Page 92 of Rival for Rent

“You know what I mean.”

“I do,” he said softly. He exhaled and squeezed me tighter, nuzzling the top of my head. “I do.”

The day passed in the kind of blissful haze I hadn’t felt in ages—or possibly ever. It wasn’t that everything was perfect. I was still upset about the Butterfly Center and working with Carolyn on how to craft a statement for my company when I came back to work. And Mason still got on my nerves, insisting on walking Bella even with one good arm and standing up to cook more than he should. Honestly, I didn’t think he had any right to complain about Dana mothering him when he did the same thing to me.

But it was hard to be mad at him when I knew he was doing it because he cared. If anything, it made me love him more. I found myself almost saying it time and time again that day. It was on the tip of my tongue, but everything felt so new, and I didn’t want to burst this delightful little bubble too soon.

That night, we were sitting at the dining room table eating sandwiches again—because they were the only thing Mason trusted me to make—when his phone went off.

“Huh,” he said, picking it up. “That’s weird.”

“Who is it?” I asked.

“The hospital.” He shook his head. “They can’t be calling about my bill already, can they?”

He looked worried, so I reached over and rubbed circles on his back. “Probably not. But if they are, I can cover whatever you can’t. I promise.”

He threw me a surprised look, then brought the phone to his ear. “Hello?”

I could only hear half the conversation. Mason was mostly quiet, offering a few ‘yes’s’ and ‘okays.’. Finally, he said, “Okay, yeah, I can do that. See you soon, I guess.”

When he hung up, he turned to me, clearly worried. “They want me to come back in and do another blood test and X-ray. Apparently, there was an abnormality on my first X-ray that they only noticed now. They say it’s probably nothing, just a shadow, but they want me to come to the ER to make sure I get seen immediately. That doesn’t sound like nothing, does it?”

My stomach dropped through the floor, but I did my best not to show it. “They probably know you’d have a months-long wait if you tried to make an appointment with a regular doctor right now. I’m sure it’s nothing. They’re just trying to be careful.”

Mason frowned. “Well, it’ll keep. I’ll wait until tomorrow, when I can call someone else to stay here while I’m gone.”

“They told you to come back immediately, didn’t they?” I said.

“Yeah, but like you said, it’s probably not important.”

“But what if it is?” I tried to keep things light, but as soon as he’d said the wordabnormality, all I could think about was the million ways I could lose him. Maybe it reallywasnothing—but just in case, I popped up from my chair. “I think we should go tonight.”

“We?” Mason stood up too. “No way. You’re not going anywhere.”

“Mason, we’re going to a hospital. There’s no safer place for me to be.”

“That still doesn’t mean you should leave the house.”

“I left the house the last time you were in the hospital, and nothing happened then.”

“Yeah, you left because I wasn’t around to make you stay here.” He gave me a hard look. “I don’t want you putting yourself at risk.”

I wanted to argue, but every moment we spent discussing this was another Mason wasn’t spending at the hospital. What if he had sepsis? Or leukemia? Or some completely unknown pathogen and needed to be kept in a bubble for the rest of his life? I’d find some way to live in that bubble with him—but first, we needed to find out.

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll stay here. But only if you go tonight. I don’t want you sacrificing yourself for me again.”

Mason smiled down at me, brushing his fingers along my cheek. “I would sacrifice myself for you without question, and count it a life well-spent.”

“Okay, that’s very romantic, but we’ve already discussed your weird martyr complex, and in any case, it doesn’t matter because you are going to the hospital. Now.”

It actually took another forty-five minutes for him to get there, what with him insisting on cleaning up after dinner, then driving through traffic and finding a parking spot. He texted me when he arrived, and I tried to calm myself, knowing we were one step closer to finding out whatever this ‘probably nothing’ really was.

I wandered around the house restlessly, unable to sit still. Was itactuallyprobably nothing, or was that what they said to everyone on the phone so they didn’t freak out? What if it was something really serious?

What if Mason wasn’t okay? What if he used this as an excuse to push me away again? I couldn’t handle getting him back, only to lose him again.

He kept texting me. First, he reported that the receptionist at the check-in desk told him to fill out some paperwork and bring it up when he was done. Next, they’d apparently lost the record explaining why he had to come back. Mason explained the phone call, and the receptionist told him to sit back down again.

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