Sighing, I figure without Shadow here, I can be nice. “I’m sorry for being a total bitch toward you and the others.”
Bella blinks at me, and a small smile forms on her lips. “We’re used to patients treating us poorly,” she says, waving my apology away.
“Maybe so, but it’s not right. I just don’t like being in hospitals, and I do apologize sincerely for my attitude.”
Bella nods but doesn’t say anything further. I don’t know if she accepted or not, but I don’t bother with additional conversation.
Ten minutes later, I’m planted in a single-patient room. The only sound comes from the vitals machine. I’m not much for knowing medical terminology or what they call everything in the hospital.
I could turn the TV on, maybe get on my phone, but I don’t. I curl up on my side and look out the window, staring at nothing. If I hadn’t been bitten by a rattlesnake, I wouldn’t be here.
Shadow was right. It’s my own fault for allowing this to happen to me. If I’d paid better attention and not allowed my thoughts to consume me, I’d have been able to avoid this all in the first place.
I’m such an idiot.
The sound of my phone beeping draws my attention from my thoughts, and I roll onto my back. Reaching for my purse that I had set on the table next to the bed, I pull out my phone to find a text from Luka.
Luka Wells is a partner of the company I worked for. He’s also the guy that I would sleep with. We were nothing more than office booty calls for each other. He didn’t come to my place, and I didn’t go to his. We strictly had sex in his or my office. Once it was in the conference room, but that was it.
What we did together was scratching an itch when we needed to.
Though I’ll admit, Luka was starting to hint at wanting more than just office sex.
I open the text to read it.
Luka: When are you coming back? I need to see you.
It’s not like I’ve spoken to him since I left Copper Run. I didn’t see a need for it. All I’d done was tell Luka, who was also my boss, that I quit. I sent him everything I had done for the account he needed me to get done and left. He hadn’t reached out, and I hadn’t either.
Okay, so he reached out to me, but I ignored him. I mean, I have been grieving.
Me: I told you I was done. I gave you what I had before I left.
Sighing, I place my phone on my lap and stare at the ceiling, wishing I wasn’t here. More than anything, I wish I could go back to this morning and not get bitten by that damn rattlesnake.
My phone alerts me to another text having come in, and I lift it to see it’s another one from Luka.
Luka: That’s not enough, Della, and you know it. I deserve a conversation. If you won’t talk to me over the phone or come back here, I’ll have no choice but to come and see you myself. You know I don’t like being ignored.
I scoff and toss the phone back onto the bed when it beeps again.
Groaning, I lift it to find a text not from Luka, but Shadow. It seems he decided he was going to program himself into my phone as well as take my number for himself.
Shadow: They get you squared away?
I want to ignore it. I really should ignore his text. Only my fingers don’t listen.
Me: Yes.
It’s short and the only answer I’m going to give him.
Putting my phone on silent, I toss it back down and lean back into the pillow as I grab the remote. Maybe if I drown out my thoughts with mindless TV, I might finally be able to sleep.
I switch the TV on and end up putting it on Fire Country. It’s one of the only shows I allow myself to enjoy. That and Sheriff Country. Those two series, even if one is only one season so far, are so good. I can’t get enough of Bode, and I think Mickey is awesome with her dry humor. She totally should have gotten with that DEA agent. Then again, I think she should be with Boone. He’s also hot.
Watching Bode struggle internally feels like I can relate to him. I can get lost in watching everything on the screen unfold.
Halfway through the episode, I find myself nodding off and welcoming sleep.
