So, that banging was actually all in my head. Well, there was only one thing that would fix this, and that was a very strong cup of herbal tea.
Bracing against the wall, I slowly made my way to the kitchen, doing my level best not to fall every second step. I pried the cabinet open with much more force than was actually necessary and reached for my favorite mug. Sadly, it was too high, and raising my arm that high only made the pounding in my head worse.
I bent over, thunking my head on the counter as nausea churned in my stomach. I was never drinking again. This was the worst day of my life. I wasn’t sure I’d ever had so much to drink. But I’d let my brother get the best of me.
Tea. I needed tea.
Moving with the greatest ease, I found a clean mug in the dish rack, not that it was really big enough for what I needed, but it would have to do. However, the light reflecting off the pot was shining right in my eyes, making my headache even worse.
Blinds. I needed to shut the damn blinds. Right.
I shuffled across the kitchen, wove my way through the living room, and over to the front window that was causing the wretched pounding in my head. But something outside was wrong.
My tired eyes scanned every inch of the yard, over to the neighbors across the street, and finally back to the driveway, but I couldn’t pinpoint what the problem was. And the fog in my brain wasn’t helping a damn thing.
The longer I stared out the window, the more my brain was suffering. I yanked the cord and closed the blinds, then headed back to the kitchen to finish my tea.
And that’s when it hit me, halting me in my tracks.
Pressing my hand to my stomach, I shook my head slowly. “No. Oh, God, no. Please tell me…”
I rushed back to the window, yanking on the cord again to open the blinds. It was staring me right in the face.
Or, rather, the lack of a vehicle was staring me in the face.
I hadn’t made it home on my own. But that meant…
I cupped a hand over my mouth as I barely remembered Tennessee taking my keys from me last night in the bar. Which could only mean that he had brought me home.
My eyes drifted back to the couch where the bucket still sat.
Crap, I’d made a fool of myself, but just how badly, I wasn’t entirely sure yet. The only thing for me to do was to walk over there like a big girl and thank him for driving me home last night.
But in order to do that, I needed my tea. One thing at a time. I couldn’t function properly until I had my herbal tea.
The effort it took to make it to the kitchen was astronomical, but even worse was when I tried to figure out why my tea kettle wasn’t warming up. The damn thing didn’t seem to want to turn on, and it was electric. It was too much for my brain to process right now.
Grabbing my mug, my kettle, the base for it, and my herbal tea, I did the only rational thing a woman like me could do at this hour.
I went to my neighbor’s house.
The brisk morning air chilled me to the bone, but then again, I didn’t even know what I was wearing, and looking at my clothing would take my focus off the very slick, very uneven ground I was currently trying to walk across. When I finallymade it to his door, lifting my fist when both hands were full was quite the conundrum.
So, I hit my foot against the door. Pain shot up my leg, but that was the least of my concerns when I was barely staying upright. Leaning my head against his door, I groaned in pain. Or nausea. Heck, I wasn’t even sure at the moment. I just knew I felt horrible.
I realized after a long few minutes of waiting that no one was actually going to answer the door, that I had walked over here for nothing, and now I would have to make the long trek home. Maybe I could just sit on his step for a few minutes until the cold shocked me out of my alcohol-induced depression.
And that was just what I was about to do when the door was flung open. Yelping, I slipped forward, falling right into the masculine arms of my neighbor. With my nose squished up against his bare chest, I could smell every delicious inch of him.
“Are you sniffing me?”
“Hmm?” Was I? Maybe. I wasn’t really sure.
Strong hands gripped my biceps and pushed me upright. The world tilted with the sudden movement and it took a good five seconds for everything to stop moving.
“What are you doing here?”
I opened my mouth, grimacing when I tasted my own nasty cottonmouth. What had died in there?
