ToLoveaCougar by Marisa Chenery Read Free Book Online Page A

glasses of wine.
    * * * * *
    Blaise woke with a start, not sure what had awakened him. He looked down at Harley who was fast asleep against his side, her head pillowed on his chest. A quick look at the clock showed it was late in the morning, pushing noon. He wasn’t surprised to find it so. They’d been up most of the night making love. The last bout had ended close to dawn.
    The sound of his mother shouting his name and Taylor’s had Blaise sitting bolt upright. There was no mistaking the fear in her voice by the way she called them. He jumped out of bed and grabbed his discarded jeans, then tugged them on as he headed for his bedroom door, hopping on one foot then the other as he stuck his feet into each leg.
    “What’s the matter?” Harley asked, sitting up and looking at him in surprise.
    “I don’t know, but my mom is calling for my brother and me. I think something is wrong.”
    Blaise threw open his bedroom door and ran down the hall toward the master bedroom as Taylor reached the top of the stairs. Blaise entered the room first. It didn’t take him long to take in the scene. His mom stood at the side of it, crying, looking unsure what to do as his father appeared to be having a seizure.
    “What’s going on?” Taylor demanded as he came to stand next to Blaise, who had reached their mother.
    “I think Dad is having a seizure,” Blaise answered. To his mother, he asked, “Did this just start?”
    She nodded. “Yes.”
    “Was Caleb here already?” She nodded again as she wrung her hands. “Did he give him another shot of the new medication?”
    “Yes.”
    “Damn it, I told Dad not to let Caleb give it to him. I had a feeling something like this would happen.”
    “What are you saying?” Taylor asked.
    “I think this new medication of Caleb’s isn’t helping Dad at all. It’s making him worse.”
    “We can discuss this later,” his mother said, her voice nearing a hysterical level. “What should we do about your father?”
    “Exactly what you’re doing now,” Harley said as she pushed her way past Blaise to stand by his father’s side. “When someone is having a seizure you leave them alone until it’s over. Just make sure there isn’t anything around them that they could hurt themselves on.”
    “Are you sure?” his mom asked tearfully.
    “Yes. I’m a medical lab technician and have some CPR training. Did he just start seizing?”
    “Yes,” his mother replied. “How much longer will this last?”
    “A seizure can last for up to five minutes, but I don’t think his will. It appears to be slowing down.”
    Blaise looked at his father to see Harley was right. His father’s jerky movements were slowing. Once they stopped completely, she instructed them to place his dad on his left side with his head also at the side just in case he vomited, which thankfully he didn’t. It took a few minutes before his dad answered his mother when she said his name.
    “I’m glad you were here,” Blaise said to Harley. “None of us would have known what to do.”
    “Seizures can be scary things for anyone. Do you really think your dad is having an adverse reaction to the medication?”
    “Yes.”
    Blaise paused once he noticed his dad had fallen asleep and he had his mother’s and Taylor’s undivided attention as well. He’d been thinking about something since Caleb started the new medication. Something that didn’t put his cousin in a good light.
    “You already mentioned that, but by the look on your face, I have a feeling you have other thoughts about it as well,” his mom said.
    He nodded. “Don’t you think it’s a bit too coincidental that the new medication Caleb administered causes worse symptoms shortly after he’s injected Dad? Today it was a seizure. Yesterday he started coughing up blood. And Caleb’s real lack of concern about the latter has me questioning if he cares if Dad gets better.”
    Taylor sighed. “I have to agree with Blaise, Mom. The idea had crept into