Page 16 of My Silver Fox Savior

“I need to explain some stuff to you,” I say. “I need you to agree not to ask any questions or make any comments until I finish. It’s going to be tough, E.”

“Okay …”

“I mean it,” I growl. “Let me lay out all the evidence. Let me present the case. Then make your judgment.”

“Okay, Landon. Shit. This must be serious.”

To Ethan’s credit, he doesn’t interrupt me as I start to explain. He lets me tell him about the doctor, then running into Lily, then the not-really-a-date, and the near kiss.

When I’m done, he says, “You need to see that oncologist. The rest of this matters. I’m not saying it doesn’t, but that is the numberonepriority.”

“I know,” I grunt.

“Do you, Landon?” he says in an angry tone. “Then stop dodging your doctor’s calls. That needed to be arranged thesecondyou got your first diagnosis.”

“I know,” I repeat, quieter this time.

“I can come with you,” he replies. “I know you don’t like doctors.”

“I’ve never said that.”

“You’ve neverneededto,” he says. “Remember when you had that throat infection? You couldn’t speak, looked half dead, and you still wouldn’t go in. Hell, I’m surprised you even went in for this. The symptoms must’ve been a bitch.”

“It was for my parents,” I admit. “Ever since Charley, I’ve been getting health checks twice a year. They’ve all been A-OK until now.”

“That makes more sense,” he murmurs. “So you’ll call your doctor?”

“Yes.”

“I mean it, brother. Tomorrow, first thing. I’m going to be bugging you about this. You need a plan of attack.”

“He saidmonths,” I tell Ethan. “Months, not years… All that’s left is working out how uncomfortable these last few months will be.”

“Then face it,” Ethan growls. “If the truth is ugly,lookat it. You owe it to yourself, your parents, and hell, to me—to everybody in your life.”

“I’ll call them tomorrow,” I say, “but I wanted advice about the other thing, too.”

“About your crush?”

I laugh with a heavy sense of irony. “Yeah, if you want to call it that. Makes me sound like a kid, but still …”

“She didn’t seem interested?”

“She backed off pretty fast when I tried to kiss her.”

“Crap, I don’t know.” Ethan sounds genuinely lost, something rare for him. “You know who you’re asking, right?”

I have to laugh again. Ethan isn’t exactly the serious relationship type. “Yeah, but the fact is, E, you’re the best friend I’ve got.”

“You know me. I’m all about the apps. I have been ever since they came out. By the time I try to kiss a woman, I normally know whether she’s interested.That’swhy I’m always telling your old-fashioned ass to get on them, too.”

“I hate those goddamn things. They take all the humanity out of it.”

“No offense, but it’s not like you’ve been going the in-person route instead.”

He’s right, but I don’t care. Usually, I can ignore stuff like that, but it’s different with Lily. Or is it the illness? No, that feels false, unfair to her somehow. “I’m busy. Working.”

“Amen to that,” he says.

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