“Okay Dee Dee, let’s walk.” We directed her towards the door, her feet still bare. I had no idea where her shoes were, and I wasn’t going to let her walk over gravel in bare feet, so as soon as we were in the entrance, I stopped. “Dan, I can carry her from here.”
“You sure, bro?” He took a step back.
I pulled my keys out of my pocket and handed them to him. “Yeah, just do me a favour and open the door up.”
“Sure.”
Dee looked up at me with slightly less glazed eyes. “It’s cold out here.”
She wasn’t wrong. Even though it was summer, Scottish summers didn’t have the habit of being roasting. It was probably single figures out here right now.
“It is. How do you feel about me carrying you to stop you shredding those feet?”
She looked down at her toes and wriggled them. Unlike pretty much every woman I’d slept with, they weren’t painted. “Canyou carry me?”
I decided not to answer that with words and just gave her a look instead that I hope gave my response.
“It’s just I had a boyfriend who tried to pick me up once. He pulled something in his back. I know I look light, but I’m not.” She lifted one foot as if she was testing her weight.
“He’ll manage.” Danny looked like his patience was about to run out.
Dee just looked at me, reminding me of that baby giraffe again who was absolutely clueless.
I stooped down and scooped her up, her arms wrapping round my neck. She was right; she wasn’t as light as she looked, but I probably bench pressed more than what she weighed as a warm-up.
I questioned my sanity at half way to the lodge, wondering what the hell I was doing rescuing a Dee-in-distress, given that she’d been about as friendly towards me as a rabies-ridden hyena, but I couldn’t lie to myself and say feeling her taut, warm body close into mine wasn’t that dissimilar to winning a match.
“You smell good.” She inhaled and rubbed her nose against my chest.
I hoped to god that Danny’s intuition was as shit as usual, and he didn’t notice how her words managed to coax a preen out of me.
“Is it expensive?” Her arms around my neck had relaxed now. She seemed to have realised I wasn’t going to be a dick like her ex and drop her.
“I don’t know.” I had no fucking clue how much a bottle cost. I got it free because of an endorsement deal.
I heard her sigh and settle in a little bit more.
“You going to carry her over the threshold?” Danny fumbled with the keys. “She looks pretty fucking comfy there.”
I laughed as Dee moved a hand from my neck and gave him the finger. Carefully, I put her down on both feet, and keeping a hand on her waist I took the keys off Danny. He was laughing as he shut the door, but I knew he wouldn’t spread shit about us.
“Let’s get you some food. And coffee.” I guided her into the kitchen area, thankful she could now walk. The cool air would’ve done something to sober her up.
“Tea. I drink tea.” She leaned against the counter. “I’m sorry you had to leave. Why did I drink so much?”
Of course she drank tea. Miss Sunshine Sparkle pants wouldn’t need to drink coffee. “I take it you don’t have sugar?”
“No. Sweet enough.” She tried to give me a smile, but the effects of the alcohol were at the stage where nothing was going to make her able to smile.
She almost ran a straight line to the bathroom. Almost. The back of the sofa gave her something to steady herself with and, at that point, I left the kettle and followed. My sister wasn’t able to go out and have a good time with her friends, so I wasn’t practiced at holding back her hair while she prayed to the porcelain gods, but I’d done it enough for others, even a random girl me and Nate had carted back to our hotel suite one night when she’d been so bladdered it hadn’t been safe to do anything else. That had been one of the nights when I’d called Genny to come babysit and be a witness, so the girl wouldn’t have the opportunity to sell her story later.
That was the way we had to think, and I fucking hated it.
Dee was on her knees over the toilet, her arms resting on the seat. Her hair had been down, so I scooped it back and wrapped it round my hand, pulling it gently out of the way while the contents of her stomach forced their way back up.
I squatted down low behind her, my free hand rubbing her back as she wretched again, then groaned.
“Is this the first time you’ve been sick because of alcohol?” I hoped it wasn’t.
