“But I imagine you’ve had a rough afternoon. How are you feeling about everything?”
“I’m fine,” I spit out automatically.
She takes a sip of water and eyes me skeptically. “Landry, it’s okay to admit you were scared. I was scared for you.”
“Is that why you had a seizure?” I ask quickly.
“I doubt it,” she replies. “More likely the stress of the move in general. And I don’t think this was a particularly bad episode, since I’m not feeling as terrible as I could right now.”
I nod. “That’s good.”
“Did you see it at all?” she ventures.
“Not really. I only made it back a few minutes before you woke up.”
She smiles ruefully. “Thank you for coming to take care of me. I’m sorry this happened within hours of you agreeing to move in, especially when you were busy with your family?—”
“Daisy, please stop apologizing for something you have no control over. If anything, I’m impressed by the way you alerted me when you felt it coming on. And I’m glad you were able to get to a safe position.”
“So I haven’t scared you off already?” she poses, batting her lashes over her big, green eyes.
I laugh shortly. “Takes a lot more than that to scare me off.”
“You mean you’d rather live with an epileptic than an optimistic extrovert?”
“You’re not an epileptic. You’re a person who just happens to have epilepsy,” I correct her.
She smirks at me and lifts her chin proudly. “I am.”
“And you also talk alot,” I add, smiling.
“Yeah, well, you cuss too much,” she retorts.
“Damn, you’re right.”
She nudges me, and I laugh again. But then her smile falters when her gaze lands on the pile of crates in the middle of the room. “I guess we should start unpacking. You’ll probably want the bigger bedroom.”
“I’m not kicking you out. I’ll be fine in the smaller room.”
She bites her lip. “There isn’t even a bed in there yet. I bought an air mattress in case Rowan or anyone else came to visit me, but that’s all I have for now.”
I groan inwardly. At my age, one night on an air mattress is enough to trigger at least a week’s worth of back pain. I could go to my dad’s place tonight, but it’s late. It’s been a long-ass day, and I can’t just leave Daisy here alone after that episode.
“I’ll take the air mattress tonight,” I tell her after giving the couch a good once over and deciding it’s too small. “I have a storage unit in Baton Rouge with a bed. Tomorrow I’ll borrow my dad’s truck and swap out some of this other stuff for the mattress, at least.”
She furrows her brow. “You’re not getting a very big mattress in there. Not if you want a dresser, anyway.”
“Okay then,” I say on a sigh. “Looks like I’m going shopping in the morning.”
“Oh, mind if I come along?” she asks cheerfully.
“Why the hell not?” I mutter, and she grins.
“Great. Let’s get you to bed, roomie.” She bounces up onto her feet and practically skips out of the room. I have a sinking feeling that things will never be the same after today, in more ways than one.
CHAPTER 5
daisy
