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Instead, we went to Disneyland in San Diego, which was inarguably better than anything I could think of.
“Um, yeah. He just wanted to let me know that another good-looking part came across his desk, but he’ll get back to me with the details.” Drying my hands, I leaned against the counter by the sink to scan Katie’s incredible body, and I rubbed my jaw absently. “What about you? How was it today? Bad?”
“I don’t know what Audra expects me to say, honestly. She’s so mad that I didn’t invite her, but the fact of the matter is that she’s my employee. I feel like I relied on her so much these past twenty years... and I’ve told her several times that my personal life ismypersonal life, and if it’s not business-related, she needs to just not butt in. On that same token, though, I’ve never had a personal life before, so I’ve never kept anything from Audra.” Reaching to rub the back of my neck, I arched slightly in discomfort. I still wasn’t sure if trying to separate myself from Audra was good idea. “I just want to figure it all out for myself before other people get involved. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah. She’s been like your best friend for so long. It must really hurt her that you’re suddenly not telling her things and spending time with someone else. Even so..." Trailing off, Katie moved to dump the garlic into the pot on the stove, and the smells in the kitchen became more intense. She was a good cook, not exceptional, but that didn’t matter. Everything she made was better than edible, and I inhaled deeply to rest my head against the top cabinet. “It’s how a relationship normalizes, Brandon, and as much as I feel like I shouldn’t be saying it because we haven’t met, Audra’s an adult, and there’s no way that she tells you every little bit of her personal life. It seems a little hypocritical that she expects it of you.”
“Exactly.” Katie’s phone gave a shrill, insistent cry, and I pursed my lips as I pondered what she’d said. She had a point, as she usually did. Audra could be angry, but she didn’t invite me to her wedding, either.Granted, she got married at twenty, and we were both still navigating our roles.
Shaking my head furiously, I pushed back the rationale. We weren’t young anymore, and Audra needed to understand that I had a part of my life that didn’t involve her.
“Hey, Mason, you finally called me back. Are you okay? You ha—” Her concern was cut off, and Katie took her phone away from her ear to scrunch up her face. Whatever Mason was yelling at her for, I could hear but couldn’t make out, and I frowned deeply as she sighed sharply. “Okay, you can’t get mad at me for th—”
“Iknow.I know we had plans.” Narrowed blue eyes flickered to me, and I arched a brow in silent question as Katie pursed her lips and clenched her jaw. She didn’t talk about Mason much, and curiosity struck my chest when she rolled her eyes at whatever he’d said. “Don’t be like that. Things changed, right? Isn’t that what you always tell me? Adapt to a changing situation. I can’t—”
“You know, call me back when you haven’t been drinking, okay, Mason? We’ll talk wh—” Irritation swept through me when he cut her off again, and she paled a shade as her eyes widened in surprise. “No! Don’t do that! I told you, I’ll take care of it. He hung up on me.”
Holding her phone out to stare at the screen, Katie clenched her free hand by her side to let out a frustrated shriek. Setting her phone down hard on the counter, she leaned on tense arms, and I quietly debated crossing the short distance between us. The agitation rolling off her in waves dissuaded me, though. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but maybe that was for a reason.
From what Katie told me, Mason was a faded figure. She felt grateful to him for being there in her time of need, but she didn’t necessarily want to be around him.
“Ugh!Whatwas that jerk possibly expecting?” Whipping around, Katie stormed to the refrigerator to yank out a package of ground beef, and I knitted my brows. “I get it, he’s like a father figure to me, and I appreciate that... but how can he be mad that we had sex? Seriously! I’m twenty-five years old, for Christ’s sake. He’s always been kind of creepy like that, but I thought he’d get over it!”
“He tried to have sex with you?” Surprise and irritation darkened my tone, and my eyelid twitched when Katie scoffed harshly. Slamming the package on the counter, she all but stabbed it straight through before ripping the wrap off.
“No, but he’s tried to kiss me and stuff before, and I think he always held out the hope that I’d idolize him or something and confess my love and yada-yada-yada... but it’s like... no. Just no. I think I should go get my stuff tonight instead of tomorrow. He was really mad and really drunk. I don’t—” Clapping her hands over her mouth, Katie’s eyes widened as they met mine, and I straightened as prickles raced down my spine. Holding out a finger, she gulped furiously, and her palm slowly lowered before she took a big, stabilizing breath.
But that was obviously a mistake, and I barely had time to blink before she was hunched over the sink. The sound of Katie throwing up was almost alien, gyrating painfully against my ears, and my body jerked into action with no direction from my stunned mind. Grabbing her hair away from her face, I clenched my jaw hard against my own roiling stomach as she retched, and confusion fogged my brain.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay. It’s fine.” I didn’t know what to say as Katie panted harshly and spat, and I studiously avoiding glancing at the sink. Staring hard at the refrigerator, I held my breath and rubbed her back as it flexed furiously under my palm. “It’s okay.”
“I–I don’t... get it. I was just f–fine..." Dazed and raw, her words rang in my ears, and she slumped slightly as shivers raced through her and up my arm. “I think I should go to the doctor.”
ChapterTwenty-One
KATIE
Frowning deeply as I glared at the ceiling, I wrung my fingers high above my head while unfamiliar gloved hands prodded my abdomen.
“So, I’m going to take some blood just to be safe, so you can sit up, now, Katie.” Sitting up easily, I pulled down my shirt, and the female doctor patted my knee with a reassuring smile. “You’re not in danger of dying or anything. You have no fluid buildup or esophageal issues which could cause spontaneous vomiting. Hold out your arm for me, please.”
“How do you know it’s not a problem with, like, my intestines or something?” The doctor’s smile only widened, and she shook her head as she examined my arm.
“If it were intestinal, you wouldn’t be throwing up. You’d be in intense pain and have severe diarrhea. Thankfully for you, I had time to read over your medical files before you arrived, so I’m confident that whatever is wrong with you isn’t terminal. Most likely, the smell of raw ground beef just upset your stomach. Red meat has a lot more bacterial waste, which produces the distinct smell, and chicken has a relatively low chemical byproduct rate.”
“Oh... what does that even mean?” My dumb question filled my cheeks with heat, and I stared hard at my knees as she huffed a small laugh.
“Red meat smells more strongly than chicken. You’re going to feel a little pinch. I’ll send this downstairs, and you should have the results in less than an hour.” Surprise jerked my head up, and I winced when she slid the needle into my skin. Sucking in a sharp breath, I tore my gaze off it as wooziness invaded my skull, and Brandon spoke up for the first time. His worry was evident all over the place, but he managed to keep his voice stable. I knew he must’ve been thinking all sorts of crazy things, though.
“Another perk of having money... you don’t have to wait a week for results.” Casting him a weak smile, I only nodded, and Brandon sat on the edge of the bed to grab my hand and hold tight. “If Julia is confident you’re okay, then it’ll be fine. She’s a great doctor.”
“And you’re a great patient, Brandon. I’ll go get this downstairs, and I’ll be in when the results are ready.” And just like that, the doctor was gone in a whirl of her white coat, and I heaved a huge breath. Slumping against Brandon, I closed my eyes as my own terrible fears floated up from the bowels of my mind.
“This sucks. I hope it can be fixed with, like, antibiotics or something. I hope they take my insurance.” Stroking my hair, Brandon kissed my crown at my mumble as he wrapped his free arm securely around me. “Maybe I was so mad at Mason that the smell made me throw up.”
Thinking of that call less than an hour ago still boiled my blood, and I exhaled harshly through my nose. Mason was slurring, screaming at me, asking how could I actually sleep with Brandon? I was supposed to want to wait for marriage but never go through with it. I was supposed to give Brandon a pill somehow that would induce a heart attack, just as I’d done before.
But the difference was that Brandon wasn’t guilty of ruining my life, and I wasn’t going to kill him. Loving him aside, I couldn’t live with myself if I killed someone who didn’t deserve it. Those bastards whom I had gotten rid of were abusers, rapists, and womanizers. Mason was going to try to go after an innocent man, not because of any other reason than that we’d had sex. He was so angry on the phone that, alcohol aside, he could barely talk, and he was going to ‘finish this hit himself.’
