I go to her and put my arm around her shoulders. She buries her face in my chest, shielding her face. I lead her away from the tables and out of the room as quickly as I can.
“I’m going to be sick,” she says weakly.
“Let’s get her into a cold shower,” Coach says, taking off his suit jacket as he follows me.
“I’ll do it.”
He lowers his brows. “I shouldn’t have let her drink so much. She never drinks like that.”
“I should’ve stopped her, too.”
Talia stands up straight and looks between the two of us. She shakes her head and groans.
“Don’t worry about it,” I tell her. “We’re going back to our room.”
“I want to make sure you get her there okay,” Coach says.
“I’ve got her.” I meet his eyes. “I promise I’ve got her.”
He nods. “Okay. Text me later and let me know how she’s doing, okay?”
“I will.”
The reception venue is also our hotel, so I hustle Talia onto an elevator. I don’t want anyone coming out of that reception to confront her.
She puts a hand on the elevator wall when it starts moving, looking confused.
“It’s an elevator, babe,” I say. “You’re fine.”
“We had sex.”
I grin at the way she’s acting like she just realized it for the first time. “Yeah, we did.”
“Lucien. What did I say back there?”
I shrug. “Not much. Just like ‘congratulations’ and stuff like that.”
She cringes and takes a deep breath in and out. “I’m going to be sick.”
“Hold it in for two minutes if you can.”
The elevator doors slide open on our floor, and I lead the way to our room. I manage to get her into the room, but before I can get her dress unzipped, she bolts for the bathroom to barf into the toilet.
I wet a washcloth and pass it to her when she’s done.
“Just leave me here to die,” she says mournfully.
“You’re not gonna die,” I assure her. “You’ll just feel like you’re going to for the next day or so.”
She curls up on the tile floor of the bathroom, her only answer a weak groan.
Chapter Seventeen
Talia
* * *
It would be bad enough if I had only humiliated myself by yelling a drunken toast into an invisible microphone last night. If my attempt at taking the high road had crashed and burned spectacularly in front of three hundred twenty-five guests at my sister and Kyle’s wedding.
