Page 162 of Just This Once

She sighed before stepping toward me and cupping my face in her hands. Looking me dead in the eye, she said, “I’m dying, Grumpy. And that scares the crap out of me; so sometimes I just need to run off to have a quick freak-out session alone before I can shake it off and function again. Okay?”

God. Just hearing her say that slaughtered me. My brave, independent little trooper. Lost her dad at ten and was left with a mother who didn’t know how to love her anymore; she onlyknew how to take care of herself now. She had no idea how to turn to anyone else for help.

So I sank my fingers into her hair and pressed my brow to hers, whispering, “Hey. You know you don’t have to worry about that, right? I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I don’t care if I have to spend every cent I have on the black market to buy you a new liver. I’m not letting you go out this way. I’m just not. You got me?”

Hope gazed up at me for a moment before her face bloomed into a smile. “I got you,” she murmured as her hand slid up my arm to massage my shoulder. “And I must say, I’m glad you’re in charge of the situation now and have complete control over what you’ll allow my body to do. I should’ve just come straight to you in the first place—and not some idiot doctor—as soon as I started feeling poorly again.”

I knew she was being a sarcastic smart-ass, but I answered, “Youshouldhave.” Slipping an arm around her waist, I added, “And the next time you feel a freak-out coming on, bring that to me too. Don’t ever go through that shit alone again. Do you hear me?”

“Wow,” she murmured, lifting her eyebrows as if impressed as she smoothed her hands up my shoulders and neck to play with the back of my hair. “You’re just going to solveallmy problems now, huh?”

“Yes, I am,” I told her with authority as I dipped my head and took a kiss from her lips.

She kissed me back, closing her eyes and humming in pleasure as she did, only to pull away again just when I started to deepen it.

“Then you gotta tell me about your text messages from Raina,” she demanded, sending me a stern glance. “If you’re taking on my issues, I’m taking on yours.”

I lifted one eyebrow, amused that she was always so willing to give as good as she got. “Been snooping through my phone, Trouble?”

“Yep,” she answered without any remorse. “So are you going over there tonight to see your parents or not?”

“Can’t,” I told her. “Foster won’t be getting home from his away game until either late tonight or early tomorrow, so we’re going to wait until Tuesday, when he can be rested enough to watch over us all night.”

“Considerate of you.” Hope nodded in understanding. “How’s Foster been doing with all that football stuff, anyway? Are there still assholes out there determined to run his name through the mud?”

I rolled my eyes. “There arealwaysassholes out there determined to destroy someone else’s reputation. But yeah, it doesn’t seem to matter that the team’s undefeated; the rumors that his mental state will ruin the season are still running rampant. Then, when they’re not worried about his propensity for panic attacks, they go after him for finally having a girlfriend.”

“Say what?” Hope shook her head. “Why?”

I shrugged. “Some douche came up to Raina on the first week of school to tell her that if the Stallions lost a game this year, it’d beherfault for distracting the quarterback.”

“Oh my God. You’re fucking kidding me?”

“Nope. Poor guy.” I made a face of sympathy for him. “Lost his spot on the student council shortly after that.”

Hope snickered. “Oh, did he?” Smoothing a hand over my face lovingly, she murmured, “I wonder how that happened.”

“It’s a mystery,” I agreed.

“You know, Grumpy,” she said, shaking her head in amusement. “You really need to learn how not to completely destroy the lives of people who just barely pick on your friends.”

“Hey, all they gotta do is learn to pick on someone else, and I’ll leave them alone. It’s as easy as that.”

She smiled and pressed her face to my shoulder as she hugged me. “You’re such a good friend.”

“Wow.” Threading my fingers through her hair, I kissed her temple gently. “I can’t believe I got you to compliment me beforeI even told you I had a bucket list item set up for us tonight.”

“You do? Oh my God.” With a gasp, she pulled back to gape at me in excitement. “Which one?”

“I can’t believeI’m actually going to sleep out on the water,” Hope gushed as she trailed me down the dock, toting a new sleeping bag under one arm and dragging a new piece of rolling luggage behind her with the other.

It was actually adouble-bucket list day. Earlier in the afternoon, I’d taken her shopping, and she’d gotten whatever she wanted without once looking at a price tag.

Not sure why she’d even put that one on her list, but it was thoroughly checked off now.

The damn woman hadn’t gone crazy with jewelry or a ton of designer clothes, though. The first thing she wanted was a freaking sleeping bag.

“The boat has sleepingquarters, you know,” I made sure to tell her. “You don’t have to camp out in a sleeping bag.”

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