Page 71 of Full Tilt

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“No, we’re just friends. It’s all we can be.” I rubbed the place on my cheek where Kacey had kissed me. “It’s hard enough.”

“But you have feelings for her,” Theo said. It was not a question, and his voice was curiously quiet.

“I… Maybe. I don’t know,” I said. “Sometimes I think I shouldn’t have told her to come back here.”

“But you did,” Theo said in that same low tone, “because youdohave feelings for her.”

I sighed, partially in surprise that I could talk about this withTheo when I expected another lecture. It felt good to talk about this with my brother instead of being walled off by his worry.

She looks at you like she can’t stop…

We’d arrived at my apartment complex. Theo threw the truck in park and turned to face me. “What do you want to do?”

“What can I do? I don’t have time, and she knows it. I told her about the last biopsy.”

“Well, there you go,” he said, waving his hand. “You told her.”

“Yeah? And?”

“And she’s still here.”

CHAPTER

TWENTY-THREE

Friday night. I was lying in my bed, reading. Or trying to. My focus kept wandering. Three a.m. is the stillest, quietest part of night, even in a city like Vegas, and the silence amplified the thoughts rattling in my head and heart. They filled the room, demanding to be acknowledged, begging to be answered.

Kacey…

“Knock it off,” I said under my breath.

What is she doing right now?

She would’ve gotten off her shift an hour ago. Been home twenty minutes later if she wasn’t delayed.

“She’s sleeping,” I said. “It’s what you should be doing.”

I tossed the book aside, clicked off the lamp and settled into my bed.

She bought me a bed.

“I’m aware,” I said.

The bed was infinitely more comfortable than the chair, but I still couldn’t sleep. I lay on the right side. The left seemed to stretch for miles, like snowy tundra. Cold and barren.

I miss her.

“Shut it, Fletcher. Go to sleep.”

I closed my eyes, knowing it was futile. Then my cellphoneon the nightstand buzzed a text.

“Dammit, Theo.”

But it wasn’t Theo. I sat up, the heart in my chest thudding.

Kacey.

Are u awake?

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