Chapter 18
I ndie frowned at the door, then sighed as her bladder gave a protest.
Shoot.
She needed to pee and she knew she couldn’t do it by herself.
So annoying.
She’d have to call the nurse. However, before she could grab hold of the buzzer, Spencer walked back through the door.
He must have realized that he hadn’t said goodbye.
She waited, but he didn’t say anything.
All he did was sit in the same chair and bring out his phone, tapping on it. “What do you feel like for dinner?”
Um. What?
“Dinner?” she repeated. Had she heard him wrong?
She must have, right? Why would he be sitting there asking her about dinner?
“Yeah, Princess. What would you like? You said the drugs they’re giving you are helping you keep stuff down. So whatever you like. The food here probably tastes like crap. I wonder if we should move you to a private hospital. Did they give you any indication of how long you’d need to be here? ”
She gaped at him in silence until he finally glanced up at her. “Indie? You all right?”
“Why are you here?” she whispered hoarsely.
She just didn’t understand.
What was going on here?
Spencer studied her for a long moment before leaning forward and wrapping his hand around hers. She snatched it back. She wasn’t sure if it was out of surprise or fear or because it was Spencer.
It wasn’t like these guys had a right to touch her anymore. Spencer closed his eyes, his face pinching in pain.
Shit.
“Sorry,” she whispered.
His eyes shot open and he glared at her. “No. Don’t say sorry to me. You don’t ever have to say sorry to me.”
“Spencer—” she started to say, but he interrupted her.
“No. I mean it. I owe . . . I owe you so much. I should have listened to you. This is my fault. Our fault. But we won’t make that mistake again. You’re ours to look after and we’re finally going to ensure that we do that.”
“I’m not yours, Spencer. Or theirs.”
He held her gaze with his. “Maybe not yet. But you will be. We just have to prove ourselves.”
“Spencer . . . you don’t have to do anything. And I don’t understand why you’re still here.”
“Did you really think we were going to leave you alone once we found out what happened?”
“Oh.” She should have guessed that they were worried about Billy returning.
“I doubt Billy will be back.” At least not while she was in hospital with lots of witnesses around.
Spencer shot her a stern look. “Oh, we’ll make sure of that. But that’s not the only reason I’m here. I’m here to take care of you and the baby.”
“The baby?” For some reason, she hadn’t thought they’d be interested in her baby.
“You’re going to need somewhere to go after you’re discharged, right?” he said. “You can’t go back to where you were living now that Billy found you. So you’ll come home with us and we will look after you.”
Oh, yes please.
Wait.
Nooo. Nope.
“I’m not going home with you.” Her head started thumping as she glared at him.
She expected him to protest and she was ready for an argument. So it was actually a letdown when he just nodded.
And for some ridiculous reason tears welled in her eyes.
What was wrong with her? She was being silly. Just because he didn’t insist that he wanted her to come stay with them she got all upset?
“I need to call the nurse,” she told him. “And you need to leave.”
“Why?”
“Um, because I don’t need you to stay.”
“No, not that. I’m staying. Why do you need the nurse?”
“You can’t just ignore my wishes, Spencer,” she told him. “If I called the cops they’d make you leave.”
“You’re not going to do that, though. I know .
. . I get why you don’t want me here. But we can’t leave you alone, Indie.
We just can’t. We have so much to make up to you.
And the first way we do that is by making sure that bastard can never touch you again.
By ensuring you have everything you need.
Can you let us do that? Can you let us protect and take care of you? ”
Indie stared at him for a long moment. Her headache was getting worse and her bladder was screaming. “I think you should all leave.”
It hurt to say it. But what if she fell for all their promises and they rejected her again?
Spencer nodded. “I get it. I’d feel the same way. I will do anything for you, Indie, but I cannot leave you. ”
Damn it.
Her headache grew worse and she still really, really had to pee.
“You’ve got a headache, haven’t you?” Spencer asked quietly. “You have that same look that Slade gets. We shouldn’t be talking about all of this right now. Not when you’re meant to be resting and healing. Let’s get you some painkillers for that headache.”
“Yeah. I need the nurse.”
Monica came quickly after Spencer hit the buzzer, making her wonder if she’d been waiting around outside the room.
“Are you all right, Indie?” Monica asked. She shot Spencer a look filled with suspicion and mistrust. “You’re still here.”
“Yeah, I’m spending the night,” Spencer said cheerfully with a wide grin. “You won’t even know I’m here. I promise. I’m just here to look after Indie.”
Monica’s frown seemed to soften. Indie knew why they’d chosen Spencer to stay. He was easily the most charming. The least likely to ruffle feathers.
Slade was intimidating. Quaid was downright terrifying. While Rock was misunderstood.
“Indie has a headache. I’m sure you can help fix her up, right?” Spencer said to Monica.
“Let me check your chart,” Monica said. “I’ll see if I can give you anything. Have you had much water?”
“Umm,” she said.
“I take that as a no,” Moncia said dryly. “You have to keep yourself hydrated, all right? It’s important.”
“Yes, I know. But I really can’t drink right now,” she said.
Spencer frowned at her. “Why? Does the water taste funny here? You never liked plain water that much.”
Spencer grabbed his phone and started to tap on it.
What was he doing?
He’d gone from talking to her to concentrating on his phone.
“It’s not that. I’m not that fussy anymore. I just really have to use the bathroom. ”
“No problem. I just need you to move out of the way,” Monica said to Spencer.
“Oh, that’s no issue,” Spencer told her. “I’ll help Indie to the bathroom.”
Um. What?
Yeah, that wasn’t happening.
Spencer stood and drew down the blanket, frowning at her. What? What was wrong with her?
“Your pajamas have holes in them. We’ll get you new ones.”
“No!”
Both Monica and Spencer stared at her in surprise. She could feel her cheeks growing warm.
“I like these ones.” The same person who had grabbed her phone and other things had gotten these pajamas from the apartment for her.
They were like a guilty pleasure. A security blanket.
Suddenly, realization filled Spencer’s face and then he softened and nodded. Great, he remembered these pajamas.
Slade had given them to her for Christmas one year. They were white with candy canes and reindeer on them.
These were the pajamas she wore when she needed to feel closer to them. When she needed some comfort.
“All right, Princess. Leave them on. Now, I’m going to lift you up.”
“I can help Indie,” Monica told him.
“I’m sure you have other patients to help,” Spencer told her cheerfully. “Indie has me now.”
He might have been smiling but his voice was firm.
Just then, a buzzer went off.
“Shoot. I have to take this. Don’t touch her. You might hurt her,” Monica told him.
Spencer shot her a dark look that made Indie freeze. That was definitely not a look she’d ever seen from him.
“I would never harm her.”
Monica looked torn .
“I’ll be fine, Monica,” Indie told her. “Just go help whoever needs you.”
“I’ll be back,” Monica promised before she moved quickly out of the room.
“I’m going to pick you up now, Princess,” Spencer warned. “I’m telling you because I don’t want you to flinch or get a fright.”
“I can walk.”
“Not happening on my watch.”
Lord. Where did all this protectiveness come from?
“All right,” she grumbled. “Not like I have much choice.”
“That’s right,” he said cheerfully.
Urgh, he was like a yo-yo, back and forth. Cheerful then stern. It was hard to keep up.
Spencer slowly slid his arm under her thighs and around her back. “You should have told me as soon as you had to go. It’s not good to hold on. You’ll give yourself a UTI.”
Good Lord.
Did he really just say that?
He lifted her slowly into the air.
Shit. That hurt. She bit down on her lip to hold in her cry of pain. But he quickly got her to the bathroom.
“Fuck. Sorry, Princess,” he told her.
“It’s fine. Why do you call me a princess?” she asked. It was something she’d asked him in the past, but he’d never told her.
Right now she was as far from a princess as a person could get, wearing worn Christmas pajamas and having to be carried to the bathroom.
“Because you are a princess.”
She snorted. “You’re having to carry me to the toilet. That’s not very princess-like.”
“Really? I thought that was very princess-like. I’m carrying you to your throne.”
She rolled her eyes. “That was terrible.”
“I live to serve, my princess. ”
What was she going to do with him? Urgh. She just realized she was smiling up at him and wiped it off her face.
Sadness filled his eyes. “It was nice to see you smiling again.”
Yeah, she couldn’t really remember the last time she’d smiled like this. She’d managed to smile sometimes for Maggie. But all of that had taken effort.
This had felt natural.
She let out a small sigh.
“It’s all right, Princess. We’ll help you smile again.”
Indie shook her head. She didn’t have the energy left to argue with him. All she wanted was to pee and hopefully get some painkillers for her thumping head.
“I’m going to put you on your feet but hold onto you,” he warned. “Then I’ll help you take off your pants.”
Indie didn’t have time to protest before he carefully lowered her legs. He held onto her upper arms and waited for her to adjust to standing.
“I’m fine,” she said in a faint voice.
The room was spinning slightly but that was nothing she couldn’t deal with. Same with the nausea bubbling in her stomach.
“Probably should have gotten you a bed pan.”
“No,” she said hastily. “Not happening. I am not peeing in a pan.”
“Better than you being in pain like this. What about one of those chairs that they wheel over to the bed that have the bed pan under it?”
Jesus.
She’d thought the UTI conversation was as bad as things could get. Seemed she was wrong.
“No.” It was all she could say to him.
“I could have pulled your pants down while you lay in bed, then lifted you straight on.”
“Double no.” She was pretty certain he was joking.
But sometimes it could be difficult to tell.
“No?” he said, sounding disappointed .
“No! We do not have that sort of relationship,” she informed him.
“The kind where I pull down your pants? Oh, that’s disappointing.”
“Spencer! Be serious,” she chided.
“I am.”
Oh. “You know we don’t have that sort of relationship.”
“What if I want that?” he whispered.
“I’d say that your timing is off. A couple of years ago, I’d have leapt at the chance to date you. But now I don’t see how I can possibly trust you again.”
It hurt her to say that but it didn’t make it less true.
“I will earn that back. I wasn’t talking about dating, though.”
Oh my God. Had she gotten that wrong? She ran over their conversation in her head. Had he meant that he wanted to just fuck her?
“Do you think you can hold on to my shoulders while I crouch down without falling over?”
“Uh, I guess. But why?” she asked, trying to hide her embarrassment.
He crouched slowly down, putting his face level with her stomach. What the heck?
“Hands,” he said firmly, glancing up at her. “Or I’ll get one of those chair-bed-pan-thingies.”
She snorted at the name but placed her hands on his shoulders.
She blamed the headache for not realizing what he intended. But as he reached for her pajama bottoms, she finally clued in. And she drew back suddenly.
Her body protested the movement. God. It felt like a knife was being stabbed into her side and she let out a cry of pain.
“Fuck! Shit!” Spencer said.
She was barely aware of Spencer standing, the way his hands hovered over her as though he wanted to touch her but was too afraid of hurting her.
“Indie? Are you all right? What can I do?” he asked desperately .
“Just . . . just leave. Please. Just leave.”
“I can’t leave you like this. I’m so sorry.”
“Is everything all right in there? Indie? Do you need help?” Monica called through the door as she knocked.
“Yes, please,” Indie called out.
Monica quickly entered, glaring at Spencer. “I think you better leave, Mr . . . ?”
“Hensley,” Spencer said. “Princess, I’m so sorry. I never meant to harm you.”
Indie could see the clear regret on his face. She knew that he’d never intentionally hurt her.
But that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t keep doing it.
This time wasn’t entirely his fault. But was it going to keep happening? And she wasn’t talking about physical pain.
More the emotional kind.
“Indie,” he whispered, sounding heartbroken.
“Please leave, Spencer. I just need to be on my own.”
“All right.”
Turning, he walked out of the bathroom door. Indie told herself it was for the best. That the heartbreak these guys would bring with them wasn’t worth the pleasure rush she got from their attention.
They were like a drug. Addictive and providing her with the ultimate high.
Followed by the lowest of lows.
When he was gone Monica gave her a sympathetic look. “He’s gorgeous but he looks like trouble.”
“They all are,” she said. “That’s the problem.”