Page 52 of Take Me Away, Cowboy

“Aury?” Though the crying continued, her friend took slow breaths in between jags.

Paige looked at Owen and mouthedI’m sorry.

“It’s fine,” he whispered, his hand just under her breast, the pad of his thumb tracing her curve. “Can I take you to the movies tomorrow night?”

Paige smiled. Definitely not friends.

Yes, she mouthed.Please.

“I’ll pick you up at six,” he told her.

Her stomach flipped in response. Owen wiped at the sweat on his brow with a very muscular, very defined forearm. He was bar none the sexiest man she’d ever laid eyes on, even though normally the brooding cowboy wasn’t her thing.

Paige covered the phone microphone with her hand. “Let yourself in,” she told him. “My bell doesn’t work.”

He shook his head, frowning from behind a hidden smile.

“That’s not very safe, missy.” He feigned frustration, but the corners of his mouth twitched. She shrugged as if to say, “What’re you going to do?”

Owen walked back to where he’d been, a blanket laid out with a gallon water jug and personal cooler. He must be about to take lunch. Her mind drifted back to the not-friend zone, recalling what their last picnic had looked like. No food had been consumed, but it was one of the best picnics Paige had ever had. Heat pooled just below her stomach and she gulped back the longing.

When the tears on the other end ebbed, Paige checked in with Aurelie.

“I am going to be all right, Aury.”

“I know you will,” her friend sniffled. “But that doesn’t mean you get to not tell me when something like this happens to you. You’re like my sister, Paige. If anything happened to you, too…” She trailed off, the tears starting again, but lighter this time.

“I couldn’t tell you. You’d just found out…” She didn’t finish her sentence—her friend was very aware how it ended.

“I know. I get it.”

“What’s really going on, Aury? Because even though I know you love me, this is bigger than that.” There was silence on the other line, enough that Paige pulled the phone away from her ear to make sure Aurelie was still on the line. “Hun? You there?”

“I’m here.” Her voice sounded weak, but there.

“Talk to me,” Paige urged. She started walking, slowly and not completely without pain, but walking nonetheless, back to her apartment. The time spent trying to track down Owen was long enough on her feet.

“I don’t know, Paige. I mean this has always been my home. How can I wake up one morning to find it all gone, all changed?”

“Your mother,” Paige offered.

Two words that summed everything up.

“Yes. Why didn’t she get any more time? She won’t see me get married, have babies—” Aurelie trailed off and Paige’s hand reflexively went to her stomach.

The same fears she hadn’t been able to give voice to flooded her now. Except it wasn’t her mother who wouldn’t be there. She might not live to see those dreams unfold for herself. For too long she’d been selfishly flitting around the world, the only thoughts to her future revolving around whether or not she should put down another month’s deposit on an apartment. She never lasted anywhere, was never satisfied, and as a result of that, she was stuck in limbo, dreams for the life she didn’t know she wanted on pause indefinitely.

“I will, though,” Paige said, not caring if it was a lie, or just wishful thinking. “I’ll be there to talk you through the breathing exercises in Lamaze, to tell your husband that you’re too good for him, that he doesn’t deserve you, even if he does. I’ll be there if your brothers start acting up again. I’ll be the one to tell you how much you’ve got in your life when you forget it.”

She would do all those things, too. As long as her health saw fit to keep her on this planet. A deep, aching sense of all she had to lose if she didn’t get the results she was hoping for crept up on her from behind, causing a chill to consume her despite the heat of the early fall day.

“You should come out here, stay with me, nurse me back to health,” Paige found herself saying before she could think about what that would look like. It wasn’t a half bad idea, though, now that she’d said it aloud.

Aurelie could come, be her nurse, her objective opinion on all things medical and otherwise. Paige thought of Owen.

What would her friend have to say about the hot new neighbor who’d stolen her attention, and possibly more? Hell, now that Paige gave the idea more consideration, sheneededAurelie to come out. To see where she was raised, to offer up her less-than-subtle thoughts on everything, to help Paige see things objectively. For instance, was this illness her body’s way of saying she should stay in Banberry with Owen and her family, or was it telling her she only had one life and should stop screwing around and get to living it? Or were those the same?

She needed clarity.

---