No Good Deed - Marie Sexton Page 0,12
than annulment, actually.”
Charlie forced himself to sit back down. To take a deep breath and think about Jonas’s request.
His first response had been panic, because marriage sounded scary. Marriage was supposed to be about loving somebody forever, no matter what, and Charlie wasn’t ready for that, no matter how he may have felt about Jonas in the past. But that wasn’t what Jonas was proposing. He just needed somebody he could count on to get through a scary situation.
A marriage would be quick. It’d also be cheap. A marriage license probably cost thirty or forty dollars. They’d pay ten times that dealing with a lawyer.
As crazy as it sounded, marriage was the easiest and most inexpensive way to get what Jonas needed. A quick trip to the courthouse, a couple of signatures, and voilà.
Married.
And when it was all over, the dissolution would be just as simple. Unlike real married couples, they wouldn’t have to haggle over the house or separate their bank accounts. They’d simply sign another set of papers and be done.
When he looked at it that way, there was only one answer he could give.
“Of course I’ll marry you.”
“Really?” Charlie had a feeling Jonas would have hugged him if there hadn’t been a kitchen table between them. He settled for squeezing Charlie’s hand. “Thank you! You have no idea how much better I feel about all of it, knowing you’ll be there.”
“So, now that we’re officially engaged, when’s the big day? Do you want to do it this week?”
Jonas laughed. “I love your enthusiasm, but no. There’s no hurry. I still have all those tests to do. There’s bloodwork, and then an output test. And if those are all okay, then there’s another full day of physical and psychological tests. My kidneys might not be healthy enough, or they might decide I’m loony-tunes or mentally incapable of making competent decisions. We may as well wait until I know for sure that the surgery is going to happen.”
Charlie breathed a sigh of relief. “That makes sense.” He held Jonas’s hand, thinking about everything Jonas had told them. He couldn’t help but laugh. “What were you going to do if you came back and I was seeing somebody else or already married?”
Jonas smiled sheepishly. “I would have settled for power of attorney and hoping your boyfriend didn’t kill me before it was all over. If nothing else, I was prepared to offer a small bribe.”
“Wait. You mean I missed my opportunity to make money off this?”
Jonas laughed and batted his eyes flirtatiously at Charlie. “I’m prepared to reimburse you in other ways.”
Charlie chose to ignore that. He was almost afraid to ask the next question. “Are you here to stay? Or only until the surgery is over?”
Jonas met his gaze, his cheeks slowly turning red. “I guess that depends on how things go.”
Charlie had a feeling he wasn’t talking about the kidney donation.
“Where are you staying?”
“At a hotel.”
“Not anymore. You can stay here.” Except he didn’t want to assume too much. And he didn’t want to invite too much intimacy too soon. “The couch pulls out. You can sleep there, for now.”
“Before I accept, you should know that the output test involves me storing a pitcher of urine.” He leaned close. “For the entire day.” He shuddered dramatically. “Totally gross. Are you sure you want that in your fridge?”
“I’m a nurse, honey. I’ve dealt with worse, believe me.”
Jonas’s smile faded. “What about Gray?”
Damn. Charlie hadn’t even considered that, which proved how easily Jonas could make him forget everything else in the world. Maybe it would have been better to leave Jonas at the hotel, but it was too late to retract his invitation now. “I don’t know. I guess we’ll see how it goes.”
Either Jonas would get the surgery and move back to Seattle with Gray none the wiser, or Charlie would have to deal with the problem he’d been avoiding for six solid years.
He wished like hell he had a third option.
Chapter 5
Jonas had left most of his belongings in a storage facility in Seattle, but he was happy enough to load his suitcases into the back of his Subaru and take them to Charlie’s. Charlie was at work, but he’d given Jonas a key.
When Charlie returned home and saw the pile of suitcases in the corner of his living room, his eyes went wide.
“Jesus!” He said it the way he always did—like a Spanish-speaker, so it sounded like “hey Zeus.” “How much luggage did you bring with you?”
“I’ve