CHAPTER THIRTEEN

I guess it was bound to happen eventually, but I still wasn’t prepared when it did.

Thirteen days after Eva’s Labor Day party—a.k.a. the night Mason Lowe almost kissed me mouth to mouth and thereafter totally abandoned me—Sarah had her first seizure. Well, her first one around me, anyway.

Yeah, I totally freaked.

One second, I was assisting my little buddy in the bathtub, making her giggle over the corniest knock-knock jokes on the planet. The next she was lurching from her bathing chair, her entire body convulsing. It was a miracle I caught her slippery, wet torso before she took a serious nosedive.

“Sarah?” I screamed. “Oh, God. What’s wrong? What’s wrong, baby?”

She couldn’t answer me. I had to clutch her tight so she didn’t shake right out of my arms. It took me a bit to work through the panic and realize what was happening. But it didn’t reassure me in the least once I did.

A seizure.

But, oh, holy shit. A freaking ~seizure~.

My mind went blank; I couldn’t remember one thing Dawn had told me about seizures except there was nothing to do to stop them. Oh, and I had to make sure she didn’t hurt herself in the middle of one.

Since the bathroom seemed too confined and suddenly hella dangerous, I half carried, half dragged her into the hallway.

Laying her contorted body on the carpet, I knelt beside her and stroked her shoulder once before dashing into the bathroom to grab all the towels I could see.

After covering her, I stepped back and burst into tears. Biting my knuckles to hold in my sobs, I tore down the hall and into the kitchen to scramble for my phone in my purse. I snatched the emergency contact list off the fridge in the next breath.

I was only gone from her for about three seconds, but it felt way too long by the time I returned, falling to my knees at her side.

Almost expecting to see foam spewing from her mouth as if she’d turned rabid, I wiped wet clumps of hair out of her face and clutched my phone with my free hand.

Dawn didn’t answer her cell within four rings—and I swear these were the four longest freaking rings of my life. I think I had about three mini heart attacks between each one.

I couldn’t handle waiting for a fifth, so I disconnected and found the next number in line on the contact list. Mason’s cell phone. My fingers shook so badly and my brain was so overloaded with fear, I knew I had to be punching in the wrong digits, but I continued jabbing until a ring echoed into my ear.

I wiped a buttload of tears off my cheeks and listened to the echoing silence after the first ring. I could count each heartbeat as it pounded in my chest. God, if he was with a client right now, I was going to kill him.

Just as the second ring started, he answered, and I swear, his voice had never sounded so wonderful.

“Mason, I need you; I don’t know what to do.” I rushed out the words, making one long, breathless, run-on sentence. “Sarah’s having a seizure, and I don’t know what to do. She won’t stop shaking, and Dawn’s not answering her phone. I’m so freaked out right now. I don’t know what to do.”

Had I mentioned that I didn’t know what to do?

Mason didn’t answer immediately. After a painfully long pause, he said, “Reese?”

Oh, my God! There was no time for ~introductions~. “Yes!” I screamed in a frustrated, get-with-the-program-already kind of way. “Who the hell do you think it is? Did you hear me? I said your sister’s having a seizure.”

“Yeah, okay. I heard. I think. Just…first of all, calm down.”

Calm down? ~Calm down?~ Was he mental? This was not a time to calm down.

“You can’t help her if you’re flipping out.”

Shit. His steady, grounding tone trickled past the panic and somehow found the only rational section of my brain. I blew out as calming a breath as I could manage.

“Did you get her out of her wheelchair?” he asked. “Is she lying down?”

I nodded. “Yes. We’re on the floor in the hall. I was giving her a bath when—”

“Good,” he butted in, obviously not needing details. “Keep her there and just stay with her. Talk to her. Let her know she’s not alone. I’ll be home in a minute.”

“Do I call for an ambulance?”

“Is she turning blue or changing any color?”

“No.”

“Not yet, then. This is fairly typical, but I’ll know more when I get there.”

“Okay. Okay.” I clutched the phone gratefully. “Hurry.”

“I will.”

He hung up before I could thank him. And I really, really wanted to thank him for being there and answering my call.

But…later.

Tossing my phone aside, I crawled to Sarah and held her hand, stroking the back of her knuckles where her curled, contorted wrist seemed to wrap around my fingers, begging for help.

“It’s okay, honey,” I cooed. “It’s okay. Reese is here. And Mason’s coming.” Sniffing, I didn’t even wince when I bumped the still tender area around my nose ring when I wiped the back of my hand across my face.

For some reason, I remembered something I’d heard once about epileptic people and how you had to make sure they didn’t swallow their tongue during a seizure. I tried to look into Sarah’s mouth, but her jaw was clamped tight. She didn’t appear to be choking, so I prayed she hadn’t swallowed anything that wasn’t supposed to be swallowed. A trail of drool seeped from the corner of her pressed lips. I wiped it away, figuring no girl would want to be caught drooling, especially if the paramedics who might need to come save her were as sexy as hell.

Then a breath later, she fell still and went catatonic.

“Sarah?”

She didn’t respond. Her eyes were open but they stared sightlessly. My level of scared rose to a whole new level. I checked for a pulse and when I found one, I began to cry even harder. The relief was more than I could handle.

“Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Please be okay, little buddy.”

I didn’t know if unconsciousness was common after a seizure, but I didn’t want to call Mason again; I wanted him to concentrate on the road so he could drive as fast as possible to get here.

Since Sarah was no longer juddering about, I hurried into the bathroom and collected her nightclothes. If I were her, I wouldn’t want everyone to see me in my birthday suit while I was out cold.

With her being wet and unconscious, it took me three times as long as it usually did to dress her. My fumbling fingers, which wouldn’t stop shaking, didn’t help matters. And it was impossible to see clearly through all the tears that kept falling and blurring my vision.

I’d just pulled her shirt on over her head when the front door flew open.

“Reese?”

I wiped my nose with a trembling hand and sniffed. “We’re here.”

Mason appeared in the hallway.

“I was just getting her nightclothes on,” I explained needlessly as I smoothed Sarah’s shirt down her torso. “She passed out. I didn’t know if that was normal.”

He knelt beside us and pressed two fingers to her throat. “Sometimes. How long has she been like this?”

“Umm.” I shook my head. “A few minutes. Three. Four.” I looked at him. He was wearing his Country Club valet uniform. “You got here fast.”

His glanced up. “You sounded pretty shaken.”

I was ~still~ shaken. “How…how long will she be like this?”

“Not much longer. So you need to keep it together, okay. If she sees you upset, she’s going to get upset too. We don’t need anything triggering another episode.” His gaze was steady but determined. “Think you can do that?”

No, absolutely not. I wanted to keep bawling my eyes out, curl into a fetal ball, and call my mommy while drinking hot cocoa and stroking my childhood blankie.

But, I nodded and stopped wringing my hands to wipe all the wetness off my cheeks. If it helped my little buddy, I’d do whatever I had to.

Mason’s eyes softened. Voice low and soothing, he said, “Good. She’ll probably need a drink when she wakes up.”

“Okay.” I began to stand. “I’ll get her some water.”

But he grasped my wrist, his grip gentle. When I paused to look at him, I was shocked by the concern in his gaze—as if he was concerned about ~me~. “I’ll get it.” After urging me back down to return to Sarah’s side, he stood and loped down the hall.

Sarah’s lashes fluttered just as he returned.

“Hey,” Mason murmured as he rejoined us on the floor. “Welcome back, kiddo. You had a little spell there, but you’re okay now.”

He helped her sit up and propped her back against his chest as he held the cup to her mouth and tipped it just enough to give her a drink.

Smacking her hydrated lips, Sarah gazed around in a daze. When she saw me, she reached out her hand.

It took everything I had not to burst into tears all over again. Taking her fingers, I moved close until my knee bumped Mason’s. “I guess my knock-knock jokes were just too funny, huh?”

She grinned and said, “Knock-knock,” in her precious, throaty voice.

“Who’s there?” I returned, squeezing her fingers tight.

“Boo,” she answered.

Together Mason and I said, “Boo who?”

Sarah thought this was hilarious and began to cackle. She was so busy laughing she couldn’t even finish the joke to ask us why we were crying.

Every muscle in my body clenched, afraid she’d laugh herself into another seizure.

But Mason chuckled right along with her as he hefted her into his arms. “Let’s get you into bed, kiddo. We’re missing out on some valuable ~Harry Potter~ story time.”

“Well, we can’t have that.” I followed them into Sarah’s room and pulled back the blankets for Mason to place her on the mattress. After the first night I’d delivered the book to her, I hadn’t read any of the series with Sarah, because it seemed like an infringement on her and Mason’s special time. But tonight, I sat on the opposite side of her as him while he cracked open ~The Chamber of Secrets~ and started chapter seven.

Her attack must’ve worn her out, though, because she fell asleep before learning Draco was the new seeker for Slytherin. She didn’t even wish us a good night or demand hugs and kisses as she usually did. Her lashes merely fluttered closed and she was breathing heavily.

Mason’s deep, lulling voice fell quiet when he glanced at her. Then he looked at me across the bed. My chin trembled. More tears filled my eyes. The urge to fling myself into his arms and weep actually made my limbs feel stiff and sore.

Slowly, he closed the book. After setting it on the nightstand, he kissed Sarah’s forehead and slid off the mattress. I fussed over her a moment longer, making sure the blankets were secure and tucked in tight before I pressed my lips to her sweet, soft cheek.

“’Night, little buddy. I love you. So much.”

Mason was waiting for me in the hall. “Are you okay?” he asked as soon as I closed Sarah’s door behind me and turned to face him.

I snorted and wiped at my eyes before hugging myself. “I’m not the one who just had a seizure.”

He shook his head. “Don’t worry about her. She’s going to be fine.” Taking my hand, he started to lead me down the hallway toward the kitchen. “Come on. Let’s get you a drink.”

But I resisted. “I need to clean up the bathroom. I think there’s still water in the tub and the towels are everywhere and...” Thank God, we’d already rinsed the soap out of Sarah’s hair before her attack had started.

“Don’t worry about that either. I’ll clean the bathroom later. Just…come and sit down for a second. You look like you need to get off your feet.”

A break did sound tempting, preferably one in the Bahamas while I was stretched out on a beach towel, watching an amazing sunset off an ocean view while a shirtless Mason served me a piña colada with a tiny umbrella in it, shish-kebobbing a stack of rum-soaked fruit.

I blinked at him to realize he’d ushered me into the dimly lit kitchen. Instead of a colorful sunset, I saw a stack of dirty dishes sitting by the sink. Mason was most definitely not shirtless—grr—and the cup he thrust at me was full of drab, boring ice water.

Feeling ancient all of the sudden, I eyed the glass without taking it. I couldn’t drink right now if a masked gunman held a pistol to my temple and told me to swallow or die.

My gaze sought Mason’s desperately. I was still terrified for Sarah’s sake. “Are you sure she’s going to be okay?”

He stared at me before shaking his head. Then his lips tilted into a soft smile, and the skin around his eyes crinkled with amusement. “You know, your eyes look really big and blue when you’ve been crying.”

My mouth fell open. “How can you possibly think about ~eyes~ at a time like this? Your sister just—”

“Shh.” After setting the cup of water on the table, Mason took my hand and pulled me to my feet. “Come here.”

He tugged me to him, and I sank against his chest, clutching his shirt hard as I balled my hands into fists. Burying my face in his shoulder and seeking comfort, I held on to him for dear life. My eyes watered some more when my sore nose bumped against his collar bone, but I didn’t care. This was heaven. He rubbed my back and pressed his cheek to my temple, giving me exactly what I needed.

“She’s going to be fine,” he reassured me for a second time. “She ~is~ fine.”

“How do you know?” I looked up and saw blue and yellow flecks in his silver irises. They were exquisite, like reflections of the beauty within were sparkling through a magnificent stained-glass window.

His lips twitched. “Well. I have this theory. If you love someone enough, you can make them invincible. Like your feelings for them are so strong they work as a magical shield, protecting them from all harm and pain.”

I sniffed. “Like the protective spell Harry’s mom used to save his life from Voldemort? Her love protected him.”

Mason chuckled and kissed my nose. “Yeah. Kind of exactly like that.”

“I like that theory.” I lowered my head to rest my cheek back against his shoulder. “I wish it were really true.”

Lips brushed my temple as Mason blew out a shuddered breath. “Yeah. So do I.” His voice was hoarse with emotion as his arms tightened around me, forming a protective shell as if he wanted to protect ~me~ from all harm and pain.

I closed my eyes, soaking up the comforting warmth emanating off him. We stood there in his mother’s kitchen, embracing forever. I grew drowsy and languid. I was so drained I might have even dozed off.

“Thank you so much for coming home,” I slurred against his chest, even more sedated by his drugging smell. He gave off some kind of clean musk that made me breathe in deeper, falling further into a tranquilized state.

“Why wouldn’t I?” He stroked my hair, just like my mom used to do to put me to sleep after I’d had a nightmare when I was young.

God, he was trying to knock me unconscious, wasn’t he?

Oh, well. That was okay. I’d totally let him.

“I don’t know,” I murmured. “I was…I was worried you were busy. With a woman.”

As if throwing a bucket of arctic ice water all over both of us, my question broke the spell.

Mason tensed and dropped his hand from my hair. “No.” His voice went hard. Abrupt. “I don’t get off work at the club until after eleven. I was still there.”

“Oh.” I lifted my face, but his eyes were averted. “Well, thank you anyway. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t calmed me down.”

He stepped back. And every place he’d been pressing against me—warming me—turned cold and bereft from his sudden absence. “You handled it just fine,” he said, though he even sounded cold. “You found a safe place for her and got help. There’s not much else to do when she’s having an episode.”

I studied the side of his face. He couldn’t even look at me since I’d brought up his job.

Sick and tired of being evaded like this for the past thirteen most miserable days of my life, I said, “I’ve missed you.”

I know how pathetic I sounded. Any woman who admits that to a guy who’s been avoiding her might as well just tear her heart from her chest and hand it over to him, begging, ~“Here, please stomp all over this and rip it into little bitty pieces for me, will you? Thanks.”~

But I couldn’t help it. The words just spilled out. I ~had~ missed him. Too damn much. It wasn’t healthy to miss anyone the way I’d missed him.

He darted a quick glance at me, furrowing his brows as if my comment confused him. “I haven’t gone anywhere.” But he wasn’t fooling me. I saw the guilt and the misery in his stormy eyes before he turned away.

“You know what I mean,” I muttered, crossing my arms over my chest because I felt too exposed. “I thought we were ~friends~.”

He whirled back. “We are.” This time, his confusion was genuine.

“Oh, really?” I cocked my hip and lifted an eyebrow. “Well, friends don’t avoid friends. You’ve been avoiding me. On purpose. I still sit at the exact same table every day for lunch. And we still keep getting calculus assignments to work on.”

“I know,” he broke in with a tortured wince as he blew out a breath. “I know. I just…” Closing his eyes, he bowed his head and squeezed the bridge of his nose before looking up again. “We got a little too close that night. I still want to be your friend, Reese. I ~will~ be your friend. I just…I need some time and space to control my…my horny guy urges.”

He thought we’d gotten too close?

My curiosity was killing me to find out exactly in what way he thought we’d gotten close. The horny-guy-urges comment—which, I loved by the way; I might have to steal that phrase soon—made me think maybe he was only talking about sex. But the depth of feeling in his gaze said it was more than that. It said something so much deeper than a little physical interaction.

I wondered if the boy had just confessed he’d fallen for me.

My heart gave a happy lurch, almost pounding its way through my ribcage.

Needing to taunt him, just a little, I stepped forward, coming so close to him I’m sure he could feel my breath on his face.

He stumbled back until his spine hit the wall. And when I kept closing in, he exhaled, his entire body tensing. I finally stopped with a bare inch of space between us. That familiar inch was always keeping us apart.

“Jesus,” he breathed.

“So you thought we got too close, huh?”

His gaze fell to my mouth, and he appeared completely unable to look away. With a vacant nod, he murmured, “Yes.”

“I see.” I made myself stare at his chin, since it seemed like the least likely thing to turn me on, even though the dimple there was a total turn on. “And you haven’t had enough time or space to control those pesky urges yet?”

He gulped. I was so close I could actually hear the swallow shift down his throat. “Not…quite…yet.” Damn, he sounded sexy when he was breathless.

I made a sympathetic sound. “Gee, I’m sorry to hear that.” Even though, I totally wasn’t. I loved knowing I turned him on. I tapped on his dimple playfully. “Make sure to let me know when they’re gone. Okay? I’m ready to have my friend back.”

He reached out and took hold of the edge of the kitchen counter as if he needed to grab on to something to keep from reaching for me. Shaking his head, he let out a breath. “You are so evil. If I didn’t like you so much, I’d take you right now.”

Sweet Baby Jesus. Talk about turning my panties to mush.

The euphoria that surged through my veins was unreal. The first time I’d seen Mason Lowe, he’d been like this mythical, totally inaccessible erotic beast I probably wasn’t even fit to stare at. To be standing so close to him, actually turning him on, was so unreal and amazing I wanted to dance, and scream, and burst with joy.

“Really?” I said. “How?”

Heat flared in his expression. “Probably hard and fast against this wall.”

“Hmm.” I bit my lip, trying not to react. But I stared at the wall behind him, picturing it…vividly. “That sounds…fun.” And wow, it really kind of did.

But he ~was~ my friend, and I’d probably tortured him enough for one night. I managed a friendly grin. “I guess since we’re friends and you’re not going to take me, I’ll give you that time and space you need then.”

I took a step back, and then a few more, retreating until the air in his lungs hissed out as he wilted his shoulders.

Shaking his head, he murmured, “Evil, evil, evil.”

As he rested his butt against the side of the counter, looking drained, I shrugged. “Would you ~really~ have given me a freebie just now?”

He glanced up, his eyes swirling. “Just say the word.”

Hot damn.

My grin stretched wide, loving the power I wielded. I could actually make the unbendable Mason Lowe break one of his sacred rules and give a girl a freebie. “Cool,” I admitted. Scooping up my purse from the table, I remembered I’d left my phone on the floor in the hallway.

“My phone,” I told him before I disappeared for a second. When I returned with it, he’d slunk to the table and was sitting in a chair with his elbows resting on the tabletop and his face cradled in his trembling hands.

Tucking my phone away, I said, “I guess I’ll see you around then.”

When I slung my purse strap over my shoulder, he lifted his weary gaze. “Are you seriously going to walk out of here right now after I just confessed my soul to you, cool as a cucumber, without reciprocating ~at all~?”

“What?” I sent him a blank look. Then I rolled my eyes and reached out to ruffle his amazing hair. “Mason Lowe, if you don’t know by now that I’m attracted as hell to you, you’re freaking blind.”

He stared at me a moment before muttering, “There. Was that so hard to admit?”

I stuck out my tongue and started for the door. “Good night, Hotness.”

“’Night, Reese.” I heard his much softer response as I slipped into the warm night.

I stood with my back to the closed door and my hand pressed over my heart for a solid minute. Crap, but that had taken all the willpower I possessed to act blasé and leave with my head up. I still wanted to rush back inside and get myself that hard-and-fast-against-the-wall freebie. I would love to take anything I could get from Mason, just so I could spend more time with him.

Shaken to the core, I finally staggered to my car. Usually, I was more alert when I was alone outside at night. But I was so worried about Sarah and still utterly bowled over by Mason’s admission, I didn’t see the woman until she spoke.

“Nice night, isn’t it?”

I screamed and dropped my purse.

A middle-age female stepped from the shadows in the neighbor’s yard and strolled toward me, the heels of her shoes clicking against the drive. “Sorry about that, darling. Didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s okay.” I bent and scrambled for my purse, hoping I hadn’t spilled any of the contents, because there was no way to find them in the dark. “You just”—I gave a nervous laugh—“totally scared the living shit out of me. No biggie.”

She laughed too, but it was husky and amused, not the least bit on edge like mine. She lifted a cigarette to her lips, the red glow from the butt brightening as she inhaled. “You seem a little preoccupied.”

“Oh.” I cursed myself. Not paying attention to my surroundings could land me in a heap of trouble. I needed to be more careful. If Jeremy ever found me—

Well, I didn’t want to think about that scenario.

“Yeah,” I told the woman. “You could say that.” Or she could say preoccupied was a huge understatement. Whatever. “It’s been a…wild night.”

“Hmm.” She took another drag. I couldn’t make out much of her appearance through the dark, but I sensed her watching me as if she had night vision and could dissect every detail.

That’s exactly what it felt like, anyway: a dissection.

“Are you a friend of Mason’s?” she finally asked.

“What?” Rattled by the question, I shook my head. “No. I mean…” I flushed and flailed my hand, not sure how to answer. “I guess so.” I didn’t know what we were anymore. “I’m Sarah’s babysitter,” I explained.

“Ah.” Her knowing voice said that answered everything. “The replacement for Ashley.”

Since I remembered Dawn calling Sarah’s former evening sitter Ashley, I nodded. “Right. Are you Mrs. Arnosta’s neighbor?”

Shifting my weight from one foot to the other, I managed a tight smile, though I was sure she couldn’t see it in the dark. I didn’t really want to stand out here all night, talking to her. But she was in no hurry to let me go.

“I’m Patricia Garrison,” she said. “Dawn and Mason’s landlady.”

“Oh.” The way she totally left Sarah out of that equation irritated me. I mean, seriously. Why mention Mason and forget his sister?

Rude much?

“Are you a student?” Mrs. Garrison asked, fishing a little too deeply for my taste.

Not wanting to upset the woman who owned Dawn, Sarah, and Mason’s home, I nodded. “Yeah. I attend Waterford.”

“With Mason,” she added.

Wow, she certainly liked to bring him up. That was kind of…really creepy.

“Umm…I guess,” I hedged. “We don’t have any classes together, though.”

“I see.”

I had no idea what she really saw. The entire conversation was growing way beyond my scope of understanding, so I shifted closer to my driver’s side door and found my car keys. “Well, it was nice to meet you.” I waved and smiled again.

“You too, Reese. Have a nice night.”

I didn’t realize until I was halfway home that she’d called me Reese, and I’d never told her my name.