With Every Heartbeat

“Because I won’t be home tonight. Or the rest of the weekend. Quinn and I are going away someplace special together.” She smiled saucily and wiggled her eyebrows. “I got it yesterday at my...treatment and forgot to get it to you last night before I went out, but your first test starts Monday, so...you need it now.”

I nodded, ignoring the pang in my chest at thinking of her and Quinn someplace alone and romantic together...all weekend—

“Wait.” I shook my head, confused. “What about your Saturday dialysis treatment?”

Cora gritted her teeth at me, probably upset that I’d said that word aloud in public, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want her to miss an appointment because she was going to be with someone who didn’t know what was happening to her.

“Will you relax? I can get away for a couple hours for shopping and a spa or something.”

Four or five hours was way longer than a few. I didn’t see how she could hide something like that from him all weekend long. I wondered if she even planned on attending the treatment.

Missing them had to be dangerous. They cleaned out her kidneys. If her kidneys stopped working, she’d die.

I remembered the call I’d overheard her making with her dad last night before she left for the evening. When she’d assured him the nurse he’d hired to help her out was still doing a fine job, I’d turned from the supper I was making at the stove and watched her tell Mr. Wilder she loved him before hanging up.

“What nurse?” I asked, taking the grilled salmon off the skillet and sliding it onto a plate.

“The nurse I paid to tell my dad she was keeping an eye on me.” She snagged the plate I’d just filled and moved to the table to start eating. “Seriously, you don’t think my parents let me live here alone with failing kidneys without making sure someone was looking out for me, did you?”

“But...” I filled my own plate. “Why don’t you just let the nurse do her job, then?”

“Because she annoyed the shit out of me.” Cora hummed in pleasure deep in her throat as she took her first bite. “Fantastic,” she told me with her mouth full.

I smiled vaguely and sat across from her. I had stopped telling her which foods were healthiest for her to eat in her condition. Instead, I just fixed them, without saying anything, and let her dig in. As long as something tasted good, she didn’t care how good it was for her.

Staring at her now, I wondered who’d watch her diet all weekend long. Maybe there was a way to tell Quinn what to make sure she ate without telling him why. More misery filled me as I realized he hadn’t once mentioned his plans with her this weekend in class.

“Hey, guys.” A male voice from behind us made me jump and spin around.

Noel Gamble gave us a friendly smile as he bounded down the steps of the library with his thumbs tucked into the straps of his book bag he had slung over his shoulders.

“How’s it going?”

“Oh, it’s you.” Cora lifted her nose and turned slightly away from him. “Hello again.” Ever since she’d learned he was dating his ex-teacher, she’d been very anti-Noel Gamble.

He nodded to her and turned to me. “Zoey. You should come by the house sometime and hang out with Caroline. She talks about you all the time.”

Flattered by the invitation, I opened my mouth to thank him, but Cora sniffed, interrupting me. Both Noel and I glanced at her, then he returned his attention to me.

“So, anyway. I was wondering...” He glanced at Cora again, before sending me a big smile. “You don’t happen to know the name of that baseball player who had the picture of my girlfriend on his phone, do you?”

My eyes widened, and my heartbeat echoed through my ears. Oh, man. But I never thought he’d try to pry that name out of me. I knew my eyes were big with fear and my face frozen with shock as I shook my head slowly, but I couldn’t help it. I hated outright lying to people.

He narrowed his eyes slightly, and I knew he knew that I knew.

“You mean Cain Belcher?” Cora asked, turning back to us with interest.

Noel swung to her. “Cain Belcher?” he repeated.

I closed my eyes, wishing I could gag my roommate right about then. Didn’t she know Quinn did not want Noel getting that name?

When I opened my lashes, I found him studying me before he turned back to Cora. “Shorter, stocky, light-headed kid with the scar on his chin, right? That Cain Belcher?”

“Yeah,” Cora agreed. “That guy.”

“Right,” Noel murmured, his grin transforming into a fierce snarl. Then he stepped back and nodded to us. “Thank you, ladies.” And he was off, marching across the campus.