Read Online Forever Checking (Checked Series Book 3) by Jennifer Jamelli - Free Book Online Page A

behind us.
    Just me with my doctor, not doctor…um…boyfriend, not boyfriend, and our nurse, the woman who just tried to stick a—
    Callie!
    We move together out of his office, down the twisty hallway, through the waiting room, to the parking lot, and finally into his car. Well, Judy doesn’t get into his car.
    Thank God.
    She and her needle bag get into—of course—the little red, BLOOD-colored car that I saw earlier.
    Talk about foreshadowing.
    {Sam Smith fades out. Snow Patrol plunges in with “ Chasing Cars .”}
    His car. It’s silent. Naturally.
    {Keep singing to me, Snow Patrol. Otherwise, the silence might just drive me crazy. Ironic, huh?}
    He drives back toward my house, down familiar roads once more. I thi—
    “This is for you.” He pulls a piece of paper out of his shirt pocket and holds it out for me.
    “What is it?” I ask as I take the paper from his fingers…and as I pray that it’s not, I don’t know, a lab slip to go get blood work done on my own at the hospital or, um, an e-ticket for a flight to another out-of-town conference or, ah, a note that says “I know about the music” or—
    “It’s a copy of my results, my blood work results.”
    Oh.
    I unfold the paper in my hands, knowing that no—
    “Everything’s fine. All of the tests were negative.” He pauses. Then starts again. “All of these results were from weeks ago, so if you want me to get it all done again this—”
    “No.” I look over at him, shaking my head. “I trust you. You don’t have anything.”
    He glances over at me for a second before returning his eyes to the road. “You don’t have anything either, Callie.”
    My shoulders shrug. My head turns to look out of my passenger side window. My mind, it begins to spin through a list of diseases that I’ve probably acquired over the years. Malaria. Ebola. Tuberculosis. AIDS. A bunch of other diseases that I can’t even name. All acquired in various ways. People spitting while talking to me. Being near Tony. Sitting through my last summer haircut. Standing too close to some of Mandy’s sorority sis—
    “I want—no, I need you to try to believe that, Callie. You have to be willing to believe that you are fine, willing to believe that you really aren’t contracting new diseases on a daily basis. Otherwise…”
    He pauses and drives. Silent now.
    I finish for him. Quietly. “Otherwise, the therapy won’t work.”
    “No. It won’t.”
    My head stares straight ahead, pointed now toward the front window. My eyes, however, sneak a sideways glance at him.
    He’s not looking at me. He’s looking at the road. Head and eyes. Probably thinking about how I’m screwing up his therapy. How I’m completely ruining it. Or—
    Or maybe he’s thinking about my test results. Maybe he wants me to have them before we, well, do anything else together.
    That’s fair. He did it for me. I have his results. Clean results.
    Maybe he’s afraid that mine won’t be so clean. Maybe he’s afraid that I’ll give him some horrible disease that will kill him and then kill me. Maybe—
    {A full orchestra. Tchaikovsky’s “ Romeo and Juliet .”}
    Maybe I really do have a serious dis—
    “Callie?” His head moves to look my way for a second. I see it out of the corner of my eye. “Stop worrying. We’ll figure this out and try the blood work again at some other time.”
    I don’t want to try it at some other time. Not at all.
    Can’t they just test my spit or my tears or something? If that would work, I’d probably get myself tested every single—
    “I just really want you to believe that you are okay. I think believing that will remove a great burden from you.”
    He turns into my driveway. {The orchestra plays on.}
    The car stops. He gets out to open my door, taking my hand as I step out of the car. Just like he is taking me home after a date. If people go for blood work on dates…
    I didn’t actually get blood work done today, though. But I have to at