“‘Kay.” Man, Bax was panting by now, stumbling a little. Good thing they didn’t have to chance the escalator.
“I got you.”Shit. Shit, don’t let it be something worse than… Well, don’t let it be something real bad.
“Stop your mother-henning, Mini. I just twisted it up, isall. God knows I been hurt enough to know.” That would have been way more convincing if Bax wasn’t leaning on him so hard.
“Yeah, yeah. You know me, all sensitive and shit.” He propped Bax up, hit the button for the nineteenth floor.
Chuckling, Bax nodded. “Yep. You’re some kind of sweetheart…” They slipped in before someone else joined them, heading right on up to the room.
“That’s me. Sweetness and fucking light. Pure joy to be around.” They both got to snorting, leaning into each other with it.
They managed to finagle Bax into the room, and Jason eased him down on the bed, making sure not to jostle. Bax groaned, leaning back on his elbows, eyes closed. He grabbed two of the good pills, handed them over along with the fucking remote then started working on getting Bax’s boots off.
“Thanks, man. Oh. Oh, easy.” Shit, that leg went like stone, hard as hell under those jeans. Bax was hurtin’ some.
He straddled Bax’s calf, squeezing it good and firm between his legs so he could pull without jostling that knee too bad.
“Jesus!” The sound exploded right out of Bax, but the boot popped off finally, leaving him with a gnarly damned sock.
“Sorry, man. Had to be done.” He wet a couple of rags, tossed one in the ice bucket with the melted ice and the other in the little microwave. “Get yer jeans off.”
“Okay.” Wiggling, Bax shimmied out of the jeans, grunting a little as the tight denim tried to slide past the swollen knee. “Man, I did it up right.”
“Yup. Hot first, then cold.” They both knew the drill and Jason brought over one of the big bath towels to prop Bax up on.
“You could go back and party with the guys if you wanted,” Bax said, rolling the towel up and putting it gingerly under his leg. “You don’t have to take care of me, Mini.”
“Shut up.” Jason grabbed the hot washrag, bouncing it back and forth between his hands before dropping it on that swolled up knee.
“Oh. Fuck a duck.” The heat worked, though. It surely did. He could see all of Bax’s muscles start to uncurl.
Jason gave it five minutes before switching to the cold and getting the rag heated up again. Bax winced at the icy-cold one.
“Weenie. Shit, that’s just water. I need to go refill the bucket.”
“Okay. I… Thanks, Jase. Sorry.” Okay, what was Bax’s deal now? Moody bastard.
“Sorry for what?” He whapped Bax’s shoulder. “Stop it, butthead. I’ll grab a couple Cokes, some ice. We’ll play cards for a few hours.”
Just like always.
“Sounds good, man. I’m just a little blinky.” Poor Bax sounded on the stupid side of slow, not quite drunk, but better than tipsy.
“Yeah. Yeah. You just sit a minute. I’ll get you set up right and tight.” That was what a friend was good for.
“Okay. Can we have ice cream?” Lord, that man was an addict. Really, really.
“Shit, yeah. Call down to room service. Tell ‘em to bring that and coffee.”
“Gotcha.” Fumbling, Bax grabbed the phone and punched in room service. Jason almost bust a gut trying not to laugh at the man’s rambling order, and the fact that suddenly they were getting onion rings and cheesecake and some fruit thing, too.
Still, onion rings sounded damned good. Jason waited until Bax gave their room number before heading to get ice.Not that he didn’t trust Mister Stoned, but they didn’t need him ordering a fucking rack of lamb or some shit.
When he got back, Bax was sprawled out on the bed, arms and legs flung wide, naked as a jaybird. The only thing he had on was the wet washcloth.
Lord, lord. “Man, did your clothes explode while I was down the hall?”
“Huh?” One dark brown eye peered at him, cracking open with effort. “No… Got hot. Like burny.”
