Sage: Take the Risk (F&L Story #3)

Sage: Parts 1 & 2

Part One

May 20, 2010. Thursday.

“Where are you taking me?” Carey asked as his sister pushed his wheelchair out of the elevator on the top floor of the Rockefeller Cancer Institute. Eve showed up for her daily visit with a mischievous grin on her face, and Carey knew enough about his quirky, older sister to be worried.

“Someplace special,” she said, smiling. She navigated him to the end of the corridor and paused next to a stairwell. He glanced up at her. She was chewing on her lip again. Thinking. About what? he wondered. How to get him up the stairs, or about his new doctor, Dr. LeBoeuf.

He did not want to think about his sister knocking boots with his doctor. That was just...ewww!

“Good. Coast is clear,” he said and pushed up from the chair, standing and testing his weight on his slippered feet. “I hate those damn chairs. Can’t go anywhere in this place without it.”

“Well, we’ve still got a ways to go,” she said. “You up for a small climb?”

“If there’s an ice-cold beer sitting at the end of that climb, I’ll take on Mount Everest.”

Eve laughed. “Not exactly what I had in mind. Come on. It’s up here.” She pushed open the heavy steel door to the stairwell, and waited for him to shuffle past her. The climb up the stairs exhausted him, but he'd never let Eve know that. She took on the role of loving sister a little too seriously sometimes. He was twenty-five, dammit! He didn't need his sister hovering over him every day while he underwent his radiation treatments, and he could damn well climb two flights of stairs.

Eve directed him to the roof access and let him take the first glance of Little Rock’s skyline at night. Fresh air! And not that recycled, antiseptic-flavored crap from downstairs. From the top of the hospital, he could see all the way to the river, and the Capital’s dome was lit up like a beacon of gold. Now all he needed was that beer...and maybe a warm, soft, non-sister woman to snuggle up to.

“Wow. We’re not supposed to be up here, are we?” he asked, filling his lungs with the night air, hoping some will stay stored away for later.

“Nope,” Eve answered with a happy grin. “But I thought you needed a little help with your dating strategies.”

“I beg your pardon?” he turned to her with a sneer on his face. “I do just fine with my strategies. You can ask Sage.”

Sage Honeycutt, another warrior in the battle against cancer, and the soft, warm woman he preferred to snuggle up to. Then, the red-haired beauty stepped into view, wearing a silken robe that accentuated her slender figure and pale skin.

“She did,” Sage said with a shy smile. That smile. That mouth. Those lips. He'd been having dreams about kissing that smile.

Carey glanced at Eve. “What are you doing, sis?”

“Giving you a proper date,” she said, and he glanced around the rooftop. A small table, covered in a white tablecloth and a few candles, stood center stage among a small sitting area. Music played from somewhere, and his eyes glanced over at Sage again. A proper date. No ten-year-old twerps nudging him in the ribs while playing Halo. No nurses coming and going in their rooms. No one around, but him and Sage...and Eve.

Carey turned his back on Sage and whispered, “How long do we have?”

“An hour,” Eve whispered back, scowling at him. What'd he do now?

Carey ignored his sister's displeasure – he couldn't do anything about something he didn't understand anyway – and grinned wickedly. “More than enough time.”