Page 43 of Someone to Watch Over Me

“But to answer your question about what’s next in my journey, I’m still trying to figure that out. It took forever to find a job after being out of the workforce for years. If you can call basic data entry for twenty bucks an hour a job, but it’s helping me to pay down some of the massive debt we incurred during Jim’s illness.” She glanced at me. “Do you have life insurance?”

“I do.”

“Good. I tell everyone to get it, no matter how young and bulletproof they think they are.”

“It’s excellent advice.”

“It would’ve made all the difference for me, especially after his illness all but bankrupted us. I’ll be paying off medical debt for the rest of my life.”

“Our system is so messed up. In what world should an illness like what Jim had financially ruin his family?”

“The world we live in, unfortunately.”

“Ready to eat?” Lexi’s voice pulls me out of my memories from the night we reconnected. Or I should sayconnected, since we’d never spoken to each other before that night despite our mutual awareness of each other in high school.

I open my eyes and look up at her. “I’m ready.”

“Did I wake you?” she asks as she puts a tray on my lap that has a bowl of salad and a glass of ice water.

My days of steak and well-done burgers on the grill are over. “No, I wasn’t sleeping. I was thinking about the night we first met up.”

She sits across from me on the sofa to eat her salad. “What about it?”

“Just how great it was to see you.”

“That night changed my life in so many ways. You changed my life in so many ways.”

“Likewise.”

She gives me a puzzled look. “How did I change yours?”

“You have no idea how nice it is to have your company around here, do you?”

“Um, well… I guess I hadn’t really considered that.”

“I thought I liked living alone until you moved in.”

“Is that right?”

“Yep. I never wanted a roommate until you said you needed to get out of your parents’ basement, and then suddenly, having a roommate was the best idea I’d ever had.”

A smile blooms slowly, lighting up her entire face. “You’re pouring on the charm tonight, Mr. Hammett.”

“No time to waste.” The stricken expression on her face has me immediately regretting that I reminded her of my near miss. “Hey, I’m fine, and I’m going tobefine. I promise.”

As her brows furrow, she pokes at the salad with her fork.

“Lex.”

When her gaze shifts my way, I see the torment she’s trying so hard to keep hidden from me.

“I’ll follow every order from every doctor to the letter. I’ll do whatever it takes to stick around for many, many years so I can spend as much time with you as humanly possible.”

10

Lexi

Long after I’m tucked into bed with the door open in case Tom needs me during the night, I’m still thinking about him following doctors’ orders so he can spend as much time with me as “humanly possible.”

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