Page 121 of Rastor

When we pulled out of the driveway a minute later, Chloe was smiling in the way I loved best. "You know what?" she said. "You're right. Thatwasfun."

I hit the accelerator. "Told ya."

She laughed. "Oh my God. That whole story about how we met–" She shook her head. "Where'd you come up with that? I can't decide if I should kiss you or scold you for lying."

"Baby," I said, "I'm a lot of things, but a liar isn't one of them."

"Yeah, right," she teased.

In that moment, I wanted to tell her everything – how we met, how I'd been thinking about her for years, and how, if she just gave us another chance, I wouldn't screw it up this time. But I couldn’t tell her, because my lips felt funny, and I knew that if I tried to tell her anything now, it would come out all wrong.

So instead, I pushed down on the accelerator. The sooner I got to the hospital, the sooner we could sort everything out. And oh yeah, I was pretty sure I'd be needing my stomach pumped.

She turned to look out the window. "Hey Lawton. We're not running late anymore. Wanna slow it down?"

"Sorry. Can't."

"Why not?"

I didn't want to lie, especially because she'd be finding out soon enough. I tried to sound as normal as possible as I said, "Because, I figure we got about fifteen minutes to make it to the hospital."

"You weren't kidding?" she said. "You really do have plans there? Oh jeez, I'm so sorry. Why didn't you say something when I first called?"

"Because when you called, I didn't know we'd be going."

"Huh?" She turned to face me and paused. "Lawton," she said, speaking too slow for everything to be okay. "What's wrong with your face?"

Oh, shit.

I leaned over to glance in the rear-view mirror. My face was swollen so bad I could hardly recognize myself. Trying not to scare Chloe, all I said was, "Huh. That's not good."

I hit the brakes and skidded to a stop on the side of the road.

"What is it?" Chloe asked.

Things were getting fuzzy around the edges. On the steering wheel, my hands looked too big, too swollen, too strange. And my tongue felt like ten times too big for my mouth.

Staring ahead, I tried to shake my away my confusion.

Chloe's voice was panicked. "Are you alright?"

My hands slipped off the steering wheel. I tried to talk, but was having a hard time of it.

"Oh my God," Chloe said. "What's wrong?"

I leaned my head against the back of the driver's seat. Slowly, I turned to face her. She looked blurry, just like everything else around us. I struggled to get out the words. "Baby, can you drive a stick?"

Chapter 61

We were in a private hospital room, surrounded by machines, IV stands, and the usual stuff.

From a chair beside the bed, Chloe was holding my hand. She'd been holding it for a while now, and I loved the feel of it, having her so close to me after all this time.

If I weren't so groggy, I'd be asking her to get even closer, in spite of the nurse hovering over the chart at the foot of my bed. Through the grogginess, I told Chloe, "Tell me again."

Her voice was soothing. "Tell you what?"

"You know."