“Oh, come on. Don’t be that person.” I fake a wince. “My poor, injured head can’t take it.”
“Fine by me. I’ll drive you back to the hospital.” She huffs. “In fact, I might feel better if you were being watched over by doctors all night.”
I frown at her as I flop onto the bed. “You’re no fun.”
“How about my name?” she continues.
“Devil woman.”
“Close enough. The alarm is officially set.” She turns off the overhead light and slides onto the mattress next to me. “Good night.”
When I shut my eyes, it’s not hard to drift to sleep. Still, it’s difficult to say if I ever truly fall asleep or if I remain in that hazy, half-awake state that blurs the lines between dreaming and reality. I’m lying on my side, her body warm beneath the arm wrapped around her waist, the steady sound of her breath lulling me to sleep. I’m far too comfortable with Leticia in my arms when that damn alarm jolts us both awake.
“Fucking hell.” She rolls away from me to shut off the sound. “God, were wecuddling?”
“You started it,” I say, not bothering to open my eyes before I reach for her again. “But I don’t mind. Come here.”
She huffs but doesn’t fight it as she returns to my side. My armslides up her back and into her silky hair. Sometime in the night, her bun fell apart.
“What’s your name?”
My eyes are still closed, but I feel her gaze warming the side of my face. When I don’t answer, she shakes my arm.
“J…come on. Answer the question.”
“Julian Gutierrez.”
“No middle name?”
“My head might be a little fuzzy, but you’re gonna need more than that to pry that information from me, woman.”
Another huff. “What day is it?”
“The day after Andrew’s birthday from hell,” I say, nuzzling my chin over the crown of her head. “October sixteenth.”
“And what events transpired to make this the birthday from hell?”
“He caught us on the porch, said the shittiest thing possible to you that made me want to punch his stupid mouth, and then I did.” I breathe in her scent, and her body trembles beneath me. “Should we talk about what happened? With us?”
“Not yet,” she says. “But we’ll need to soon. After you get better.”
“Worried about what I might say to you with my head all fucked up like this?”
She pulls away slightly to better face me, and I finally open my eyes. Even in the semidark, I can make out her furrowed brows and the frown pulling her mouth down.
“I get it. If I told you how I felt about you now, you wouldn’t believe me. You’d blame it on this stupid concussion, wouldn’t you? Anything to avoid the truth staring you straight in the face. Isn’t that right, Leticia?”
She pulls in a ragged breath, eyes shining with an emotion I can’t read.
“We should go back to sleep,” she says, and a well of disappointment fills my chest. “You’re groggy. I’ll wake you up again in another two hours.”
“If you say so, ma’am.”
She nuzzles into me again, her body sighing with relief as my arm tightens around her.
“But I mean it. If I need a clearer head to make you see that I mean it, then so be it.”
“Less yapping, more sleeping.”
