I had to get out of there. The heat I felt in my stomach, mixed with the steam from the bath, was making me lightheaded. This moment was too intimate and I had to leave.I tapped her shoulder, and she opened her eyes, smiling at me as if this was totally normal.
“Are you going to be okay by yourself? I’m going to get you some soup.”
She sat up a little, and I let out a tiny whimper when her boobs came into view. I had to pull it together.
I was desperate to turn away, but couldn’t, knowing I had to look for her answer. I focused on her hands, as if I were using telepathy to get them to move on their own. I couldn’t look at her chest. Did she not care that her boobs were out? Did she not know? I wasn’t about to tell her because then she would know I was looking.
“Yeah, I’m almost done, anyway. Thank you, Kaia. You’ve been a really good nurse.”
For literally no reason at all, I leaned down and kissed her forehead, then cringed at myself.Who does that?She didn’t seem fazed by it at all, but I was totally embarrassed.
I shut the door behind me and took a deep breath. “Okay, Kaia. Back to nurse mode. She doesn’t need you pining over her. She needs you to take care of her and make her feel better. It’s what you’re good at. You’ve got this. She’ll come back out here, fully dressed, and you’ll act like nothing is wrong. Just like you always do.”
An hour later, I got the notification that the food had arrived, so I made my way to the door to pick it up. I had ordered Daisy’s favorite soup to be delivered while she was in the bath. It was a delicious tomato soup with chunks of tomato in the puree. The store called it tomato feta soup. They made it thick enough to dip a grilled cheese sandwich in, and it didn’t get soggy. They blended the feta into the soup, and it was heavenly.
Shortly after I had our bowls prepared and brought over to the couch, I looked up to see Daisy walking into the living room. I was glad I had just set the bowls on the table or I would’ve dropped them.
She was wearing freaking silk pajamas. Silk! The shorts were a light blue and they were too short! She had on a matching tank top, and I was pretty sure she was braless. I didn’t let myself look to confirm, though. Her hair was wet from the bath, and I had to bite my tongue.
What happened to the simple pajamas she was wearing before her bath? The ones that went down to her knees and didn’t show hardly any skin? The ones that, while still stirring something inside me, didn’t make my skin feel like I was walking barefoot on pavement in the middle of July? And make my breath threaten to float away? There was nothing wrong withthosepajamas.
“The soup smells amazing! Thank you!”
I cleared my throat and sat on the couch. She sat next to me and we clinked our bowls together like we usually did when we ate together. We ate our soup, which was delicious, as always, and it was nice to have company.
She looked as if she was feeling better. Her skin was getting some of that pretty little glow back, and she was talking like her usual cheery self. We discussed work for a while, and she showed me her current projects. Of course I loved them all, and she frowned when I had no notes for her.
“I’m sorry, sunny. Maybe if you weren’t phenomenal at what you do, I’d have more helpful things to say.”
“You’re just saying that because I’m sick,” she replied, but I didn’t miss the little shimmy of confidence my response gave. She knew she wastalented. The way she could take someone’s story and make it a reality with a cover was unlike anything I’d ever seen.
Even Blair had been using her more frequently with her covers. Fantasy could be a little harder at times, and the first time Blair hired her, Daisy was freaking out. But of course she knocked it out of the park and had even gotten clients that Blair had sent to her.
“I am not! You’re really talented, Daisy. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t be swimming in money.”
She let out a loud laugh, and I always saved those moments in the back of my mind. “Yeah, I’m swimming in loads of cash,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “But thank you, doodle. It means a lot that you think I’m good.”
I smiled and rested my hand on her leg, aware I shouldn’t. I was lucky enough that we were best friends and close enough that she never thought anything of that kind of contact. She was always doing the same; it just had a different effect on me. I couldn’t breathe when she touched me, and she went on as if life were normal, which for her, it was.
As much as I craved for it to be, it was never a sexual kind of touch. I never moved my hand any higher than the top of her knee, and I never caressed her in any way, even though I was desperate to. I forced myself to make sure it came off as a comforting gesture, not one of longing and desire.
“I do. Now finish your soup before it gets cold.”
After she finished eating, I swiped our bowls and headed to the kitchen to rinse them off. I put them in the dishwasher and headed back to the couch, where Daisy was looking up at me, smiling.
“How are you feeling?” I felt her forehead, which felt warm, but not as hot as it did before.
She sat up and motioned for me to sit on the couch next to her. “I’m feeling a little better. The medicine and the bath definitely helped. And you, of course. Thank you again for taking care of me, Kaia.” She smiled and hugged me, lingering on a little longer than normal. Daisy’s love language was physical touch, and I wasn’t about to complain. Mine was acts of service and physical touch, so that moment felt perfect.
“Always,” I said. And that was the truth. I’d always take care of the people I loved.
Her smile turned softer as she looked at me again. “Did your dad get sick a lot?”
I nodded, remembering the last time it had gotten really bad. The tears were already threatening to spill out. “A few times a year he’d get really sick. Whether it was pneumonia, a bad case of the flu, or something heart related. You already know I moved back in with him after his last one. He tried to fight it, and we got into a big argument about it. I couldn’t stomach the feeling of something happening to him and I wasn’t close by to do anything. I pulled the mom card, and he finally gave in. I knew if I brought her up, he’d agree without another word, but that’s a story for a different day.”
I couldn’t keep my eyes dry, and I wasn’t about to talk about both of them in one night. Thankfully, she knew that and didn’t ask for more on the subject.
I wiped the tears away, desperately wanting to talk about anything else. “Come on, sunny. Let’s get you to bed.”
