“Why doesn’t it surprise me that you’re already awake? It’s your last day before school starts back up; you should be sleeping in.”

“Hello to you too, Mama.”

“How’s my boy?”

“All right. Hey, Ma, I need your help on something. Cassidy’s burning up, and I don’t know what I should do. I’m on my way to get a thermometer, but is there anything I should buy . . . like food, drinks, or medicine?”

“Cassidy?” She couldn’t hide her surprise in that one word. “Shouldn’t Tyler be helping her if she isn’t feeling well?”

“Uh . . . long story short?”

“Sure.” She sighed, letting me know I’d have to give her the full version later.

“He brought home another girl and kicked Cassidy out last night.”

“He what?! Are you sure?”

“Ma, yes. I’m sure. I even asked him myself. But that’s not the worst part. He locked her out without her phone or keys or anything and she ended up walking to my place. It was sleeting really bad and she was in her pajamas; she didn’t have a jacket or anything.”

“Oh, that poor girl. Is she okay? You said she’s burning up?”

“Yeah.” I blew out a deep breath and tapped my thumb on the steering wheel furiously until the light turned green again. “She’s in sweats and I cranked the heater up really high last night. She said she’s cold but she’s bright red and really, really hot.”

“Just get the thermometer for now, and some NyQuil. Call me back after you’ve taken her temperature.”

“All right, thanks, Mama, love you.”

“I love you too. Bye-bye now.”

I ran into the drugstore and got the most expensive thermometer I could find and a few bottles of NyQuil before heading back to the house. I’d only been away from Cassidy for maybe twenty-five minutes, and there was no doubt she was worse than when I’d left. I could feel the heat emanating from her skin and she was shaking again.

“Cass, wake up, let’s take your temp.”

She groaned and pulled both comforters up to her cheeks.

I continued trying to wake her up while I tore open the box. She finally nodded when I showed her the thermometer and I slipped it into her mouth. While I waited, I touched her cheeks and forehead and had to stifle the urge to yell at the damn thing to hurry up. I’m pretty sure the people who made the thing laughed at being able to torture people with the wait. Not able to sit there doing nothing, I called Mama again and told her about the changes. If I’d thought she was hot earlier, she was on fire now. Finally the stupid torture device from hell beeped and I gently but swiftly took it from Cassidy’s mouth.

“Shit, that’s high,” I breathed.

“Gage Michael Carson!”

It took me a second to realize what happened. “Sorry, ma’am, but it says one-oh-five-point-two. What should I do?”

“Take her to the hospital right now. If she stays at that temperature for too long she can start having seizures or go into a coma.”

What?! “Okay, I’ll talk to you later.”

“Call me as soon as the doctor tells you anything, you hear me? I want to know immediately.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I hung up and scooped Cassidy in my arms; she’d already fallen back asleep and didn’t so much as move until after I already had her in the ER. And then it was only to start shaking uncontrollably, and I wished I would have thought to bring one of the comforters with me, or at the very least put the sweatpants back on her. I’d never had to take care of someone, and I felt like I was doing a fucking awesome job . . .

I LOOKED UP when I felt a hand on my back and smiled softly. “I really do appreciate you being here, Ma. I didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing.” I raked a hand through my hair and sighed when I looked back over to Cassidy, who was asleep in my bed. “Obviously.”

“Hush. You did everything you could.”

“If I would have just taken her as soon as she got here—”

“She would have had pneumonia either way, Gage. She was out in that weather without the right clothes and had wet hair. You can’t blame yourself. Tyler, on the other hand . . .”

“God, I want to punch him again.”

“For once,” she said with a sigh, “I wouldn’t try to stop you.”

Cassidy rolled over and I stopped breathing for a moment so I could listen to her soft, rhythmic breaths. She’d been back at my house for two days now after four days of monitoring in the hospital to make sure she was on the mend. Mama had left the cooking and cleaning at the ranch to my middle sister, Nikki, and had rushed to Austin as soon as I told her that the doctor said Cass had pneumonia. She refused to let me miss my classes, and if I couldn’t be sitting next to Cassidy, at least I felt better knowing Mama was there with her instead of Tyler. Who, by the way, had shown up at the hospital while I was in class and, after a verbal beating from my mom, left and had only tried to make contact by phone. Thankfully Cassidy hadn’t wanted to talk to him, not that I would have let him talk to her anyway.

Mama had been great though. She’d been cooking for us and taking care of Cass in a way only a mother could. I could see Cassidy didn’t handle being taken care of in that way very well at first, but with how weak she was, she didn’t have much of a choice and I knew she now loved having a mother figure looking after her for the first time in years. Mom was sleeping in the guest room, so naturally I put Cassidy in my room, and honestly I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Technically, I’d been sleeping on the bigger couch, but I always ended up sitting in a chair next to the bed so I could make sure her breathing stayed normal. Or at least, that’s what I’d been telling myself. Cassidy was the only one who believed that. That knowing smile Mama gave me every time she saw me in there let me know she wasn’t fooled; she knew I just wanted to be near her. There I went, being fucking creepy again.

“Come talk to me, Gage,” Mom whispered over her shoulder as she made her way out of my room.

I stood up and stretched before bending over the bed and pressing my lips to Cassidy’s forehead. She looked and felt so much better, I had no doubt she’d be trying to get out of the bed and back to work on Monday. I choked on a laugh on my way out to the kitchen, thinking about how cute Cassidy got when she tried to get her way, but there was no way in hell I was letting her out of that bed for at least another week. “Yes, ma’am?”

“I just wanted to see how you’re doing with all of this.”

“I’m fine.” My brow furrowed. “Why?”

“I meant, how are you with Cassidy being here? After they visited this summer, and over winter break, you were just so . . . I don’t know. Heartbroken? And now she’s here after there was trouble between her and Tyler. I just want to make sure you don’t get hurt again, son.”

“Yeah, I understand. I don’t know what to make of a lot of this. I was—am still messed up over the whole thing, but I can’t stop . . . I’m still in love with her.”

“I know you are.”

“I’ve tried getting over her, Mom”—Mama didn’t know exactly how I’d tried to get over Cassidy, but that was something that was better left unknown to anyone other than myself and the girls I had been with—“and I’ve tried to figure out why she would do certain things . . . there has to be something I’m missing. Cassidy’s not the type of girl to purposefully hurt someone, and if I didn’t know her as well as I do, I wouldn’t see that she was hurt too. For some reason, I found myself apologizing to her after I got back this summer. She was so mad that I left, and even though she tried to hide it, I knew she was upset. And then . . . I don’t know. Maybe I’m just making myself think all this is happenin’.”

“Well, I’m not so sure about that. You only have to be in the room with the two of you to know there’s something there. She looks at you like—well, anyway. Just be careful. Whether she’s doing it on purpose or not, you’ve been hurt by her too many times already.”

Not like I needed that reminder. But she was right. I knew if I kept reading too much into her running to me, something would bring me crashing back down to reality and I’d end up even more pissed off than the last few times that had happened.

She began to say something, then hesitated and opened the fridge and freezer to browse.

“Might as well just say it, Mama.”

“Are you sure it’s the best idea to have her living here with you? Don’t get me wrong, sweetheart, I absolutely adore that girl. But with all that’s happened, you really think you should be doing this?”

“Yes.” I didn’t even hesitate. “I’m sure and I do.”

“All right.” She raised her hands, palms facing me. “All right, I got you. Just making sure,” she added with a wink.

Chapter Ten

CASSIDY

I WAS JUST rinsing out my mug in the sink when there was a hard knock on the door. It was only six thirty in the morning, for crying out loud; who was crazy enough to go around waking people up this early? Not that we weren’t awake. Gage had come to check on me before he left for his run not long ago and I hadn’t been able to go back to sleep. I tiptoed over to the door and looked out the peephole.

“What the hell?”

He knocked again, and even though I was watching him, the loud sound made me jump back.

“What do you want, Ty?” I practically growled as I swung open the door but stood in the doorway so he couldn’t come in.

“God, Cassi, I’ve been going out of my mind. How are you? Are you feeling okay?” He reached his hand out toward my face and I smacked it away.

“I’m fine. Why are you here?”

“Baby, I’m so sorry. You have no idea how sorry I am. Please let me in so we can talk about what happened.”