Chapter Sixteen
West
Daisy sets her half-eaten pizza back on the plate and pushes it across the coffee table.
“Not hungry?”I ask.
She shakes her head and rubs her knuckles over her breastbone, the way she does when she gets heartburn.“No.I think the peppers were a little too much this time.”
“Want me to pick them off?”
“No.You can have it.”
Good.I’m fucking starving.So, like an asshole, I reach for it and then I remember myself and snap my hand back.“You want me to fix you something else?”
“No, I think—” Daisy’s eyes widen and she wriggles forward out of the nest of blankets she’s made of the couch.“Oh crap, I gotta go.”
I jump up and help her to her feet, and she practically bowls me over in her hurry to get to the bathroom.Like a chump, I stand there, not knowing what to do, and then I follow her because she might need me.The bathroom door is closed so I raise my hand and gently knock.“Dais, you okay?”
“I’ll be right ou—” her words are cut off by violent retching.
“I’m coming in.”I open the door and step inside the small bathroom.Daisy is curled around the toilet seat, her hair loose and getting caught up in the fray.I grab a hair tie off the counter and quickly pull it back into a messy bun.She retches again, purging the contents of her stomach into the bowl.I rub small circles on her back.
She waves me away.“You don’t have to see this.”
“Dais, I was raised on a ranch.This doesn’t even come close to the worse things I’ve seen.You know I once caught Wade covering his face in steaming hot cow shit ’cause he wanted to be a rich woman at a day spa for Halloween.”
Her face twists, but she leans back against the tiled wall.“He didn’t.”
“’Fraid so.”I grab a washcloth from the shelf above the vanity and run it under the faucet.I crouch down in front of her and dab the cool cloth across her brow.“That wasn’t even the worst of it.Wyatt had run away once and I found him in the abandoned cabin in a compromising position with our neighbor’s kid.Neither one of them was old enough to be wielding a bullwhip, but Wyatt had seen a dominatrix in an old movie once and wanted to be her.We’re lucky neither of them died.Had fun trying to hide that one from mama and daddy.Don’t even get me started on the number of times I’ve walked in on Lemon and Colt.”I shudder.
Daisy holds her belly and groans through her laughter.“Oh my god, West.Stop.”
“Hey, I’m just saying.You puking up your guts is far from the worst things I’ve seen.”
“Well, it doesn’t help that you’re still making that face.”
I try to squash my grin, but I’m fighting an uphill battle while she’s giggling like that.
“Oh my god, I have to pee.”
I stand and help her to her feet.“Well now, that I won’t stay for.”
“Thanks,” she says sarcastically.
“You’re okay?”
