Her coughing fit at four o’clock this morning startled the shit out of me. Surprisingly, it didn’t wake her up, but I watched as her body curled in on itself, her lungs sputtering with hacks and wheezes. Thankfully, it only lasted a couple of minutes because I was seconds away from waking her. I hated to do that though, since she hasn’t been sleeping well as it is and I knew that if I woke her up, she wouldn’t fall back asleep.
So here I am, watching her like some sort of lunatic stalker because I’m nervous and I need to reassure myself that she’s okay . . . that she’s still here. My phone buzzes on the nightstand and I grab it, wondering who in their right mind would be calling me at nearly seven o’clock in the morning. Mason’s name lights up my screen and almost instantly my heart starts pounding inside my chest. Mason doesn’t get up this early—let alone call me this early—so I answer it, knowing that something must be wrong. “What’s up, Mase?” As quietly as possible, I slip from the bed and walk into the kitchen, not wanting to disturb Laney.
“Brady called. Everything’s a go.” A rush of air pushes from my lungs and a stupid-ass smile overtakes my face.
“I seriously thought you were calling to tell me something bad happened, bro.” I spin around in a circle, running my hand over the top of my head, anxiously wanting to tell someone the good news. With everything that’s been going on, I forgot that Mason had called Brady and Mark to accept their offer to invest.
“I’m calling early because we have to head to Nashville to sign the contracts and okay the building they selected. We need to leave tomorrow.”
“I can’t, Mason. I can’t go tomorrow.” My mind starts racing as I think of everything I have to do, the most important of which is going with Laney to her chemo treatment tomorrow.
“Why the fuck not?” he growls.
“Laney has chemo tomorrow. I have to be there, Mase. Can we go on Saturday?” I ask hopefully, cringing when a string of profanity flies from Mason’s mouth. Several weeks ago, Laney and I sat down over dinner and told my brother about her cancer. It was a hard conversation to have, and not just because of the subject matter. Mason and Laney have always been close. She’s like a sister to him, and it tore him apart to hear what she’s been going through. Since that night, he’s been incredibly supportive of the both of us, covering for me when I’ve needed to be with her and understanding when she needs extra time off of work.
“Levi, listen.” A deep sigh passes through the phone and I plop down in a chair, my head landing in my hand. “I know how important it is for you to be there with Laney, but this is important too. This is our dream, Levi. Two days . . . we’ll be gone two days. Can’t Luke or Mia go just this once?”
Sitting up, I run a hand along the back of my neck as my eyes fall on a pile of envelopes stacked on the table. I know it’s none of my damn business, but I slide them toward me and pull out the papers inside, one by one. Doctor bill . . . doctor bill . . . overdue utility bill . . . doctor bill . . . credit card bill.
“Fuck,” I growl, slamming my hand down on the table.
“Jesus Christ, bro. If it’s that big of a deal, I’ll call them back and—”
“No,” I bark into the phone. “It’s not that. Listen, can I call you right back?”
“Yeah, sure,” Mason sighs then hangs up. I immediately pull up the calculator on my phone and start adding up what Laney owes. As the number gets higher, so does my blood pressure, and by the time I’m done, I’m absolutely fuming.
“Twelve thousand dollars,” I murmur, and these are only the bills sitting in front of me. I can’t imagine what others she might have floating around that I haven’t seen yet. My heart clenches in my chest at the thought of Laney struggling financially. She’s already been through so much, and on top of it she has to worry about these damn bills.
I toss the envelopes back on the table and tilt my head up to the ceiling, thinking about how I can help without pissing her off. It irritates me to no end that she didn’t tell me about this, but I can’t say I’m surprised—Laney is one of the most stubborn people I know.
I prop my elbows on the table and rub my thumbs over my eyes, frustration boiling up inside of me. My mind starts racing with all of the small things that I’ve noticed but stupidly ignored over the past couple of months. Like how she’d sometimes walk to and from work if the weather was nice. I never thought twice about it then, but now it makes me wonder if it was because she didn’t have enough money for gas. And all the times she would only eat half of her lunch at work and take the other half home for dinner. She’d said she wasn’t hungry, but now I’m not so sure.
“Shit,” I hiss.
“Levi?” Her soft voice startles me, and I look up to see Laney’s eyes flitting nervously across my face before drifting to the stack of bills scattered in front of me. “Were you going through my stuff?” she asks, furrowing her brow.
“What the fuck is this, Laney?” I snap, instantly regretting my harsh words. But this is important, damn it. She is mine, and she shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not she can a
fford to pay her bills.
“Those, Levi, are my bills. What the hell are you doing going through them?” She strides across the kitchen and snatches the envelopes off the table.
“Well shit, Lane. If you didn’t want me to look at them, you shouldn’t have just left them lying around. And frankly, I’m glad I looked at them.” She rolls her eyes and turns away from me, ticking me off even more. “How much debt are you in, Laney? Is this it, or is there more?” I ask, knowing I’m probably going to piss her off more than she already is.
She spins around, her mouth gaping wide, and she shoves a finger into my chest. “That is none of your damn business,” she growls.
“It is my business. You’re my business.” My phone buzzes on the table, but I ignore it. “You have almost twelve thousand dollars of bills, just in that stack,” I say, flicking the envelopes in her hand.
“I’m aware,” she grounds out, her teeth gritted together. Her bottom lip trembles and she steps away from me. The anger and annoyance on her face are quickly replaced by resignation and she looks down. Her shoulders rise and fall several times before she looks back up, and when those gorgeous hazel eyes find mine, they’re clouded in defeat and brimming with tears. “You don’t think I don’t know how much money I owe?” Her voice wavers, cracking several times, but my brave girl manages to hold herself together. Any ounce of anger I felt completely dissipates.
I step toward her but she shakes her head and shuffles backward, putting up her hand. I glance down at her hand then back at her face, and it slices me open to see her like this and know that I’m causing her pain. “You’re right,” she chokes out, tears dripping down her face. “This isn’t it. This is only about half.” She bats angrily at the tears. “But what the hell am I supposed to do, Levi?” she yells. “I don’t really have a choice in the matter. I have to see my doctors, and I have to have chemotherapy—”
“You should have told me,” I interrupt as softly as possible, wanting to calm her down. “You should have come to me.” I take another step toward her and pull the stack of envelopes from her hand, tossing them on the table. “I love you, Lane, and I don’t want you to have to worry about anything except beating this cancer.” A harsh cry rips from her throat and she buries her face in her hands. My arms wrap around her seconds before her body goes slack. “I don’t want you to have to worry about money or food or gas or doctor bills or the electricity. Christ, Laney . . . I want you to come to me.” I squeeze her tighter, which causes her body to shake harder than it already is. “I want to help you. You aren’t in this alone anymore—not any of it.”
“I just don’t want to burden you,” she sobs, hiccupping back tears as she pulls away from my chest. Her face is red, her eyes are puffy and her nose is clogged, but she still looks so damn cute. “I don’t want you to feel like this is your responsibility—”
I stop her words by placing a finger against her mouth. “First, I don’t feel burdened. Second, you are my responsibility; I just need to get you to see that. I want to take care of you, Lane.” She offers me a wobbly smile, making me chuckle. “I’m in this, for better or worse. I want forever with you, Laney, and that forever started the second you drove back into town.”