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Chase did say we were family. This is just what family does for one another.
“I can get home, Chase.”
He scrunches his forehead together, trying to figure out the next piece of his argument.
Suddenly, he swoops me up into his arms. I gasp and wrap my arms around his neck. “Chase!”
“I’m not letting my fiancé drive home when she’s unwell. You know what kind of shit I’ll get for that?”
From the standpoint that this is all part of the ruse, I guess I can’t argue with him. “Fine.”
Chase carries me in through a side entrance and up the grand staircase of the huge house. It’s been a while since I’ve been in these halls. When Caroline and I were little, we’d play hide and seek in all the various rooms. It felt like a dollhouse come to life. All the rooms, decorated in their own fancy way.
Chase chooses one of the rooms, seemingly at random, but I remember it as my favorite back in the day. Big bay windows look out at the backyard, a tremendous four-poster bed in the middle, and intricately detailed molding where the ceiling meets the walls.
He lays me gently on the floral bedspread. “You want a couple more pillows?”
“I can get the –”
Chase gathers the pillows before I can and slides them under my back and head. As he leans over me, I can smell his delicious cologne. Dark and sweet. Like amber and tobacco.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“What else? A heating pad? I’m sure Gram has one around here.”
I nearly refuse, but… Chase is offering to help. More than that, he seems eager to. I’ve never seen this side of him. The one so willing to provide ministry. “If you could, that’d be wonderful.”
“Of course,” he says. “Anything else?”
Well shit, might as well. “Some water, please. That’d be very helpful.”
Chase nods. “Be right back.”
He’s true to his word, not gone more than five minutes. A glass of water on the nightstand. The heating pad plugged into the wall. “I went ahead and told everyone you weren’t feeling well and that you needed some privacy.”
Privacy… from everyone except him. I wonder if people are thinking what a wonderful man he is to take care of me like this.
Because that’s what I’m thinking.
I’ve dealt with my illness for so long on my own. I’ve learned to take care of myself. Never been bitter about it. That’s life. We have to learn to be on our own. Not just to survive, but to reallylive.
It’s nice to have someone else see this part of me. Many people are too afraid of chronic illnesses to even look at them. But here Chase is, right by my side, trying to figure out all the ways he can help.
“Where do you want it?” Chase asks, holding out the blue heating pad.
“Right here,” I say, smoothing my hand over my stomach.
Carefully, Chase places it across my abdomen. “Too hot?”
“No, it’s good, that’s perfect,” I say, feeling an immediate relief. The pain doesn’t go away completely, but the heat takes the edge off.
“What else?” Chase asks.
I smile lazily. “Nothing else.”
“Do you want to be alone or… do you want me to stay?”
I hesitate. “I mean, what do you want to do?”
