Page 71 of Just This Once

Parker only shook his head. “What the fuck does that even mean?”

“I have no idea,” I admitted. “I just know it’s not a good idea for him to donateanythingto me again, so I’m not going to let him. And even if he could, I wouldn’t want him to. I’m not taking anything else away from him. But mostly, I don’t want him stressing about something he can’t change, ergo, I repeat… Alec doesn’t need to know. Not yet.”

“God.” Parker pushed back his chair and shoved his way to his feet, running his hands through his hair as he began to pace. “You’re a stubborn pest, do you know that?”

“So you’ve told me. Repeatedly.”

He paused and sent me a dark look. Then demanded, “You need to find a doctor down here. A second opinion.”

“One step ahead of you, pal.” I let out a weary sigh. “Or Paulie is, anyway. She contacted a hepatologist here in Westport for me to see. I have an appointment with him tomorrow.”

“What’s his name?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Why? Don’t you believe me?”

He scowled back. “I want to check his credentials.”

“Kepler,” I relented. “His name is Ronald Kepler.”

“So can he put you on dialysis or chemo or something to fix this?”

“No,” I explained. “Because chemo’s for cancer patients. Dialysis is for the kidney.”

Actually, therewasdialysis for the liver, but it was basically worthless. A temporary fix. It wouldn’t keep you going for long because there was no machine out there that could replace the work of the liver.

“Another transplant is the only fix for this,” I said. “Trust me, I’m doing everything I’m supposed to. It’s not like I want to die.”

“Motherfucker,” he muttered irritably and resumed his pacing.

I said nothing, just remained sitting where I was, too weary to stand as I mildly watched him huff and puff and mutter obscenities as he stormed back and forth across my kitchen floor.

Finally, he jarred to a halt and spun to face me, looking very grim as he asked, “You were fucking serious about thatrequestyou made to me, weren’t you?”

“Yes.”

Why in the world would he think Ihadn’tbeen?

“Christ,” he growled and ran a hand through his hair before he laughed bitterly and paced some more. A second later, he spun toward me. “So let me ask you this.” Slapping a sheet of paper down onto the table, he pointed. “You put thirteen things on this list,allof which I could help you with. Why the fuck did you come to me for only number four?”

I sat up straighter, alarmed. “That’s my list. How the hell did you get my list?”

He squinted at me as if the answer should be obvious. “It was on your dresser in your bedroom.”

“You went into mybedroom?”

What the hell?

He wrinkled his brow as if he couldn’t understand why I was so outraged. Then he spread his hands out over the bottles on the table dramatically. “How do you think I found your medicine?”

Right. Shit. Huffing out a disgusted breath, I demanded, “What else did you snoop through?”

“Everything,” he told me unapologetically. “Now answer the damn question. Why only number four?”

“Because,” I scoffed. “Most of the others require money to accomplish, and I don’t need your stupid money.”

That wasn’t quite true. I could definitely use the money. But I didn’t want him to think money was the only thing that drew me to him. I’d take Parker Ohrley dead broke if I could get him.

“Why number four?” he insisted. “Whyme?”

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