Page 68 of Rescuing Mary

“Don’t do anything drastic,” Rayne ordered.

“Who, me?” Mary quipped.

“Yes. I know you.”

“Whatever. Are the guys there?”

“Beatle is. The others were in a meeting and couldn’t get out of it. They’ll be here as soon as they can.”

“And Truck?”

“I haven’t called him yet.”

“I’ll call him,” Mary told Rayne. She and Truck had been spending a lot of time together in the last two and a half weeks. They were officially dating, and it felt good and weird at the same time. She’d never dated Truck. They’d gone from picking on each other in the way two kids in elementary school would, to him forcing her to move in when he found out how sick she was, to them getting married.

But over the last couple weeks, they’d gone out to eat, watched movies at each other’s apartments, taken walks, and had even gone on a weekend trip to Enchanted Rock in nearby Fredericksburg. It was fascinating getting to know Truck without her sickness being a factor. She already knew he was funny, protective, and bossy, but she’d also found out other little things about him. Like the armadillo was his favorite animal of all time, and that he was ticklish, and she’d heard countless stories about his sister, Macie, and how close they were growing up.

Mary had fallen even harder for the man, if that was possible.

They’d made out a couple of times, but she’d stopped things before they went too far, scared he’d feel her fake boobs and ask questions. Mary knew she needed to talk to him before someone else blabbed about her cancer, but she hadn’t been able to find a good time to do so.

Besides, she was enjoying being “Mary” and not “Mary who has cancer” for once.

“Cool. The girls will also get here as soon as they can, other than Kassie, who isn’t comfortable bringing Kate to the hospital with all the germs yet,” Rayne told her. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Bye,” Mary said and clicked off the phone. She thought fast. What could she do to get Jennifer to let her leave work early? She didn’t have a lot of sick time saved up after coming back to work, but she had to have at least three hours she could use.

Sighing, she decided to just suck it up and talk to Jennifer. It wasn’t as if she loved this job anyway. If she got fired for having an emergency and needing to leave, so be it.

Taking a deep breath, Mary went to Jennifer’s office and knocked.

Her boss looked up and impatiently asked, “Yes?”

Mary quickly outlined what was happening and waited to see what her boss’s decision would be.

“You’ve already missed a lot of work, Mary.”

“I know, but I wouldn’t ask if this wasn’t really important.”

“Between this and harassing our customers, you’re pushing your luck,” Jennifer said.

Mary swallowed the harsh retort on the tip of her tongue. She wasn’t harassing customers. She’d brought her safety concerns to her boss—like she was supposed to do. Biting the inside of her cheek, she kept silent.

Finally, Jennifer sighed. “Fine. But no more. I mean it.”

Mary nodded quickly, extremely relieved. “Thank you,” she said and turned to leave.

Jennifer stopped her. “Mary?”

Mary spun back around to face her boss. “Yeah?”

“I appreciate you asking, and not making up some lame excuse or resorting to theatrics to get your way.”

Mary simply nodded and left, not telling the other woman how close she’d come to doing just that.

As she headed quickly for her car, Mary couldn’t help but think about what her friend was going through. Driving like a bat out of hell toward the hospital, she called Truck.

“Hey, Mare,” Truck said as he answered.