From Ashes

“No, actually I’m still kind of cold. Can you throw me your sweats?”

Gage cursed under his breath and headed out the door, tossing me his sweats on his way out. Before I could try to pull them back on he’d returned with the comforter from his bed. “Here you go.” He brushed his hand across my forehead again and down my left cheek. “I’ll be back soon, okay?”

“Have fun,” I mumbled as I curled into a tight ball. I didn’t even have the strength to try to put the sweats back on.

GAGE

I HADN’T EVEN gotten down the driveway when I ran back inside and grabbed my keys. I couldn’t run. Not right now when I was worrying about her so much. As soon as I was in the truck, I called my mom. Yeah . . . I know. I was that desperate.

“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 f**king 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.