Chloe took the sample and prescription and followed the doctor to the door. “Thank you. I’m on it.”
“Tell your mama I said hello. I haven’t seen her since Easter brunch at the church.”
“I’ll do that. And thank you again, Dr.Angela. We sure appreciate you coming all the way out here.”
She turned at the door, her eyes twinkling. “They’re paying me quite well. Plus I got to meet a movie star today. Don’t worry though. I won’t tell anyone where he’s staying. The guy’s got enough problems at the moment. But he’s lucky to have you looking after him. I’ll be coming by to check on him. Take care now that you don’t get sick.”
“Oh, you know me. I never get sick. Have a great day, Dr.Angela!”
Chapter21
Liam awoke to a darkened room and a pounding headache. Was it a hundred degrees in here? He pushed off the covers, his arms moving like leaden bricks. Every muscle in his body ached.
Ugghh.
He had no idea what time it was, but clearly it was night and time for more Tylenol. Too bad he didn’t have the energy to retrieve it.
Chloe was gone now. He had a vague memory of her leaving this afternoon. Bending over the bed, concern lining her face and flickering in her pretty blue eyes. Something about work and keys and the nightstand. Or had he dreamed all that?
He rolled over and carefully felt around his bedside table. There. His phone was on his charger. It awakened as he grabbed it, illuminating the table. A glass of water and the container of Tylenol sat right there.
God bless you, Chloe Anderson.
He gulped down two pills, then answered some of the concerned texts that had come in from Elliot, Simone, Spencer, and the studio, letting them know he’d started on an antiviral, even though the doctor had surely already contacted them.
Then he fell back onto the bed like he’d just finished a marathon. His lips were dry from all the mouth-breathing and his brain was filled with a thick fog. Last time he’d been this sick was several years ago in his Santa Monica home. He was between films and suffered in silence for a few days until he ran out of food. Finally he let Spencerknow. Liam wasn’t about to have a stranger come to his door. His friend kindly brought groceries, leaving them on the porch because he had a newborn at home and couldn’t take chances with Liam’s virus.
It had taken a week and a half to feel normal again. The hours had passed like a boulder-sized kidney stone. He hated being sick. Trapped home all alone. It reminded him of being sick during his childhood when his mom was too distracted by her own life to do much more than look in on him now and then.
He thought of the movie schedule and felt a jolt of panic. This illness was probably going to leave him useless for a week or so. He vaguely remembered Chloe’s call to Simone. The producer was probably frantic about the schedule and budget.
The clock downstairs ticked away the seconds and the dim roar of the surf sounded through the walls. Remembering the way Buttercup had curled up with him earlier, he felt around the bed for the cat’s soft fur, then lifted his phone and shone the light. Buttercup was gone with Chloe, of course. Melancholy closed in like a heavy fog.
He checked the time. Ten o’clock. And he was wide awake. Exhausted but unable to sleep. It was going to be a long night.
***
Chloe was closing out the cash drawer when Sean emerged from his office in street clothes.
“Busy night,” he said. “If you’re all set here, I’m gonna take off.”
She eyed his black jeans and button-down shirt. “Where you headed so late on a Friday night?”
He adjusted his collar. “Got a date.”
“Anyone I know?”
“Is there anyone in this town you don’t know?”
“Pretty much just the tourists.”
He pushed through the swinging doors into the kitchen.
Chloe finished up at the register and followed him to the kitchen, where he helped himself to a water bottle.
She grabbed a to-go box and began filling it with dinner rolls. “Why do I get the feeling you dodged my question? You’re not going out with our new waitress, are you? I’ve already put a week into her training and she’s got real promise.”
He leaned against the fridge, wearing a smug smile. “I have to agree.”
