, my heart beat like a thousand galloping horses stomping across my chest.
It’s just a precaution,I told myself as I got him inside and shut his door.He’s fine. No need to freak out. He’s allowed to have headaches.
When I’d buckled myself in and started the car, Reid’s quiet voice filled the space between us. “Are you mad at me?”
“No, I’m not mad. I’m just”—I rubbed my eyes with my forefinger and thumb—“worried. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to take that out on you. But if something’s wrong…”
Reid pulled my hand away from my face and held it in his lap. “There’s nothing to worry about. I’m fine. But if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll go get checked out and then you can spend the night making it up to me for being wrong.”
God, how I hoped he was right. But I had a sinking feeling in my gut. Call it intuition, but something told me I needed to get him checked out, and it needed to happen now. I knew the signs, I knew the symptoms, but I wouldn’t know anything for sure until we got him to the hospital for a scan.
“Deal?” he asked.
I hesitated and then nodded. “Deal.”