Page 15 of One Night With You

But I didn’t want to hide anymore. Even if that meant knowing nothing would happen with him again ever.

“Anyway, we’re just waiting to hear from the doctors how the bone marrow transplant went, but I feel good about it. And so does my friend. I just got off a phone call with him, and he’s in bright spirits. Crossing all the things, you know?”

“Oh, I’m glad to hear that he’s feeling better. Hopefully everything grafts on and he’s out of the woods soon. You did such an amazing thing, Kingston.”

He immediately shook his head and frowned. I wondered what that was about. “It’s what anyone would have done.”

“We both know that’s not the case.”

“Well, it’s something that I’ve done. And I’d do it again. Although I know this second time isn’t going to be a sure thing, because the first one wasn’t. But I’m still in the registry. If they need me, I’m there.”

I swallowed hard, telling myself I was not supposed to fall for this managain. “You know Phoebe and I added ourselves to the registry. Went through the whole process. I know it’s a very minuscule chance that we’ll ever match with someone, but we’re there.”

“That’s…that’s really cool, Claire.”

I continued on as if I wasn’t rambling in stress and anxiety—my two true best friends. “Before all thishappened actually, I was thinking about looking into being a living donor. Or doing something. You know, just because there’s so much pain out there in the world you might be able to fix something. And you know that firsthand. But after the attack when it nicked my spleen, I’m not a good candidate for many things like that anymore.”

His face fell, and I could have kicked myself for even saying anything. “I’m sorry, Claire.”

“There really isn’t anything to be sorry about,” I whispered before clearing my throat. “There’s nothing we can do, but I give blood when I can, and you give bone marrow. It’s what we can do.”

“Yes, so many bodily fluids.” He seemed to realize what he just said, and I burst out laughing, grateful that things sounded normal.

“Okay then. And on that note, I’m going to go get my things out of my car and go see which room is mine.”

“I put sticky notes on the doors at Daisy’s request.” He rolled his eyes as he said it, as he came with me to the back of my car.

“That sounds like something she’d ask you to do. And I can handle it.”

“You can let me lift things.”

“Are you allowed to? You were here first, meaning you brought up most of the food, didn’t you?”

“Some of it. Everyone else is bringing something.”

“I brought wine.”

“See, Daisy put that on your list.”

We smiled at each other for so long that I realized we were just staring awkwardly. “Okay, you can help me lift things, but not everything.”

“Aren’t you the one who said your scar just hurt?”

“Fine, we’ll go a tiny little poundage at a time. What do you say?”

“I think we can take tiny poundage.” He frowned. “You know, I don’t have anything else to say to that.”

I burst out laughing and pushed at his shoulder, and he just shook his head, as we took everything out of the SUV, and locked the doors behind it just in case a bear somehow got out of hibernation and decided to get inside. They were curious after all.

“Is everyone else on their way up?”

“They should be,” he said as he pulled out his phone.

“Nobody’s texting me, but we’re getting a few weather alerts.”

Alarms spread up my spine. “I’ve been driving and didn’t see anything. What’s going on?”

“Just the snowstorm gaining speed. It was supposed to bypass us completely, but it might have shifted. Once they get up here, we’ll be fine. We’ve got generators and we have enough food even if they don’t bring anything.But I hope they get up the mountain quickly before they close the pass.”

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