“Can we just stay here for the rest of the day?” I asked, curling my body into his as Jayce popped the top on my soda and handed it to me. “After I stopped by the hospital this morning I started feeling better, but it’s back.”
“Tired?” Jayce asked, and I nodded.
“Exhausted.”
“Maybe you should take the rest of the day off,” he said, standing up to grab the throw blanket from the back of the couch. He draped it over me and then sat down again. “You can stay here any time you want, you know,” he continued. “You don’t have to go home to rest. Even if I’m not here, please come in. Sleep. Rest. Hangout.”
“Wow, I feel pretty special,” I teased. “Do you offer that to all your girls?”
“I wouldn’t know,” he said with a shrug. “I have only you.”
I did take Jayce’s advice and ended up staying tucked inside his little apartment for the rest of the day and into the evening, making sure to log on to his laptop to find any assignments that I’d missed for the day. Jayce wanted to stay back with me, but I insisted he go, knowing that it wouldn’t be good if both of us were behind when we didn’t need to be.
I ended up falling asleep around five, and Jayce got back to his apartment a little after six. I woke with a start when he opened the front door, groggy and somewhat confused.
“Hi, baby,” Jayce said softly. “I’m sorry I woke you.”
“It’s okay. I should have gone to your bed, but the couch called to me. How were your classes?”
“Dull,” Jayce said, dropping his bag next to his feet as he sat down next to me on the couch again. “Mundane. Boring.”
“But you worked hard anyway, right?” I teased, and Jayce leaned over to kiss me, his fingers trailing down my bare arms.
“Hard enough,” he said. “But I’m glad to be back with you.”
“I feel like an old married couple,” I told him. “Hiding away in the house together, only leaving when absolutely necessary.”
“Sounds perfect,” he said. “You certainly won’t hear me complaining about it. Are you hungry?”
“Hardly.”
“Really?” Concern crossed Jayce’s features again as his thumb gently caressed my cheek. “You barely touched your salad today, Macey. Have you had anything else?”
“No.” Raising my hand to touch Jayce’s cheek, I rested my fingers there for a moment, holding him. “Don’t look so worried. Believe me, I’ve got plenty of spare fat for my body to feed off of before it starves to death.”
“Macey,” Jayce said, and the concern in his voice was evident. “Should I be worried?”
“There’s nothing to worry about yet,” I told him. “At least, there’s nothing we can do until the results are back on the blood work. Everything from here until then is nothing more than an assumption.”
“I hope they get this figured out,” he said with a shake of his head. “Because something is going on, Mace, and I’m worried about it.”
“Don’t think about it,” I insisted, pulling his face to mine so I could kiss him. “Focus on the fact that in just a few days we’ll be flying to Michigan to deal with the one woman who can barely tolerate looking at me.” I laughed bitterly, looking away from Jayce as tears pooled in my eyes. Christ, I hated crying so much, especially in front of him.
“I’ll be with you every step of the way,” he said softly. I closed my eyes and rested my head against his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart against my cheek. I felt like it didn’t matter what I would face, now or in the future, as long as Jayce was there with me.
As long as he was by my side, the world still turned.
