“As many as you want.”
With one hand on the side of the bed to hold me steady, I ran my tongue along his bottom lip, teasing for entry, and he grinned and granted me access, lifting his head to meet my mouth. Our tongues made slow, languid strokes against each other, each of us trying to memorize the feel of the other.Nothing else existed when we came together like this. There was no hospital. No headaches. No worry about what might happen. Just the two of us, devouring each other like we’d never gotten the chance before and not thinking about what would happen if we never got the chance again.
Minutes must’ve passed when Reid tensed and groaned against my lips. I pulled back and lowered his head gently to the bed, and then waited for the pain to pass.
Reid’s eyes opened as he panted, and a lone tear escaped down his temple. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” I said, wiping the wetness away. “I’ll make up tacos for you, you’ll make up kisses for me. It’s only fair.”
His eyes shone up at me. “I got pretty lucky to know you, Oliver McFadden. How did that happen?”
“Well,” I said, pulling the chair up closer to the bed, “it all started with a coffee machine…”
“Oh God. I guess I’m gonna have to give it a go and see what all the fuss is about after all.”
“Hey, it was life-changing the first time around,” I said, indicating myself.
“Huh. I never asked…”
“Yeah?”
“How did I take it? My coffee?”
“Why would you think I’d know?” I teased.
“Don’t you?”
I cracked a smile. “You’d get the regular latte, I think maybe because you liked the bit of foam or maybe you liked the milk. Then you’d add three sugars and two extra creamers.”
“Uh, that’s specific. I got it that way every time?”
“Every single time, though the flavor of the creamers changed occasionally. Oh, and except when you were busy cursing at the machine for breaking down, and then you’d settle for the regular stuff like me.”
Reid’s lips curved. “I think you might’ve been paying attention to me, Ollie McFadden.”
“I’m only surprised it took you this long to notice.” I’d said it as a joke, but a troubled expression crossed his face.
“I couldn’t havejustnoticed. If I was a smart guy at all, there’s no way I wouldn’t have noticed you.”
I opened my mouth, a teasing comment on the tip of my tongue, but there was a quick knock on the door, and then Dr. Farruggia entered the room, followed by?—
Fuck. Oh fuck.
My heart dropped to my feet, and any hope I’d been holding that I’d panicked, that I’d been overly cautious in bringing Reid here, vanished in an instant when the woman behind Dr. Farruggia came into view and shut the door behind her. There was no reason a neurosurgeon should be paying Reid a visit unless it was for a reason.
A really bad fucking reason.
My body went hot, like someone had submerged me into a vat of boiling water, and suddenly I couldn’t breathe. I pulled at the collar of my shirt and put my elbows on my knees.
Oh God, I was gonna pass out before they even said anything.
“Reid, this is Dr. Boswell, a neurosurgeon here at Floyd,” Dr. Farruggia said. “We’ve both gone over your CAT scan, and there’s something we need to discuss.”
Fuck fuck fuck.
Dr. Boswell took over then, but it was like the teacher in the Peanuts cartoons, where you heard her talking but couldn’t make out a goddamn thing she was saying. My head went fuzzy as blood roared in my ears. I wiped the sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand and tried to focus, but I knew all too well what they were telling him. Every now and then a word would make it through the thundering in my brain, and it only confirmed what I already knew.
“Bleeding…temporal lobe…operate…today…”