Haz tripped on the edge of the rug near the bed and nearly went down. Kieran’s entire life flashed across his face, and I let go of Pip to steady Hazard and the tray of good eats before it all crashed to the ground.
“I really think we should get some new rugs,” Haz said, twisting to look at Kieran.
Kieran’s eye twitched. “Put the tray down.”
I took it from Haz, and he immediately went to Pip. “How are you this morning, Rett?”
“I’m okay. Thank you so much for letting me stay here last night. And for letting me borrow this shirt,” he said, plucking the front of the T-shirt away from his body.
I saw a flash of him taking off the shirt he’d been wearing yesterday to try to stop my arm from bleeding.
“You can stay anytime,” Haz volunteered, and I slid a glance at Kieran to see what he thought of that but was distracted when Pip said, “I need to be going.”
Absolutely not. Over my cold, dead body. “Come over here and eat, Pip.”
He didn’t even look at me. “I’m not hungry.”
“You’re eating.”
“But that’s for you, Ghost.” Haz worried. “You need—are you bleeding?”
As if I would sit down and shovel food in my mouth when Pip was sitting here with nothing. Frankly, I was going to have to talk to Kieran about his hospitable ways. Or lack thereof.
It was one thing to be an asshole to me but something else altogether to be like that toward Pip.
“He ripped his IV out,” Pip declared. Apparently, he liked telling people that.
Haz’s multicolored eyes whipped to mine, one blue and one green, emphatically staring. “Did you fall out of bed too?”
“What?” I wondered and glanced at Kieran, who let out a long-suffering sigh.
“He ripped it out when I tried to leave,” Pip explained.
“Doc said to leave it in until he gets here later,” Haz retorted.
“I don’t need it.”
“Do you feel like your organs are floating?” Haz asked seriously. “That’s how I feel every time Kieran makes me get an IV.”
I cackled. What a lightweight.
“If you drip blood on my carpet, you’re buying me a new house,” Kieran grumbled.
God forbid his house looked like someone—*shudders*—lives in it.
“In the bed, Pip,” I announced, gesturing with my head.
Ignoring me, he turned to Haz. “Do you have any Band-Aids?”
Haz nodded. “Kieran has a massive first aid kit in the bathroom.”
“Really?” Pip sounded just as impressed as Haz.
I didn’t know what was so special about a pile of Band-Aids and some peroxide, but whatever floated their boats, I guess.
When they both disappeared into the bathroom, Kieran muttered, “Gonna need to keep a whole clinic on standby for someone like Haz.” His eyes strayed to me. “And apparently you too.”
I scoffed. “I’ve had worse hangovers than this,” I declared, setting the tray on the bed, then turned toward my friend.
