prep her tea each morning…
But that was all before.
Now, as Uncle was seen by the doctor, I was in the billing department, ready to beg the surly woman behind the desk for a payment plan. My mind kept drifting back to what I’d left behind.
Lottie kissing Grayson. Lottie in his bedroom.
“Excuse me,” the woman snapped. “Name.”
“Oh, excuse me.” I shook the image out of my head. “I’m here to see if I can set up a payment plan for my uncle Woodson Hale.”
She typed his name into her computer, and my mind wandered again.
Grayson never allowed anyone in his bedroom…except me. How foolish was it to think that I could be the only girl when he had a real girl?
Did they sleep together?
“It’s all paid for.”
I stared, stunned, at the billing woman. “What do you mean it’s all paid for? By who?”
She didn’t even look up from her computer. “We can’t give that information out.”
“But…”
She slowly looked up at me, giving me the coldest glare. “Do you have more business?”
“I mean, no, I suppose not…”
When I got back to my uncle, he was eating a red Popsicle and sitting upright in a teal hospital chair. He had his trademark smile on, even in the face of death, but fear knotted my throat.
“Who is paying for your treatment?” I asked.
He slowly lowered his Popsicle. “I can’t tell you that, Story.”
A look crossed his face.
Shame.
I’d never seen the look on my uncle’s face before.
That told me everything I needed to know. Instead of clarifying, it made things murkier. Of course I meant nothing to Gray. It was only because he had a relationship with my uncle.
“I can pay,” I said. “It’s different now. We don’t have to take his money.”
You don’t.
“I’d like to leave you with something, Story,” he said, patting my hand.
Leave me.
I took a seat on a free chair beside him, mustering the courage to ask a question I really didn’t want the answer to.
“How long do you have? Really? Don’t lie to me.”
He exhaled. “A year, maybe two.”
A year.