Chapter 35
I wake up slowly in the morning. The room is bright behind my eyelids, but the light is coming from the wrong direction.
Rubbing my dry eyes, I blink and look around.
Seb is sleeping beside me. Oh yeah, nightmares.
E is sleeping in the chair with his mouth open slightly and head back.
Quietly getting up, I tiptoe out of the room and go to the bathroom.
I get dressed in comfy clothes and then go to the kitchen and find Zander and Troy are both sitting at the island drinking coffee. “Morning,” I greet, filling the kettle.
“Good morning, Summer,” Troy replies.
“Hi darling. How did you end up in bed with Seb?” Zander asks with an eyebrow raised.
“It was completely innocent. Seb is still unconscious. E kept having to wake me up from nightmares and suggested I try lying beside Seb, hoping having someone nearby would help. It worked.”
“Okay,” he nods. “How are you feeling this morning?”
“Other than my hand being sore, I’m okay,” I tell him, digging out some tea from the pantry.
“You cut your hair?” He questions. “How did I not notice that last night?”
“We were preoccupied with other things. Gabby did it for me before the party.”
“It looks pretty, darling,” he smiles. “May I see your hand?” I hold it out in offer.
Zander sets it in his palm for inspection.
“You’re bruising already,” he frowns. He goes to the freezer and grabs a bag of peas and a dishtowel from the drawer.
He lays it on my hands and tells me to sit while he finishes my tea.
“We need to teach you how to throw a punch so you don’t hurt yourself,” Troy comments.
I hear the front door open, and then the rest of the guys come in. I look over at Zander. “They texted they were coming, so I unlocked the door.” Nodding, I wave hi to everyone.
“Is Seb awake yet?” Alex immediately asks.
“Not yet. He and E are still sleeping,” I tell him.
He nods and heads for the coffee machine. Nick sits beside me and moves the frozen peas, examining my hand. “You need to learn how to hit,” he tells me.
“I just mentioned that,” Troy replies.
“I’m training you as soon as your hand heals,” Nick states.
“I’m okay with that,” I say, looking at Nick. He places the peas gently back on my hand as Alex passes him a coffee. E comes out of the bedroom moments later, half asleep, shuffling his feet.
“Nick brought you clothes, E. Why not shower and wake up?” Alex suggests. E nods, grabbing the bag Alex is holding up, and heads back down the hall.
“I’ll sit with Seb,” I offer, taking my tea and frozen peas with me. The guys all decide to join me as I take a seat against the headboard. “Any idea when he should wake up?” I ask, turning to Alex.
“I would think sometime this morning, but I have not gotten the blood test results yet.”
A moan from Seb follows his reply. “Seb, are you back? Open your eyes, Hurry,” I implore him, leaning closer.
He grunts and lifts his arm to rub his face. He must feel the needle in his hand as his eyes open, looking at the line. “What the fuck?”
Alex comes over to remove the needle. “You are okay, Seb. What do you remember from last night?”
He lowers his eyebrows and looks around the room, zooming in on me. “Sunshine? Are we at your house?”
I nod. “Yeah. You’re in the guest room. Do you remember what happened last night?”
His brows draw down as he tries to recall. “We were at the party. E and I were sitting on the patio with everyone, then…I don’t know,” he says, confused. “What happened?”
E comes back into the room and notices Seb awake. Sheer relief crosses his face. “Thank fuck,” he says, crawling onto the bed between me and Seb, wrapping his arms around him.
“What the hell happened?” Seb says, looking worried. We all exchange looks as Troy and Zander join us.
“Someone drugged you,” Troy states simply.
Shock registers across Seb’s face. “What? How?”
“We are unsure,” Alex replies. “Luckily, Summer found you before anything went too far.”
Seb whips his head around to me. “Sunshine?”
“We should start at the beginning,” Alex suggests.
“Do you remember getting up to go to the bathroom?” E asks him.
“I think so, yeah,” he nods.
“Well, you were gone too long, so I got up to check on you when I ran into Nick on the way into the house. Bay called him because something happened to Summer,” he tells him.
Bay and I go over what transpired upstairs with Ben, and my finding him and Cara on the bed. A look of horror is on Seb’s face. “I would never sleep with her,” he swears.
“I know Hurry. I knew something wasn’t right.
That’s why I called out to you a few times, then you answered, calling me Sunshine, but you were barely conscious.
I punched Cara in the face, and then the guys showed up.
She was only in her underwear, though, Seb.
I’m pretty sure she was going to have sex with you.
However, you were still fully clothed; nothing was out of place,” I quickly add.
A full-body shudder comes over Seb. “I remember calling out to you, Sunshine, but the rest is all foggy.” He leans over E and grabs my hand. “Thank you.”
I suck in a breath. He’s squeezing my injured hand. “Watch it, Seb. She hurt her hand punching the bitch,” E says, gently removing Seb’s hand from mine.
“Shit Sunshine. You’re my hero,” he smiles. “So what happened to them? I assume Ben was unconscious by the time you left?”
“Nick took care of him. We left a crying, bloody Cara in the room. She was too drunk to be helpful, but she claims she didn’t drug you.” Bay offers.
“Fuck.” Seb leans his head on E’s shoulder, looking weary.
“I had Doc Croft take a blood sample and check you over. We are waiting for the results,” Alex adds. Seb nods at that.
“Did you set your drink down, even once, or take one from anyone?” Troy asks.
“Nope. I was still on my first beer E gave me. It was in my hand the whole time.”
“Unless Cara offers something, we may never know who drugged you or how,” Troy says, looking frustrated.
Both Bay and E suggest talking to the team to see if anyone noticed anything.
“Do that,” Troy tells them. “Maybe we will get lucky. Is he clear now that he’s awake, Alex? Does he need to see Doc again?”
“He should be fine now. Tired and possibly weak today. Seb should rest.”
“Okay. I’m going home to shower and check on Gabby then. Do you want to stay here or come home?”
“I need a shower,” he responds, smelling his armpits. Bay holds up another duffel bag with clothes for Seb. “Thanks. I’ll hang here for a bit if Summer and Z are good with that?” He asks.
“That’s okay with me,” Zander says as I nod.
“Let’s get you showered then,” E says as he helps Seb stand, and they head for the bathroom.
“I’ll start breakfast,” I offer, heading to the kitchen. Bay and Zander help me make eggs, bacon, and biscuits. The food is ready by the time Seb joins us after showering, so we sit at the table and eat. No one is really talkative this morning. We’re all lost in our own heads.
“So, what are you guys going to do today?” Zander asks.
“I wanna do something today. Keep occupied,” Seb says.
“That sounds good,” I agree. “I need to run sometime today. Oh crap,” I exclaim, “Alex, we were supposed to do the labs this morning. I completely forgot.”
“I contacted the teacher. We can reschedule at a later date,” he promises.
“We can work in the garden, Summer?” Bay offers.
“Yes,” Seb points at Bay. “That’s good. Then we can go for a run afterwards and just hang out tonight. A swim or a movie, maybe?”
All the guys nod at those ideas, so we clean up breakfast and head out to the backyard.
It takes a few hours to get the beds looking nice, and I make Seb sit through most of it.
He quickly takes advantage, pretending to be a dictator sitting on his throne.
It lightens the mood and keeps us laughing.
When we head back inside, Zander is just getting back from grocery shopping. We help him put everything away, then drive over to the park to go for a run, and all the guys join me.
They’re all excellent runners. I set the pace, needing a long run today to shake off last night.
E and Seb soon fall back, telling us to keep going.
The remaining guys keep up for about an hour, then it’s just me and Nick until I stop.
Nick and I are both out of breath by the time I finish the run.
“Thanks for keeping me company,” I tell him.
Nick nods as tears start falling down my cheeks. “Fuck”, Nick swears. He wraps his arms under my butt and lifts me up to give me a sweaty hug.
“I’m okay. Just releasing my emotions from last night,” I explain. He pulls back to look at me. With his brows drawn down, he examines my face. “Really. That’s all this is. I promise.”
He nods and sets me down. Once I’m calm, I look back up at him. “You must run a lot to do a two-hour run,” I state.
I get another nod in reply. “Let’s head back,” he says. We’re not that far from the starting point, luckily, because the trail loops around the park. The rest of the guys are sitting on the grass, waiting for us when we get back.
“Damn, you’re fast, Summer,” Bay exclaims. “You should be a distance runner.”
I smile at him. “I get bored running long distances. That’s why I stick to the longer track races.
” I check in with Seb, but he says he’s fine, just more tired than usual, so we drive back to my house.
The guys decide to split up to go home and get showers.
We’re going to meet up for dinner and a movie later.
When I get into the house, I see Zander sitting on the back deck. I open the patio door to tell him I’m getting a shower, but he looks off. “Everything okay?”
“Last night scared me, Summer. When you came in here with Seb barely conscious and you had been crying,” he shakes his head.