Page 34 of About Time

I swoop in and wrap her in my arms. Her head lifts and I can see her face. Her green eyes are glassy, and I can tell something is wrong. “Doll, what is wrong?”

She shakes her head to tell me she doesn’t know, but the motion makes it worse and she groans. I can see her swallow hard.

“Are you drunk?” I ask her, trying to figure out what is making her sick. “Eat too much fried junk food?”

Hattie slaps her hand over her mouth. “Don’t say the F word,” she groans behind her fingers.

“Can you stand on your own?” I ask her.

“I think so,” she says weakly.

I have to force myself to let her go and take a step back. She inhales long and deep, and puts her hand on her forehead.

“I’m really dizzy,” she says, and that’s my only warning before her eyes roll back into her head and her knees buckle.

Thankfully I hadn’t moved too far to catch her. I scoop her up into my arms and acknowledge Donovan. “I’m going to take her to the hospital.”

He nods his head three times. “Be careful with her. I can’t keep putting her back together.”

“You and she aren’t—” I show my hand by even attempting to ask the question.

He looks at her fondly, but without any kind of lust. “Best friends? Yeah, we are, but we’ve never been anything else. We will never be anything else. But as her friend, I need to beg you again to be careful with her. Hattie doesn’t give her heart easily, and once she does I’m afraid it’s forever. Don’t make her fall if you won’t be there to catch her. Otherwise, there will never be room for anyone else in her heart. She deserves nothing short of complete adoration.”

He’s right, so I just nod.

Hattie rouses as I’m buckling her into the passenger seat. “What are you doing?”

“You fainted after puking. I’m taking you to the hospital,” I say before I close her door.

I can see her gearing up for a fight while I round the front of the truck to get in the driver’s seat. She proves me right as soon as I open my door and climb inside. “I don’t need a hospital. I probably just got dizzy or something.”

I shake my head. I won’t be talked out of taking her. “I don’t want to risk it.”

She grumbles something under her breath but otherwise says nothing. She really has gotten to know me. Not many people can read me as well as she seems to, except maybe Griffin.

Hattie is quiet while I check her in. It’s a slow night, and I’m actually disappointed about it because that means less time I get with her. In less than fifteen minutes a nurse is calling her back.I get up and follow her without thinking about it. She doesn’t stop me either. I know it’s an intrusion of her privacy, but I don’t think I’ll believe she’s fine until I hear it from the doctor.

They go through the routine procedures: weight, blood pressure, temperature. We’re led into an exam room and left there to wait on the next medical professional. I open my mouth to—I’m not sure what I could even say. I’m sorry sounds weak.

I am sorry, but I think about what Donovan said. I don’t want to give her any reassurances or make any promises unless I know I can follow through. I’ve already done enough damage to her.

I didn’t see it from as far away as I was at the fair, but right here, I can see the dark circles under her eyes. I might not be able to promise her anything, but I can be here with her. That is the only thing I can give her with certainty, because nothing about us has changed. She’s still too young, and too off limits. I still refuse to be the thing that dims the brightness of her future.

Nurses come and go. They take a medical history, which I can tell she is uncomfortable giving in front of me, so I make up an excuse to step out of the room. I suppose I could have just told her I was giving her privacy.

I slip back in when the nurse exits. Hattie doesn’t look up at me, and she’s chewing on her lip. The same nurse comes back with a tray with all the stuff to draw blood. Hattie glares at the tube as it fills with her blood. I don’t know what she thinks it is going to tell her, but whatever it is she’s apprehensive about it.

This time when the nurse leaves the silence is heavy. Hattie is retreating inside herself, and I hate that she’s erecting walls in front of my face to protect herself. I can’t fault her for it though.

Finally, I can’t take it anymore and I have to break the silence. “Did the nurse say something that’s worrying you?”

She only nods her head.

“You’re killing me, Doll. What is going on?”

She exhales forcefully. Slowly she looks up, and I can see fear in her eyes by the way her pupils are blown wide. I take her hand and feel her trembling.

Her tongue sticks out and wipes across her bottom lip. “She thinks—” she pauses to swallow “—that I might be?—”

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