Mia kissed me back, darting her tongue into my mouth for a blissful split second. “Sold.”
We drove the fifteen seconds back to my house and she parked on my driveway in the space where my van should’ve been. Safely inside the house, she stretched likea cat. “Do you mind if I have a bath?”
“Only if you shut the door.”
“Perv.”
“If you say so.”
She laughed and disappeared upstairs. I watched her go, seriously considering trailing after her like a horny dog, but my phone rang before I could move, and Billy’s name flashed up on the screen—the only person in the world who could distract me from Mia right now.
“Hey.”
“Heyyourself,” Billy answered, distant and woozy. If he hadn’t been in hospital, I’d have assumed he was drunk. “You told me to call when I got out of surgery, so here I am.”
My heart dropped through the floor. I’d forgotten. That was impossible. I lurched towards the calendar on the back of the kitchen door and scanned the days for Billy’s surgery, but today was blank. “Fuck. I thought that washappening on Tuesday. Fuck, fuck, fuck, I’m so sorry, man. I must’ve got the dates wrong.”
“Calm your tits.” Billy laughed quietly. “I told you the wrong date so you wouldn’t stress. Thought I’d get it over with without you having a guilt meltdown.”
“The fuck?” Despite my fatigue, I was instantly awake. “Why would you do that?”
“I just told you.”
“What if something had happened?Fran was going to drive up to you on Monday so she’d be there when you woke up. What if you hadn’t?”
“Hadn’t what? Woken up? Don’t be so fucking dramatic, bro.”
I drove the heel of my spare hand into my forehead. “It’s not being dramatic when I had to find out in some shit waiting room that you’d flatlined the first time round.”
Silence. Then a drug-heavy sigh. “Whatever. I’m stillhere. Tell Fran I’ll call her tomorrow.”
“Don’t go.”
“Dude, I’m fucked. I’m dribbling down myself as it is, and some drill sergeant nurse is about to take my phone off me.”
I leaned heavily against the kitchen counter, picturing him as I’d left him—alone in a hospital bed. “I love you, man.”
“I know. I love you too. Call me tomorrow.”
“I will.”
Billy hung up, leaving mestaring at the phone like an idiot, but that was nothing new. What was unusual was the yearning pull in my gut for my pain-in-the-arse little brother. Hospital aside, it had beenyearssince we’d spent any quality time together. For so long I’d been numb to it, angry with him for bringing trouble home, and a fucking expert at convincing myself our dilapidated relationship didn’t matter. But itdid matter.Hemattered. And now perspective had returned for good, I missed him so much it hurt.
