Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80932 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80932 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
“What else is wrong?” I ask, crossing my arms over my chest. It’s a move to show her I’m not budging until she lays it all out.
She opens her mouth, and I sense the denial. I shake my head. “Don’t think to lie to me. Spill it.”
For a moment, she stares with blank eyes before her shoulders sag. Regan blows out a frustrated breath, brushing her hair away from her face.
“One of the reasons he was in debt is because of me,” she admits in a low voice that’s not quite shameful. More like resigned.
“You?” I ask, my brows knitting in confusion.
She nods, smiling sadly. “I’ve been sick, and he’s been helping with my expenses.”
“Sick?” I ask, because how sick does someone have to be to drive a person into debt? Especially someone who makes bank the way Lance did. And for that matter… “Don’t you have health insurance?”
“I was still on Lance’s,” she replies. “At my age, I qualified as his dependent, especially since I was starting my master’s program. But now that he’s dead…”
I blink in surprise. I hadn’t known she was going back to school, and I also didn’t know she was sick.
How the fuck had I not known that?
“Lance never said anything,” I mutter.
Her smile turns understanding. “That was at my request. I didn’t want anyone to know.”
“Know what?” I ask, feeling an impending sense of doom. “What exactly is wrong with you?”
Her gaze drifts around the empty apartment before coming to me. “A few years ago, I wasn’t feeling well. Tired, shortness of breath. Nothing huge but going on long enough I went to the doctor. Lots of tests later, I was diagnosed with a condition known as paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria.”
“What?” I ask, not only feeling lost over that mouthful of words, but also feeling suddenly helpless on her behalf for some reason.
The corners of her lips tip upward. “PNH is a lot easier. But it’s a disease that destroys my red blood cells.”
“Is it serious?” For a brief moment, I want to kill Lance all over again for not sharing this with me.
Regan’s chin lifts, her eyes shimmering with bravery. “It can be. But there’s a medication that helps.”
“And let me guess,” I say dryly. “It’s incredibly expensive.”
“It costs the average PNH patient over four hundred thousand dollars per year,” she says simply.
“Holy fuck,” I exclaim. “Who can afford that?”
“Insurance covers some of it, but my out-of-pocket expenses are pretty substantial.”
And it’s clear why she’s so distressed. “And now Lance is dead, your insurance is gone, and you don’t have the funds to pay for it.”
Rather than affirm what I just said, she backpedals and gives another super bright, overly fake smile. “But that’s not your problem. I’m sure I’ll figure things out. That’s why I didn’t want anyone to know, so—”
“Are your bags packed?” I ask, cutting her words off.
Her brow furrows. “Excuse me?”
“You said you were flying back to California tomorrow, right?”
“Right,” she agrees slowly.
“Change of plans,” I advise her. “You’re coming back to Phoenix with me.”
“What?” she exclaims in shock. “Are you crazy?”
“Not at all. You’re coming back with me, and we’re getting married. You’ll have my insurance coverage, and I’ll pay the out-of-pocket expenses.”
“You’re nuts,” she sputters.
“And you’re going to be my wife.”
“I’m not,” she hisses.
“You are,” I say confidently. “Mark my words.”
CHAPTER 2
Dax
Regan is sick.
I can’t even fucking pronounce what she has but when I Googled PNH, I got all the information I needed to piss me off even more.
Yeah… as I exit the Uber vehicle and make my way up a flight of concrete stairs to her apartment, I’m pissed.
Angry she has an illness that’s incredibly dangerous and Lance never even thought enough of me to tell me about it. More than angry at my best friend for dying and leaving his little sister in a lurch. There’s also some fury in reserve for Regan as she refused to go to Phoenix with me. Instead, she grabbed an earlier flight to Encinitas, the town she lives in just north of San Diego, and sent me a text just as she was boarding.
It gave me no time to stop her, but it did give me plenty of time to divert from the team plane that was leaving for Phoenix so I could schedule the next available flight out to the West Coast.
Luckily, it’s the All Stars Weekend so we don’t have another game for five days. We don’t even have mandatory practices for the next three days since Legend and Bishop are participating in both the skills competition and the game. I figure that’s plenty of time to collect my soon-to-be wife and relocate her from California to Arizona.
I received an invitation to the All Stars as well but with Lance’s death, I wasn’t into it and declined with regrets. Tacker was invited, too, but I’m sure he wasn’t regretful at all when he opted out. It’s just not his thing, but then again, not much is these days with that guy.