Page 107 of Forbidden Harmony

She was completely stuffed up, she had themother of all sinus headaches, and her throat felt like it was lined with razorblades. As if the world’s worst summer cold wasn’t bad enough, her period hadstarted this morning and she was cramping like a bitch.

She picked up a basket, staggered down theaisle, and grabbed a box of tampons. She tossed it in the basket beforewobbling her way toward the cold medicine aisle. She squinted at the cold medicineboxes, trying to think past the agony of her headache as she sneezed again.She winced and wiped her dripping nose with a tissue before squinting at theboxes again.

Her head hurt so bad. It was hard tothink. She wanted to cry, and she cursed her stupid brother in her head. Hewasn’t working today but he’d still refused to bring her over some tampons andcold medicine. She hated to ask him but with her parents out of town and Graceand Kira at work, she had no one else. The thought of dragging her ass out ofbed had made her cringe. She shouldn’t have even bothered asking him though.She loved Daniel, but sometimes he was a selfish ass. Asking him for help wasa stupid idea.

She sneezed again and clutched at her head,moaning quietly as it sent a wave of throbbing pain through her sinuses. God,her head really hurt. Her throat hurt, her stomach hurt – hell, every part ofher body hurt. She blinked back the hot tears of self-pity. She didn’t evenhave a boyfriend anymore to take care of her.

For one black moment, she thought she wasgoing to burst into tears right in the middle of Walgreens. The idea ofpicking out meds, walking to the counter, paying the cashier, and then waitingin the hot sun for the bus was horribly overwhelming. She leaned forward andrested her burning forehead against the cool cement pillar that was next to thecold medicine shelf.

Stop feeling sorry for yourself. So youdon’t have a boyfriend to take care of you when you’re sick. Boo fucking hoo.Take care of yourself and don’t be such a baby about it. Plenty of women don’thave –

“Addison?”

Shit. Please, let it be someone elsewho sounds exactly like Preacher.

She lifted her head from the pillar andstared at the man standing next to her.

The gods of luck were actively working againsther today.

“Hi, Preacher. How are you?”

He placed a hand on her forehead, “Jesus, you’reburning up.”

She jerked back from his touch and stumbledaway a couple of steps. “It’s only a cold but I think I’m pretty contagiousso, uh, don’t get too close.”

He ignored her and took her arm, drawingher up next to him. “You should be in bed and resting.”

She blinked owlishly at him as she tried tothink past the pain pulsing in her head. “Yeah, I was. I needed some coldmedicine and some other, uh… stuff.”

He stared at the basket with the box oftampons lying in the bottom of it. Embarrassment flooded through her and shejerked the basket behind her body. It smashed into the shelf next to her and thetampon box flew out of the basket and landed at Preacher’s feet.

“Oh gosh,” she said. “Oh gosh, I’m so sorry.”

He bent and picked up the box, tossing it backinto the basket and taking the basket from her before she could even think tomove.

“Thank you.” She stared at the floor. “Um,I should go now. Bye, Preacher.”

He refused to let go of her arm when shetugged. He scanned the cold medicine boxes before picking up one box andreading the back of it. “Relieves congestion, sinus headache, sore throat,fever and coughing. Any of those apply to you?”

“Yeah, all of them.”

His look was surprisingly sympathetic. “Comeon, Sunshine.”

Keeping a firm hold on her arm, he headedtoward the front of the store. He stopped and picked up two bottles of orangejuice and then made another stop to pick out a heating pad.

“Oh, I have a heating pad at home,” shesaid. Her voice was nasally and hoarse and she winced when she caught sight ofher reflection in the milk cooler. She hadn’t showered this morning, her hairwas a rat’s nest on her head, and her nose was bright red and swollen. She wasbloated looking and there were dark circles under her eyes.

God, why did she have to run into Preachertoday of all days? What exactly had she done to have karma bite her so cruellyin the ass?

Still holding her arm, he led her to the tills.

“Hello, Miss Addison.” Shelly was standingat the till and Addie groaned inwardly. The chunky woman had worked at the Walgreensfor years. She was sweet enough, but she was also shockingly dumb, and it tookher forever to ring through even the simplest of transactions.

Shelly turned her gaze to Preacher. Addiewatched in numb disbelief as she giggled and reached across to squeezePreacher’s arm.

“Hi there, Preacher. I ain’t seen you in awhile.”

Preacher piled the items from the basketonto the belt. “Hello, Ms. Dicks.”

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