“You sure? I can go with you, Wes.” She yawned.

“Go back to sleep, baby.” I kissed her on the lips. “I’ll be back soon.”

“Mmmkay,” she mumbled rolling over. “Call me if you need me. I’m there,” she mumbled.

“I know, baby.” I pulled the blanket up around her shoulders and gave her one more kiss on the neck before slipping out to find out what kinda bullshit Blue got himself into.

“You get your dick stuck in the vacuum again, Bluebell?” He sat up from his hospital bed.

“Got it stuck in your throat, kid,” he said swinging his skinny legs over the side of the bed coughing. Coughing. More damn coughing.

“You okay?” I asked walking to him and patting him on the back. That was what you did when someone coughed, right?

“Stop fuckin’ burpin’ me.” Blue reached back to swat my hand away.

“Mr. Blue?” Some way too buff doctor came in. Seriously. How was he a doctor? “You’re all set to leave. I wanted to go over a few things before you break out of here.” He looked at me and nodded. “Is it okay to speak in front of your friend?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Blue waved his hand at the doctor who sat in his rolly chair.

“Mr. Blue, this is quite serious.” The doctor opened his folder. “It looks as though you are in the early stages of emphysema.” What the?

“Yeah,” Blue said scratching his nuts. Fuckin’ Blue.

“How have you been managing your COPD?” The doctor scribbled in his folder.

“CO what?” I asked, “and dude, emphysema?”

The doctor looked at Blue, who nodded and huffed. “Mr. Blue has chronic bronchitis. It’s a result of his years of smoking, and now it seems the habit has permanently damaged the airways and air sacs of his lungs.”

Fuck. I reached up and gripped my hair in my fingers. “What does it all mean?” ‘Cause really it all sounded like scary jibberish.

“I’m dyin’,” Blue said. I think. I thought that was what he said. I wasn’t sure because my ears popped, and then my legs got wobbly, so I had to climb onto the bed Blue sat in.

“Jesus. You’re a pussy sometimes,” Blue grumbled next to me when a cup appeared in front of my face.

“Some water, sir,” the doctor said, and I took it from him dumping the cup on my face.

“Son of a bitch,” Blue grumbled next to me, and I felt his wrinkly ass cold hand squeeze mine.

“Mr. Blue, how have you been managing your COPD until this point?” The doctor continued to speak to Blue.

“Nothin’,” Blue said.

“What should he be doing?” I pushed myself up and looked at the doctor.

“The first thing he should do to slow down the progression of the disease is quit smoking.” That got a grumble from Blue next to me. I pushed past him and stood next to where he still sat on the bed. “He also should be using bronchodilators to help relax his airways and improve his breathing. Tonight, his O2 levels were at eighty-six percent, which is not good and the reason why he was having shortness of breath.”

“Bluebell, you couldn’t breathe? You should have had them call me,” I said to him, but he just shrugged. Stubborn old ass.

“I’d also like for you to start pulmonary rehab to help you get the most out of the part of your lungs that isn’t damaged yet, and start you on oxygen, especially when you are more active and find yourself out of breath more quickly.” The doctor jibber jabbed away, and I did my best to type in the nonsense he was spewing into my phone.

The doctor handed Blue a packet of papers. “Here is all the information you will need as well as your prescriptions. Please take care of yourself, Mr. Blue.” The doctor stood and shook Blue’s hand before shaking mine.

“Okay, Bluebell,” I said scrolling through my notes, “Let’s get to the pharmacy and get your medication then we can call that rehab place in the morning.”

“Forget it, son,” Blue said standing up right into a coughing fit.

I waited for him to settle down. “Blue, he said we can slow it down, so let’s do it.” I put my phone in my pocket and reached out to help him walk, but he slapped my hand away and flipped me off.

“Son, I don’t have medical insurance. This stuff is more than a guy like me can afford. Just take me home.” He shuffled past me. Fuck. We didn’t have medical. None of us at the shop did.

“Well, we can buy some then,” I said, following him.

“It ain’t that easy. Especially when an old shit like me is already dyin’.”

“Stop saying that!” I shouted, stopping Blue in the hallway. Shit, my ears were popping again. Fuck, the bed was too far away. I squatted down to the ground.

Blue’s hand squeezed my shoulder. “Come on, son. Take me home.”

I wasn’t surprised that C was awake when I got home. The entire drive back to Blue’s, I thought about what I could do to help him and how we could get him going on his treatments. It all came down to one thing. Money. He needed the money, and we could get him feeling better and keep him as healthy as possible longer.

Now that I was home, and Capri was here waiting for me, I just wanted to fall.

“Hey.” She put her book away, stood from the couch, and pulled off her sexy glasses. I couldn’t get to her fast enough. I hung my keys in their place on the wall and hurried toward her.

She immediately stood on her toes and hugged me, wrapped those tiny arms not quite all the way around my waist, and hugged me. I sagged into her. She knew that I needed this. “How is he?” she whispered into my chest.

I pulled away and tugged on her hand so she would follow me back to the couch. I sunk into it and leaned my head back. “He has emphysema,” I said, still not totally keyed into what that all meant, but by her sharp inhale, she had a good idea.

“What? Did he just find out?” she asked, and I nodded.

“Yeah, but I guess he’s been sick for a while with something like it. All from his smoking and he still won’t quit. Stubborn jackass.”

“Oh, my gosh.” I felt her shift closer to me. “So what does it mean? What happens now?”

“There’s a lot of medicines he can take, and things he can do to help his lungs and to keep him from getting worse faster, but it all costs a lot of money, and he doesn’t have any insurance, so he hasn’t been doing any of it.”

“What the crap?” Capri shouted, and I smiled. “He needs to take his medicine. What is he thinking? Give me your phone.” She held out her hand. “I’m calling him right now.” I laughed and looked over at her with her angry face on. She cared about him.

“He’s sleeping now, baby,” I sat up and grabbed that hand, pulling her into my lap. She wiggled herself comfortable and leaned my head onto her shoulder. That’s better. “You can call him first thing in the morning and sass the shit out of him, okay?”

She nodded and then sighed. “So what can we do?” she asked, and I shook my head against her.

“I’ll figure something out,” I told her already knowing what I was going to do. I didn’t want to think about it anymore tonight. Right now, all I wanted was to hold my girl while I was still the man she deserved to be in the arms of.

I knew Blue’s choice to smoke brought on his illness, but it didn’t make me any less mad that a great guy like him was sick. He was so cool and kind. It wasn’t fair. Life didn’t play nice.

I was especially worried about Wes with all of this. His whole life he’d been bounced around from family to family, friends to friends, house to house. I think he finally found a home with Blue. Now he found out that the one person who’d stuck by him and fought with him and for him was slowly getting sicker day by day. He had to be terrified.