Cole stared blankly at the snow piling up on his car, clutching the warm bag of donuts to his chest. Then he looked up at us with a coldness in his eyes I'd never seen before.
“If there's even a chance what you're saying is true, then I want to know.”
Macy nodded, hopping up and down in the way she did when something excited her – and nothing more did, apparently, than uncovering a juicy scandal.
“Exactly! I'm glad you and I see eye to eye on this, unlike my boring brother who'd rather bury his head in the snow.”
“It's not that, it just doesn't matter anymore. The wedding's canceled, Sarah keeps Curiosities, and I'll soon be the proud owner of half a mall. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go tell her the good news.”
Macy grabbed me by the arm before I could escape into my car.
“Are you really going to do this? Just lie down and let dad walk all over you? The Asher I know wouldn't give up so easily.”
“There's nothing more I can do.”
She made a frustrated growl. “You can't fool me, y'know. You do care about Sarah. Maybe you really are in love with her. How can you deny that?”
I said nothing, because she was right. I couldn't.
“Well, if you go through with dad's scheme, you're going to lose her for good.”
“Bullshit. What do you know about love anyway? You date three guys at once and throw them away the moment you get bored.”
Cole flushed scarlet and looked as though he might choke.
“So what if I do? If you go through with this, she's going to hate you for it.”
Having had heard enough, I pushed her aside so I could get in the car. She yelled obscenities at me as I drove away, leaving her and Cole by themselves.
“She's crazy,” I tried to assure myself. “This is the best solution. Sarah's smart enough to understand that.”
I reached for the phone to call her, but before I could, it started to ring. My heart beat harder when I saw her name pop up.
“You must have read my mind,” I said after answering. “I was just about to – ”
I stopped in mid-sentence. She was making sniffling noises. Was she crying?
“Something bad happened, Asher.”
The light turned red; I was too worried for her to bother braking and sped right through it.
“What is it? What's the matter?”
“It's my grandma. She's in the hospital.”
Chapter 20 - Sarah
I hated hospitals. Every time I ended up in one, it was never for a good reason. Broken bones, appendix needed removing, food poisoning now and again. I'd hoped I wouldn't need to come back for a long time after my last visit.
But then mom called me. She was a teary, blubbering mess, sobbing so hard I could barely understand her.
“Grandma fell,” she finally managed to say. “She was on the ladder putting up Christmas decorations at the church. Must have slipped. She hit the sidewalk – hard.”
I dropped everything, left Lana in charge of the store, and raced to Grant City Medical Center. Now we sat in the lobby, where all we could do was wait and worry.
“How's she doing?”
Mom looked up at me with bloodshot eyes. “I can't say yet. The ambulance wouldn't let me ride with her, and when I got here they'd already wheeled her into the emergency room. At best, she broke a bone or two – but at her age, even that could be disastrous.”
She wasn't wrong. I'd heard plenty of horror stories where old folks busted a hip and died not long after. The thought of losing her over something so small made me want to cry too, but I couldn't. I had to stay strong for mom's sake.
“Where's your brother?” She glared at her phone. “I've called him a million times and he never answers. That boy, I swear.”
“He was picking up donuts for grandma's church group. He'll figure out what's going on when he gets there.”
Doctors and nurses hustled all around us. The too-bright room, with its disgustingly antiseptic smell, was packed with people who looked like the living dead. Being here made me anxious, and all I wanted to do was bolt for the exit.
I'd called Asher just before getting here. Not sure what I expected out of him, really; he was a busy man with his own problems, and it wasn't like he owed me a thing.
But I needed comforting, and right now, I knew I'd only find it in his arms.
“You know, I hate to even be thinking of such things at a time like this,” mom said, almost whispering. “But grandma's insurance isn't the best, and hospital bills don't come cheap. I just... I don't know what we're gonna do.”
She didn't need to explain more. If her injuries didn't kill her, the mountain of debt she'd be buried under sure would.
The waiting room doors whirred as they slid open. There stood Asher, who took one look at me and shoved his way through the line at the front desk.
“Sarah,” he said, breathless as though he'd run the whole way here.
He sank into the plastic chair beside me and held me in a tight hug. There was something special about it, about him racing over here to be with me when I needed him most.
This wasn't the Asher I'd known the past five years. This one was different. Changed. I wanted him.
“Is Hazel gonna be all right?”
“I don't think it's critical, but who knows what they're doing to her in there. We're still waiting for – ”
“Excuse me. Are you the Masters
