Page 98 of Love It or List It
It seemed like the bridge had come to him, though.
“My sister’s kid had to go to Sick Kids and—I mean, they’re okay, but the recovery’s going to be longer than they thought.Which means two weeks of unpaid leave, and there’s housing for them in Toronto, sort of, but there will be expenses and—” She blew out a breath.
“And you need the money we owe you to support your sister.”Just because the treatment might be covered by OHIP didn’t mean living expenses suddenly disappeared.
“Yeah,” Starling agreed, sounding relieved.
“Right, okay.”Austin had no idea how they would cover it, but he would find a way.“Can you send me the bill?I’ll have to take a look, figure things out.”He chewed his lip.“Look, honestly, I’m not sure if we can pay it all right now, but I’ll let you know as soon as I can about how much and when we can get you the money.”
“Thank you,” Starling said sincerely.“Seriously, Austin.The timing sucks, I know—”
“It’s not your fault,” Austin countered.
“I know, I know.I just hate to add anything to your plate right now.”
“Starling, don’t—” Austin’s phone buzzed, and he pulled it away from his face to check.“Oh thank God.”
“Austin?”
“Sorry, text from Joe.He says he’s about to be sprung from the hospital.I’ve got to go.”
“Yes, yes, go.Say hi from me.And tell him to get better and to stop getting old-people illnesses!”
“I’ll, uh, do that,” Austin said, though he didn’t think he’d pass along the last part.At least not in so many words.Maybe in a couple months, when he emotionally recovered from his boyfriend almost dying of pneumonia, he could joke about it.
The drive to the hospital was a straight shot down Walker Road, which gave Austin plenty of opportunity to think as he managed to hit all thirty-seven stop lights.He didn’t have a ton of money in savings.How much did they owe Starling?He should’ve asked before.Now he didn’t want to look at his phone.Maybe they’d have no choice but to sell the house sooner rather than later and find somewhere to live in the meantime.Or maybe they could get a mortgage.They could swing that, right?
A joint mortgage wasn’t exactly taking things slow, of course.
Never mind.Joe first.Financial crisis later.
The inoffensive walls and bland art of hospital hallways all looked the same.Austin got Joe’s room number mixed up and did a double take when he poked his head in and found a tiny Asian woman instead of Joe, but then he heard a familiar laugh echoing down the hall and made his apologies.
Austin had a lot on his mind.He couldn’t remember the last time he’d put in a full day’s work or gotten a full night’s sleep.But the stress and exhaustion evaporated, if only for a moment, when he walked into Joe’s room to find him sitting up in the bed with color in his cheeks, taking breaths without rattling.
It took Austin a minute to get his own lungs to remember to breathe as the relief washed over him, but then he cleared his throat and knocked on the doorframe.“Hey.I heard you’re getting sprung.”
“Mr.Taylor!”The doctor turned toward him, smiling.“Good, I need a witness for these care instructions.I’ve got some printouts for you to take home as well, but I want to go over everything and give you a chance to ask any questions.”
Austinwantedto finish crossing the room and put his hand on Joe’s forehead, feel for himself that the fever had been defeated, listen to his heart and lungs up close, then throw him over his shoulder and get the fuck out of here before he could catch a secondary infection.Barring that, a hug would be nice.It had been too long since Joe touched him.
But he sucked it up and listened to the doctor’s instructions, asked his questions, took the printouts and the prescriptions, and finally wheeled Joe down to the elevator, accompanied by a nurse.
“I could walk,” Joe muttered, but Austin had seen the way he swayed on his feet in the three steps between the bed and the chair, and decided that was a poor idea.
“Liability issue,” said his nurse sweetly.“It’s not personal.”
Austin was fifty-fifty on whether the guy made that up, but Joe seemed to buy it, which was all that mattered.
The health-care supply store was a few blocks away.Austin ran the prescriptions over to the pharmacy across the street first, then went in to grab an actual oxygen tank—who knew you could get those for home use?—while the pharmacist worked on filling them.Joe stayed in the car.He might have better color, but he still looked like one of the kittens might take him out by accident.
Austin purposely didn’t look at the receipt when he handed his credit card over.That was a problem to deal with when the bill came.
Finally he got Joe and his new accessories home and was about to put him to bed when Joe said, “What’s that smell?”
Just… fuck.“Fucking cats,” Austin groaned.He grabbed a blanket and muscled Joe onto the couch instead.“One of them peed in there last night.I didn’t have time to get the smell out yet.”
He shot Linda a text before he started, just in case this was less an accident and more a sign of something wrong with one of the cats.God knew how he’d figure out which one.Smart money was Walker, but it could’ve been any of them.Dallas could be a little terror.He wouldn’t put it past her.
