The Space Beyond (The Book of Phoenix) (11 page)

After meeting Mason yesterday, things were already looking brighter.

“So are you gonna tell me how it went yesterday or not?” Elizabeth asked. “There’s somethin’ different about you, but I haven’t figured it out yet. Can’t even tell if it’s good or bad, but it feels like both.”

“Mmmm …” I teased, pretending she’d get no more than that. She narrowed her eyes, so I spilled everything, from my time with Mama and how that went to my dinner with Mason.

“I’m not sure I like this doctor,” she said when I finished.

“You don’t even know him, so you can’t say that.”

“I know that he’s gotta be at least thirty, don’t he? To your twenty-one?”

I frowned. When I’d thought of him being older than me, I hadn’t
really
thought about the age difference. “He finished high school two years early, and he doesn’t look that old.”

“If he’s been through med school and everything it takes to be your mama’s doctor, he’s too old for my baby girl.”

I let out a harrumph. “I’m not
your
baby girl, and I’m not a baby at all. And age is only a thing if you make it a thing.”

“And if I meet him and don’t like him, I
will
be making it a thing,” she promised. Not that she really had much say, but at least she cared.

“So can I ask a huge favor and have next Monday’s dinner shift off? And Tuesday’s morning shift, too?”

Elizabeth looked up from the ketchup bottles she was filling. “You never ask for a day off.”

“I know.”

She squinted at me. “What for?”

“I’m goin’ to see Mama again. See how the new meds work out for her.” I sucked my bottom lip, then added very quietly, “And going to a concert with Mason.”

“I don’t like it. Mark my words, girl. But who am I to stop you?”

I tried not to jump with glee. “Well, you are my boss. You
could
stop me.”

“But I’m not goin’ to. I’ll just hope that he either makes you very happy and that helps lighten this cloud over us, or that you’ll realize quickly he’s an asshole preying on girls way too young for him.”

When she put it like that, I had to wonder about Mason. How could someone with his brains, his wit and charm, and his looks be single? And why wouldn’t he want to be with someone closer to his age and status? Our differences—age, income class, education, upbringing, everything—were painfully obvious. But then I thought of our chemistry. And that’s something you have no control over.

“I’m pretty sure he hadn’t been standing behind the Coke machine, waiting for some young chick to come along so he could take advantage of her. If that’s all he was after, he would have been all over Sissy long ago.”

“That’s the only reason I haven’t decided to make you work triple shifts for the next three weeks until you forget about him.”

I threw my arms around her, making her spill ketchup. “Thanks, Liz’beth. I owe you.”

“Nah, you don’t. You deserve some time off.”

“Can I use the phone to make a few calls?”

She pulled her cell phone out of her shirt, where she kept it in her bra, and handed it to me. “Use this one.”

I wrapped my hand around the warm metal and glass and headed outside and around back for some privacy. I called Sissy first.

“Dr. Hayes gave me some information that I looked up,” I said once she was able to step out of Mama’s room. “Is there a reason Mama hasn’t started on the meds so maybe she can get a transplant?”

“Yeah, there is. Have you seen the cost?”

“Yeah. It’s insane, but—”

“She doesn’t want you to have that burden, Bex. She doesn’t want
us
drownin’ in her medical bills if it don’t work and she dies.”

“Seriously? She’s dying anyway.”

“Yeah, well, at a lot cheaper cost.”

“Sissy, we can’t let her die if that’s the only reason.”

The other end went silent for a moment. “I didn’t think you’d see it that way.”

Ouch. But I totally deserved that and couldn’t blame her for saying it. “I’m tryin’ to forgive her. I’m certainly not gonna let her die over what she did to us.”

“Well, what do you want me to do, Bex? Even if I stopped taking care of her and got a job, no way could we afford it.”

“Dr. Hayes told me about some government and other programs that could help. If we get the paperwork started, he doesn’t have to wait to begin the treatment, and we don’t pay anything right away.”

“And you really think she can get approved with her history?”

“He said he’d help us.”

“Yeah, I’m sure he did,” Sissy muttered, and the bitterness came loud and clear.

“What is it with you? Mama says you’re smitten with him, but I’d almost think you don’t like him.”

“Oh, I like him all right. The question is why do you have to? Every single guy, Bex. Do you have to have them all?”

“What?”

“Why can’t you just be with Ty and give me a chance for once?”

My breath caught. “Oh. Ma. Gosh. You’re more than smitten with Mason, aren’t you?”

“
Mason?
” Her voice came out in a whispery shriek. I imagined her standing in the hospital corridor trying not to make a scene while the jealousy flooded her. “You met him once and you’re on a first-name basis?”

“Sorry. Dr. Hayes.” I couldn’t tell her about dinner last night. Not in the frame of mind she was obviously in. She might be pissed off enough to rat him out to his bosses. She was my sister, and I was dying to tell her everything, but that would have to wait. “Sissy, he’s way too old for you.”

“But not for you?”

“You’re practically jail bait to him.”

“You’re only eighteen months older than me. Not much of a difference when the gap’s that big.”

“Think about it, hun. At your age, that’s a big difference. I’m of legal age in every way. You can’t even go to a club.”

She huffed out a breath. “Well, I hope you and
Mason
are happy together.”

“Sissy, don’t be that way.”

“I’ll stop being this way when you stop taking every guy I ever had a thing for.”

“Maybe instead of being mad at me, you should look at yourself and figure out why they
don’t
have a thing for you.”

Sissy gasped. “Bethany!”

I pressed my fingers to my temple, feeling the heavy pressure returning. “In this case, I mean your age.”

“Whatever,” she snapped. “I’m sick of fighting with you over guys. Maybe some day you’ll finally settle down so everyone else has a chance.”

And that was her real reason for her wanting me to take Ty back. She didn’t care if we’d be happy together.

“Let’s just talk about Mama. I’m gonna call Dr. Hayes and get the paperwork going. Mama needs to start the meds.”

“I’ll tell her,” she said. “No guarantees she’ll do it, though.”

“Talk her into it. Force her if you have to.”

“Only you can do that and only if you can prove she can’t make her own decisions.”

Oh, yeah. “Why did she do that? Why not give you that authority?”

Sissy sighed. “Because she thought you’d be more objective. That you would listen to her wishes and not try to keep her alive on machines and all because you didn’t wanna let her go. She didn’t think I could make that same decision.”

“Oh.” I didn’t know what else to say. “Well, this is somethin’ that we have to try. I’ll call you again when I can.”

“Wait, Bex?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for doing this for her.”

“She’s our mama, Sissy.” That’s all there was to say, and we hung up.

I pulled Mason’s card out of my back pocket and dialed his number. His voicemail answered, so I left a message with our decision about Mama and also that I had next Monday off if his offer was still open.

Unfortunately, I had to go back on that. Sullivan’s hired the new girl, Leni, which was good in a way because we really needed another waitress who could also help out at the bar. But they wanted me to train her, which meant giving me the crappy shifts until she was ready to take on the busiest nights. Crappy shifts meant suck-ass tips, which meant I couldn’t afford to take time off for a concert. I could justify a shift here and there to see Mama, but not several in a row for something unnecessary.

I made it down twice in the following couple of weeks, but at least I got to see Mason at the hospital. We had coffee both times, but didn’t have an opportunity for anything more than that. He was a perfect gentleman, too, always pulling away after giving me a quick peck on the head or nose. He said it was because once his lips touched mine, he’d never be able to stop, and he was not going to make me a dirty little secret he snuck into the janitor’s closet. But he did insist on giving me a cell phone.

“I want to be able to talk to you whenever I want to,” he said when I tried to give it back to him. “Especially since your mother’s being discharged, and I don’t know when I’ll see you.”

The meds for Mama’s heart and lungs had finally stabilized her, and there wasn’t much more they could do at the hospital until she either improved and received a transplant, or she worsened. So they were sending her home.

“We can’t exactly talk whenever we want. I still have to work and so do you.” I held it out to him.

“I know, but it makes me feel better that at least I know I
can
call you, even if you can’t answer. I can leave you voicemails. Sext you, even.” He gave me a smile that made me weak.

“Don’t you dare.”

“Don’t worry. I’m a doctor. I’m not that stupid. But know that I’ll be thinking about it.”

So I ended up with a cell phone that he paid for. Part of me felt weird about it—it’s not like he was family helping kin or anything—but part of me appreciated that not only could he call me at a whim, but so could Sissy if something came up with Mama. Sometimes I felt so far away from all of them, but unless I wanted to move down there and hope to find a job that could make up for the ones I had here, there was nothing I could do. And I wasn’t exactly ready to do all that anyway. A mere couple of weeks with Mama or Mason wasn’t enough to make me pull up and move out.

And then there was Ty.

“Bex, sweetie, you’re exhausted,” he said one night when I came home to him sitting on my steps again. It had become our thing—every time I had a shift at Sullivan’s, he waited for me afterwards to share a beer on my stoop. I dropped in front of him, too tired to argue, and grabbed the beer he had waiting for me. “You need a break.”

“Can’t afford it.” I chugged half the bottle.

“You can afford an afternoon of fun. A day in old Mr. K’s field.”

I laughed, giddy with exhaustion. “They still party there?”

Mr. K’s field included a small lake or big pond, whatever you wanted to call it, and was where everyone went to party. Mr. K had actually passed long before I was old enough to go out there, and his relations that inherited the land lived up north, so they had no idea about what went on down here.

“Everyone’s going a week from Saturday. Come out and have some fun for once.”

“I gotta work.”

“Troy’ll give you the day off for me. He likes me.” That was true. “A lot more than that doctor you’re seeing.”

“I’m not seeing the doctor. I don’t have time to see
anyone
.”

“Well, you sure do spend a lot of time with him, from what I hear. You know you don’t fit in that world, Bex. You belong here. With me.”

“I’m not fixin’ to fit in any world, Ty. Whatever Sissy told ya’ll, she’s lying because
she
wants to be the one seeing the doctor. She’s setting you up.”

Ty’s hands fell onto my shoulders, and he pulled me backward. I tilted my head to look up at him as he hovered over me. “I don’t wanna argue. I just want you to remember that life’s about more than work. Come hang out. Jeric and Leni and their city friends are comin’. It’ll make things all kinds of interesting.”

“Jeric and Leni?”

“Leni from the bar and her boyfriend Jeric. Did you know he’s an ex UFC fighter? He’s been training me. And did you know he used to be deaf but by some miracle, he’s not anymore?”

I nodded, although I didn’t know the full story beyond whatever surgery he’d had. During our shifts together at Sullivan’s, Leni didn’t talk much about herself, but was always asking me questions about me and if I was okay. The girl, bless her heart, was still weird and overly interested in my business.

“Wait,” I said as all of Ty’s words hit me. “What do you mean he’s been training you?”

“To be a cage fighter. My first fight’s next week.”

I jumped to my feet, spun around and put my hands on my hips. “Ty Daniels! What in God’s name are you thinking? You’re seriously going to jump into a ring and let someone hit you for the fun of it?”

“Not for the fun of it. For the money.” He gave me a grin and cockiness shone in his eyes. “Besides, who said anything about
letting
someone hit me? Jeric hardly ever can, and he was a pro.”

“I don’t like it. Not one bit.” I placed my hand against his cheek. “You’re gonna ruin this face of yours.”

His expression fell serious, and he clamped his hand over mine. “Glad to know you care.”

Oh, crap. He was taking it the wrong way. I slid my hand out from under his and returned it to my hip. “Yeah, well, that face of yours is about the only thing you have goin’ for you.”

He laughed. “You just wait and see, Bex. I’m gonna be famous and rich, and then you won’t care how I look when I can give you the life you’ve always wanted. That doctor won’t have nothin’ on me.”

I groaned, but before I could say anything, Ty reached out and grabbed my arm.

“Get inside, Bex.” His voice was suddenly full of warning, and his gaze was focused on something in the distance, near the highway. I turned to follow it. A man’s figure stood on the edge of the road. He appeared to be staring at us, although I couldn’t tell for sure because a hood blocked his face. “There’s been some weird guys hanging around town, and I think that’s one of them. I don’t know what they want, but they’re creepy as hell. I feel like they’re following me all the time, and I don’t want them seeing you.”

He ushered me inside my own house, then watched out the window until the creep disappeared. The only way I could get Ty to leave, too, was to concede to going to the party if Uncle Troy actually allowed it. My uncle did have a soft spot for Ty since he’d served our country, but I still never believed in a million years he’d give me a day off.