The hope was there, but it had been bruised and battered along the way and it was hard to see. I looked at Adam again. I wasn’t going to fight him on this. If he needed to see me not giving up, then I’d somehow find a way to give it to him.

“I’ll do that at some point…when I’m feeling better.”

***

This round came and went with the usual brand of grossness. But after about four days, I started to bounce back. I was even eating a little, and so Adam thought we should go out.

I didn’t like to go out, though. I was still self-conscious about my looks and anywhere nice wouldn’t let me keep my hoodie up. And—just my luck—the winter was an unusually warm one and knit caps grew sweaty and uncomfortable.

But Heath was feeling better now, and Adam suggested grabbing takeout and going to his house for a visit. That, I could get behind. We grabbed some Greek food—my favorite—and headed over.

I had a key to Heath’s place but now that he was living with Connor, I never used it. Instead I knocked at the door while Adam lagged behind me to get the food out of the car.

But what happened when the door opened totally floored me. A beautiful red-haired woman of medium height and curvy figure opened the door and stared at me, her jaw dropping. We’d met in person for the first time just a couple months before at DracoCon.

I gasped. “Kat? What the hell are you doing here?”

“Nice to see you too, bitch,” she grumbled and then pulled me into the tightest hug. “You’re bald, by the way.”

“As a Ferengi, yes, I know. Attractive, isn’t it?”

“Fuck, no. But you’re still hotter than me.”

I gasped, laughing. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“You keep cancer a secret from me and you are asking me to explain myself? Maybe I wanted to come see you.”

“Heath helped you pull this off?”

“Yeah, I’m staying with him and his BF for a while. He said I could crash here as long as I want.”

I heard a rustle and figured Adam had caught up with me. Kat looked up, eyes widening. “Fallen?”

Adam grinned. “Kat. Glad to meet you in person at last.”

“Yeah… glad to finally be in the loop.”

I turned to him. “You knew she was here?”

“Yep.”

I made a face at him. “Nice work.”

Kat was staring at Adam through narrowed eyes. “You look so familiar, Fallen. Don’t tell me you were at the Con and I didn’t know!”

Adam laughed and looked away shyly. “I’m going to go put this in the kitchen,” he said as he squeezed past both of us.

“I’ll get my hug later, then,” Kat said as he moved past her, his arms laden with kabobs, gyros and different varieties of hummus dip. She watched him pass and when he turned his back, she waved her hand as if she was trying to cool her face. “He is fucking hot, Mia. No wonder you wanted to keep him a secret. Figured I’d take him away from you, huh?”

I laughed. “Something like that. Men lose their shit for redheads. And well, since I’ve got no hair on my head there’s no way I could compete.”

“Seriously. Fuck me. Does he have a friend as hot as he is?”

I raised my brow. “No one’s as hot as he is. But there are a few who are close.”

“We’ll talk about that later. I’m going to go get my hug from him and see if his body is as hard as it looks.”

“Slut. If he looks at your ass, I’m beating the shit out of you.”

“You’re a bit too skinny for those kind of threats, my friend,” she said, turning around and leading us toward the kitchen. Heath stopped me on the way in. “Hey, doll,” he said, pulling me into a hug. “Feeling better?”

“I should ask you that, Typhoid Joe. You aren’t going to give me your disease, are you?”

“If by disease, you mean awesomeness, then no. I can’t pass on my awesomeness that way. You’ve been wishing that for years.” He landed a peck on my cheek.

I wiggled out of his hold. “I’d better get in there. Kat has the hots for Adam.”

“Well, no fucking duh. Who doesn’t?”

I heaved a sigh.

“Go on, then. Defend your territory,” he chided. “Not that you really need to, you know.”

I shrugged.

Heath stopped me, putting a heavy hand on my shoulder before I moved through the door. “I mean it. I know you are feeling and looking like shit these days—”