Chapter 13 Dare
THIRTEEN
DARE
Something cold and wet touched my face and it was only once I felt the cool comfort that I realized how hot I was.
My eyes were heavy and sticky when I tried to open them, and it took a few moments for my vision to clear before I grounded myself with my body. My aching body.
I brought a hand up to touch my forehead and found a wet towel, but as soon as I tried to remove it Zach appeared and slapped my hand away.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I…I don’t know,” I croaked.
“Well, you’re not removing the compress from your head, that’s what you’re not doing.”
His face entered my field of vision and I stilled. He had a concerned expression on his face and narrowed eyes that looked as if they could see through my thick skull.
He removed the cloth from my forehead and touched the back of his hand against my hot skin that only got hotter under his gaze and then replaced the cold compress with a new one from a bowl of iced water on the bedside table.
“How are you feeling?” he asked and before I could answer, he added, “where do you keep your thermometer? I couldn’t find it.”
“I…uhm…” I started as I tried to mentally go through my drawers before I told him to look in one of the units in the spare room.
He disappeared for a moment and came back, bewildered.
“I don’t know what the thermometer is doing in the same drawer with nails and screws but okay,” he said, plonking himself on my bedside and aimed the thermometer at my mouth.
“I’m not seven you know,” I told him.
He pursed his lips and handed me the device with a glare that he didn’t drop until I put the probe in my mouth.
As we waited for the thermometer to do its thing, Lookah wandered into the room and climbed in bed, curling up next to me. His warmth might have added to mine, but I couldn’t resist the extra cuddle time no matter how hot I was.
I didn’t miss the thin line drawn across Zach’s lips when the thermometer beeped or the way his smile made my insides flare.
I might not like being treated like a baby, but I hadn’t had anyone look after me for ages.
Hell, I hadn’t had any human contact in years, since Wyatt ditched me.
This—all of this, Zach in my house, cooking for me, tending to my needs—might be foreign after such a long time on my own, but so dearly missed.
“Woah,” Zach let out and blinked several times. “A hundred and two? You need a doctor.”
I rolled my eyes and sat up.
“I don’t need anyone. I need to get up.”
I tried to put my legs on the floor, but Zach was in the way, and he didn’t move.
“You do not!” Zach snapped, pushing my legs back.
“Your concern is sweet, really, Zach. I appreciate it, but it’s a busy day and I need to get on with it.”
I tried to get up again and once more I was blocked.
“Dare, don’t be stubborn! A fever means it’s a rest day.”
“Really?” I raised an eyebrow and stared right at him. “Do you take the day off when you have a fever at the bakery?”
“Well…” he mumbled. “I haven’t had a fever yet. But if I did, I would. I’d have to for others’ safety as much as my own.”
“Why don’t I buy that?” I smirked.
Zach stared me down for a moment before he pressed his lips together and narrowed his eyes.
“I don’t have a bakery anymore, so it’s a moot point.”
“But I still have a farm, so I need to go.”
Zach put his hand to my chest, and I caught my breath as if I’d been punched in the gut.
I hated myself. I hated how much a simple touch could send my heart into a frenzy and my mind reeling.
How in a mere instant I could forget how to speak, how to walk, how to even think. All thanks to a single touch.
“Sit your ass down and stop being a baby. You need to rest. I won’t repeat myself,” he said in an intensely sharp tone I’d never heard from him before. “I’m gonna call a doctor. Don’t you dare disobey me while I’m not looking.”
I licked my lip and after a moment of being stared down, I nodded.
“C-call Warren. His buddy is a doctor,” I said and offered him my phone.
He took it from me, and I didn’t miss how his gaze flickered and the bossiness he’d presented moments ago vanished.
“Okay,” he answered and walked out of the room only to walk back in with a tray. “Silly me. Forgot your breakfast.”
He set it down on my lap and I looked at the contents, which included an oatmeal bowl with fruit and honey, a croissant, and some freshly-squeezed orange juice.
I felt a deep rumble in my core as I ate the breakfast he’d prepared for me.
A deep rumble that had nothing to do with my cold and everything to do with him.
“Any other symptoms?” Ari asked me half an hour later when he’d arrived with Warren.
I shook my head.
This farce had lasted long enough. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d worked through a cold. I was still fine. People like me didn’t take days off. We didn’t have rest days. We couldn’t. It wasn’t feasible.
“It’s just a fever,” I said.
“It’s not just a fever,” Warren said.
“How would you know? Why don’t you let the doctor speak?” I turned to Ari.
Ari pursed his lips left to right before he said, “it really isn’t just a fever, Dare.”
I huffed and crossed my arms.
“It sounds like a mild case of pneumonia.”
“Exactly, like you said. Mild. So I’m fine.”
Ari sighed.
“Yes, but unless you want it to turn into a severe case of pneumonia I’d suggest staying in bed the rest of the week, and take these.” He raised a bottle in the air and shook it, making the pills inside rattle like a maracas.
“What are those?”
Zach huffed and snatched the bottle from Ari’s hand.
“Magic beans. What do you think they are? How many and when should he take the antibiotics, Doctor?” He said, and glared at me when he said the antibiotics part.
“Call me Ari. And one every eight hours for five to seven days should do the trick.”
Zach confirmed he’d heard Ari by opening the bottle and handing me a pill, then he grabbed a glass of water from the bedside table and finally checked the time on his phone.
“I’ve set an alarm for eight hours, so we won’t forget. Anything else?” he asked.
I watched him as Ari answered his questions and I felt a flutter in my chest as my heart started racing again. But it wasn’t from the pneumonia. It was because of how much he seemed to care. How interested he seemed in my wellbeing. How he acted more like a partner than a friend.
Or maybe it was the pneumonia, and I really needed to get a grip.
“Are you done discussing my life or are you going to coordinate my bathroom visits too?”
“Don’t tempt me, mister,” Zach said and Ari laughed.
“How long have you guys been together?”
I choked. Zach laughed. Warren bit his lip.
“We-we’re not together,” Zach said at the same time as me and then shook his head for added measure.
It had no right to feel like a knife to the heart, but it did. And yet his response, his reaction even, was another reason why I needed to pull my shit together. I was projecting all my desires on a young innocent man who was only here out of necessity.
Zach didn’t want me. He didn’t crave me. His heart didn’t stop beating every time I entered the room, and his lungs didn’t stop working every time I smiled. That just happened to me when he was near. and I was just a sad, pathetic man who craved connection so much that I was projecting.
I needed to get over myself. I needed to get over Zach. But how could I when he was here, in my house, twenty-four seven.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“You didn’t,” I snapped. “It’s okay.”
I made to get up, and I got stared down by three sets of eyes again.
“What?” I asked.
If I was going to get over myself I needed to get out of these four walls.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Warren asked.
I sighed.
“Guys, enough, okay? I know you all want what’s best for me and yadda, yadda, yadda but I’ve got fields to look after, deliveries to make.”
“I can make your deliveries,” Zach said and my eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
“You can’t, Zach! That’s…dangerous.”
Ari grimaced but if he had any question as to why, he didn’t say.
“I’m going to be fine,” Zach started very confidently but by the end he was mumbling.
Thankfully, Warren stepped up and offered to make the deliveries.
“And the fields can wait another day,” Ari said, patting my hand and putting away his things in his briefcase.
“So lie back down and rest. Doctor’s orders. Right?” Zach asked and glanced at Ari, who smiled a yes at me.
As soon as my head hit the pillow, I felt it. The soreness. The heaviness all over. I was wiped and I’d barely done anything. I hated to admit it, but maybe they were right.
Maybe I needed to rest. Maybe if I closed my eyes for a second I’d feel better when I woke up. Maybe…
I drifted off before I knew it was happening and when I opened my eyes again I felt all fuzzy and discombobulated. I had no idea how much time had passed but it felt like I’d slept all day.
Zach was there, of course. He was sitting on the armchair at the corner of the room, reading a book. I observed him for a bit, and I choked down a chuckle when his eyes started to flicker, and he looked like he was about to doze off.
I must have made some noise because he turned to me and he was up on his feet right away.
“Hey,” he said. “How are you feeling?”
I groaned.
“Like somebody is sitting on me.”
Zach chuckled.
“What time is it? How long have I been sleeping?”
Zach checked the time.
“A couple of hours.”
“Feels like ten,” I grumbled.
“Are you hungry? I’ve made some chicken soup.”
I closed my eyes and focused on my stomach trying to interpret what it actually needed.
“Not sure,” I said.
I felt sick at the thought of food, yet so hungry I could eat everything.
Boy, I was really sick, wasn’t I?
“Let me get you some and you can see how you feel, okay?”
I nodded and Zach left the room. It felt emptier without him.
I felt emptier without him.
I groaned again.
What the hell is wrong with me?
Why couldn’t I stop obsessing over my guest, even when I was fucking sick? It was like my infatuation with the guy was getting worse, which I guessed wasn’t that strange considering he was constantly around me, in my house.
At least before, I’d only see him once during the day, then I could escape here, where he wasn’t everywhere I turned and where his presence wasn’t felt in every room.
He returned a few minutes later with soup and bread and I inhaled everything to both our surprise. Then I nodded off again.
The next time I woke up, it was because he was nudging me and when I managed to open my eyes he pushed a pill in my hand and let me go back to sleep after I’d taken it.
I lost track of how many times I woke up and drifted back to sleep but at some point I looked out the window to see that it was dark, and I was alone in my room.
I waited.
Waited some more.
He still didn’t come in.
I waited for what felt like hours and when I didn’t hear anything, I decided to go find him.
I steadied myself on the chest of drawers, then again on the door frame and stumbled my way into the living room. Everything was turning and my head was pounding but he wasn’t there. I checked the bathroom too. Nothing.
I found him in the spare room, curled up with a blanket over his head that was thin enough to let the glow of his phone screen show.
“What are you doing here?” I asked him.
He jumped and uncovered himself.
“You’re awake!” he said.
“Why are you in here?” I asked.
“I didn’t want to bother you,” he answered.
I dropped my head and closed my eyes. Something tickled my throat and I laughed. I laughed out loud until I got all phlegmy and hoarse and I stopped.
“Wh-why are you laughing?”
“Because we’re both so fucking stubborn,” I said and pointed to my bedroom. “Come on. It wouldn’t help if you got pneumonia too.”
Zach raised an eyebrow.
“Pretty sure I’m more likely to catch it sleeping in the same bed as you than a cold room.”
“At least sleep in the living room where it’s warm.”
“I’m fine,” he insisted.
I didn’t move. I didn’t even flinch. I simply glared at him until he got up but he didn’t go to the living room. He went into my bedroom.
When I entered I found him creating a pillow fort in the middle of the bed and I couldn’t help but smile.
“Gosh, you hate me that much?” I asked.
“No,” he said, very nonchalantly. “I hate pneumonia that much.”
I nodded.
“Then why aren’t you sleeping in the living room?”
He didn’t answer. He got into bed and glared at me.
“Are you coming to bed or what?” he asked. “I’m wiped.”
I bit back a laugh, turned the lights off and got into bed too.
There might be several pillows between us, but I could feel his presence all the way to my bones. And it made me feel a little better. A little less sick. A little more comfortable.
A little less lonely.