Chapter 14 #3
I shrug. “We all think ridiculous things sometimes.”
Easton leans into me and rests his head on my shoulder. “This fucker might lose his job for saving you.”
Leo sucks in a sharp breath, then falls into another, almost violent coughing fit. Easton jumps into action, rubbing his back, then feeding him a few ice chips before he’s calm again.
When he is, Leo clears his throat and barely makes a sound when he asks, “Is he telling the truth?”
I wave him off. “No. Camilo isn’t going to fire me.” I think. Probably. “I just sort of ignored protocol and ran in to get you without gear on.”
“What the fuck?” Leo hisses.
“I was fine. You were at the door, and I didn’t have time to put on anything,” I assure him. “And I didn’t get hurt.”
After a second, he sags back into his pillows, and his eyes flutter halfway closed. “I had two or three seizures, and one of them was a grand mal, so they want me to see the neurologist and check to make sure there’s nothing wrong.”
Easton swallows so hard I hear it click in his throat. “Do you feel okay?”
“Yeah.” Leo lifts a hand and takes Easton’s, squeezing it. “This is just the reality of my injury. The doctor I saw a few minutes ago was encouraged by the fact that I can string complicated sentences together, and I don’t have memory loss. So I’m not going to stress.”
He’s probably right. He seems pretty coherent, and his eyes are clear, if not a little red from all the smoke.
“I should let you get some rest,” I say, taking a step back. “Easton, you staying?”
“Yeah.” He looks at his brother. “Okay?”
“Sure,” Leo says. Then he glances at me, licks his lips, and says, “But maybe North can stay for a bit so you can go home and shower?”
“But—” Easton starts to argue.
“You smell like ass.”
Easton’s shoulders sag, and he nods. “Alright, fine. Half an hour, okay?”
“An hour is fine,” Leo tells him. “I’m in a hospital. I’m going to annoy North and probably sleep.”
Easton turns to me and drags me into a hug. “If you don’t want to—”
“It’s fine,” I interrupt. “I promise.”
Easton pulls back, gives his brother one last look, then turns on his heel and marches out. He doesn’t close the door all the way, but he closes it enough that we have some privacy.
“Are you angry with me?” Leo asks softly after what feels like forever.
I crack. I push myself up against his bed, grab his hand, and press his palm to my lips. “No. Fuck, I was so scared. I thought…” My voice cracks. “For a split second, I thought I was too late. Then you went into a seizure, and I was so fucking glad because it meant you were still breathing.”
Leo gives me a small, hoarse laugh. “Yeah.”
“You’re going to be in pain for a while,” I tell him. “Your feet…”
His hand twitches in mine. “Yeah, I know, but I’ve had worse.”
I suppose he has. Using my foot to hook a chair, I drag it closer and sit without letting him go. He stares down at me, and I want to kiss him, but he keeps coughing, and I don’t think he’ll like the taste of me right now.
“Your house. Um…”
“It’s bad, right?” His eyes are a little watery now. “Is it all gone?”
“I don’t think so, but a lot of it will have to be torn down and rebuilt. I know you love it there…”
He shakes his head. “It’s just a house. But I had stuff.” His voice goes thick for a second. “Liam’s stuff. Do you know if any of it survived?”
Shit. I hadn’t thought of that, and a sympathetic grief hits me so hard I lose my breath. “I don’t. I’m sorry.”
“I’ll worry about it later.” He yawns, which turns into another cough, and I find his ice chips to help. Opening his mouth, he scrapes one off the spoon with his very polished, slightly crooked teeth.
“I know we were supposed to talk,” he murmurs after he swallows the ice down.
“Oh god, no. Leo, we don’t need to—”
He takes my hand, shutting me up. “You can get whatever you want off your chest, but I’m just going to say one thing first, okay?”
I nod, not sure I can answer him out loud.
“I like you.” My entire body freezes at his words.
“I want to see where this goes. I’m kind of scared because I’m not convinced the universe is going to let me fall in love twice—which I know is ridiculous, considering people fall in love over and over and over.
But I want to try…if you’ll let me. If you can be patient. ”
“I can be patient,” I say, probably a little too quickly.
He laughs a bit and shakes his head but says nothing else.
“Is that all?”
He blinks, then shrugs. “If you need more—”
“No. God, no, I…that’s fine. That’s great.” Suddenly, I want to laugh, but I kind of want to cry too. “I can work with that. I want that. And we can talk about the rest later.”
“Okay,” he whispers.
I press his palm to my lips again and kiss it long and slow, holding it there until he starts to relax back into his pillows. When his breathing evens out, I let him go.
Easton will be back soon, and this is not the place I want to tell him that I boned his little brother. Or that I plan to do it again, over and over, for as long as he’ll have me.
Maybe as long as we both shall live.