Page 155 of Branded
Steady and smiling at the waitress and reading her book.
Fucking beautiful. Fucking bright. Fucking…with my head.
Smitty was pushing out the door, Cas and Theo a few steps behind me, when I saw a flicker of red, and my gaze was drawn to her again.
She was sitting on the edge of the booth, brows dragged together, lips parted like she was breathing slowly.
And then she was rising slowly.
Like she was unsteady.
Cas and Theo followed Smitty out into the cool morning air, but I couldn’t make my feet go. “I’m gonna use the bathroom,” I muttered. “Catch you guys at the rink later.”
Smitty’s eyes got all gossip-centric again, but Cas and Theo just nodded, calling their goodbyes as I spun back toward the dining room…just in time to see Beth on her feet and all but racing through it for the bathrooms.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Was she sick now, too?
The door slammed shut behind me, but I didn’t hear it. I was already moving after Beth, following her into the narrow hall that housed the bathrooms, waiting there because the door had already swung closed behind her.
Waiting longer, my worry prickling up my spine.
Then longer still, that worry growing to something deeper, something more all-encompassing. What if she’d fallen again?
As far as I knew, she was alone in there—no one else had gone out or come in—and if she was alone and unconscious and?—
“Right,” I whispered and pushed into the bathroom.
It was…empty.
Claws in my belly, raking through my insides, splitting me wide open.
“Beth,” I croaked then cleared my throat. “Beth!”
A toilet flushed, and I realized I was a dumbass. Women’s bathrooms had stalls, not just urinals and a single toilet crammed into the corner with a door that barely covered my ass. This was all stalls, and I hadn’t looked closely enough.
Because there were feet under one.
Feet that were moving to the door, tugging it open.
Feet that belonged to Beth.
“Raph?” she exclaimed, smoothing down her sweater.
“Are you okay?” I asked, moving closer, gripping her shoulders. “Are you sick? Dizzy?”
“I’m fi?—”
“Don’t lie to me, baby. I saw you run in here and?—”
She started to lift a hand, as though to push me back or to grab my hand then stopped, dropping it to her side. “I had to pee, honey,” she said softly. “I drank four glasses of water, two hot chocolates, and a cup of coffee. I was too lazy to get up before I finished my pancakes, so I waited”—her mouth turned up—“until I was in an emergency situation.”
Emergency—
Christ.
