“Can you put them in your truck and follow me home?” I ask Tommy. “I’ll make a bed for them both and get them out of your hair.”
“It’s fine. We have enough room here, so I’ll toss them into a room together and close the door. Send them on their way in the morning when they wander downstairs with their bad attitudes. Good luck with yours.” He scratches the back of his neck, his lips quirking into a taunting smirk. “She’s gonna regret this tomorrow.”
“She sure is.” I meet Franky’s green-eyed gaze, wide behind his blue-frame glasses. “Thanks for looking out, Page. And you even figured out the grandma thing. That’s a big deal.”
“She’s kinda funny when she’s not crying.” He steps in on Tommy’s right and leans closer. Resting against him, but not wrapping his arm around the way he would with his mother. “And maybe you can tell her tomorrow, I don’t think she’s evil.” He wrinkles his nose. “Idon’t know if it’s autism or just because I think she’s a nice person. But she’s good. I’m sure of it.”
“Thanks, bud.” I gift him a smile and take a single step back. “I’ll catch you guys tomorrow. Oh, and someone needs to call Cliff and let him know everything’s okay. He’s probably breaking into the gym right about now.”
Tommy snorts. “I’ll take care of it.”
ROUND THIRTY-SIX
ROSE
Is this what death feels like? Am I in hell?
I breathe through my mouth because my nose is blocked, and choke on a pained groan as it rolls along my aching throat and over a dirty, dry tongue.
Water.
I would do unspeakable things for a glass of water.
I close my mouth and attempt to swallow. Something. Anything. But as the taste of barf registers in my sluggish brain, I exhale again and whimper.
God. What did I do to deserve this?
My head pounds just as viciously as it did in the early days after I woke in the hospital, and even with my eyes closed, light spears in through my bedroom window and hammers against the side of my face.
Do I have a fresh new head injury? Did Barbara mow me down in the street?
“There’s water and ibuprofen on your bedside table.”
I startle and snort, jerking up to my elbows and swinging my barely-open eyes across to the door. I glare at Oliver effing Darling in all his perfect, showered, non-barfy glory, and when I draw my focus up to stop on his playful smirk, I drop to my belly and groan. “Go away.”
He chuckles and pushes away from the door frame, wandering across the room. “Not going away.”
“What’s that thing people sign?” I shakily grab my blankets and drag them up. Higher. If I wasn’t afraid of the stench of my own breath, I wouldpull them clear over my head. “The one where they don’t want to be saved.”
“A DNR?” He stops beside my bed and lowers into a crouch. “Do not resuscitate.”
“Yeah. That one.” I gulp the filthy flavor of vomit and phlegm. “You keep saving me, and every time you do, I wake up wishing you hadn’t. No more.” I moan. “I’m done.”
He presses his fingers to the side of my face, startling me so my entire body jerks. But then he strokes hair off my cheek, so my groan turns to a purr.
“First time wasn’t your fault. Second time was. You don’t know how to manage your alcohol, Rosaline?”
“I don’t know.” I scrub my palm over my face, huffing and nauseating myself.I can smell me. Which means he candefinitelysmell me. “I’m in my room.”
“I wasn’t leaving you at Tommy’s. Here.” He taps my cheek, smiling in my peripheral when I drag my eyelid open just a tiny fraction of an inch. “Water. Meds. It’ll make you feel better.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever feel better.” I roll to my side, peeling my sweaty, disgusting skin from the sheets. Then I land on my back and clamp down on a fresh new surge of puke as it tickles the base of my throat. Grunting, I look Ollie up and down, from his muscular forearm to his broad shoulders, visible even under a slate gray sweater. He pinches pills between his fingers, while behind those, his obnoxiously sexy lips quirk into a taunting smirk.
“You put me in my room?”
“Yes. Because you would’ve slept in the snow if given half the chance. Focus.” He places the pills on my tongue and his hand behind my back, then he helps me lift and holds the water while I sip.
Swallow.
