Page 5 of One Night With You

Claire’s gaze shot to mine even though it was her brother who spoke, and she froze, her face paling, and I hated myself more than anything.

Because she looked scared to see me.

What the hell had I done?

Or rather, what the hell had I not done?

She dragged her gaze to her brother, ignoring me. “Oh, I have your dinner. Just wanted to stop by and drop it off before I go to my thing. I know you’re busy. So I’ll head out.”

“You can come over,” Hudson said, confusion etched on his face. “You know everybody here.”

“I’m going to be late. But I’ll just leave it here on the counter. Love you.” She darted out, and Hudson frowned again.

“What the hell was that about?” he asked.

“No clue.” It was all I could do not to ask Hudson if she was okay. Because she clearly wasn’t. But I wasn’t going to get anything from him. Instead Hudson frowned harder, and then he went back to work, and I let the sound of the needle and the motor from surrounding artists filter out my thoughts.

By the time we were settled into what we wanted, I smiled at the other man in the mirror’s reflection. “It’s going to look amazing.”

“It already does,” Hudson said with that cocky air, and I grinned.

We settled on a time for the next appointment, and I showed my cousins the work as they whistled through their teeth and congratulated Hudson on a job well done. I waved off invitations for dinner, just wanting to get home and be alone.

It had been a weird day, and I hadn’t liked the look on Claire’s face.

I just wanted to forget, and to be alone.

“Kingston?”

I froze, wondering why I wasn’t keeping my attention on my surroundings better, when I looked up and saw Eddie, my friend from school who happened to live in my new neighborhood.

“Hey there. What are you guys doing here?” I asked, as I waved at him and his wife Samantha.

I had known Eddie back in elementary school, and then he had moved away in middle school before moving back in high school. We had both gone to the same university here in Colorado, and now lived in the same neighborhood. It was weird that no matter how large the world could be, how many times you could move around, sometimes you gravitated toward others. And Eddie was always one of those people.

“Actually, we were looking for you,” Samantha said, and from the way that her eyes darted around, I frowned.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Eddie said, before he sighed as Samantha gripped his hip. “I really don’t know how to begin this. And I didn’t want to put it in a text.”

On alert now, my gaze darted around the fully lit parking lot, and I moved closer. “Do you need my team?”

Eddie’s eyes widened, and Samantha let out a laugh. It was one of those laughs that seemed to have surprised her, as if she hadn’t done it often recently. “No nothing like that. We’re safe. Well. Hell.”

Eddie ran his hands over his face, as his wife held him close. “I wasn’t really planning on saying this in the middle of a parking lot in front of your place of business. We could have stopped by your house, but well, we’re kind of running out of time. And then we were here, and I thought maybe I’d ask you for a cup of coffee and blurt everything out.”

Eddie rarely rambled and this worried me. “What’s going on, Eddie?”

“The cancer’s back,” Eddie blurted, his face crumbling, as Samantha’s remained stoic—ever the strength in the face of horror.

I stood there, that odd buzzing sound in the back of my head going louder and intensifying over time until it was a sharp pinching. The pain from the tattoo was gone, all confusion from my day whispered away in that instance.

We’d been in college the first time Eddie had cancer. The first time I’d stared death in the face and realized there was nothing I could do except pray and hoped to hell that science and doctors could do their work. I’d been a bone marrow match for Eddie. Out of all of his family, he’d only had one match in his life—me. His friend. I’d donated as early as I’d been able, going through the entire process while waiting on pins and needles to see the results. And now I knew exactly what to say—even if I didn’t know if these were the right answers.

“I’m so fucking sorry. When do you need me? Anything you want, Eddie. I’m here.”

And when his wife broke down into my arms, Eddie wrapping his arms around her, I knew it was the right decision.

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