Page 49 of The Run Home
“Yeah, of course,” I mumbled. I walked off, leaving him standing there.
My brain was whirling. She’d called out sick a few times last week too. Just a day here and there, but enough to make me wonder what was going on. I made it through my day, but my mind was elsewhere.
With exactly fifty-five minutes between my last class and when the team would be starting warmups before the game, I hustled to my truck and sped through town, stopping to pick up chicken soup and some fresh baked bread. I broke a few speed laws heading back to Shae’s place, but I wanted to drop this off and check on her before the game.
I slipped around back, hoping Mom wasn’t spying on me from next door. I really needed to think about moving into my own place soon. Certainly once Kinsley graduated, but for now, it was the kind of stability my daughter needed. The screen door was open and so was her back door.
“Shae?” I called out quietly, wanting to let her know I was here, but also not wanting to wake her if she was sleeping off her sickness.
She came around the corner of the hallway that led to her bedroom, dressed in a pair of sweats, a tank top without a bra, and her hair piled on top of her head. She wasn’t wearing her glasses, and in the light of the day, I could see the dark circles under her eyes.
My heart dropped. I abandoned the food on the coffee table and rushed over, cupping her face. “Ah, lovebug. I’ve been keeping you up too late, haven’t I?” My thumbs stroked her cheek and all the low-level worry I’d been carrying all day amplified.
She placed her hands on my waist and dropped her head to my chest. I leaned down and kissed her hair, moving my hands to stroke up and down her back. She felt…thinner. Shae was always athletic, never one for showing off her curves in clothing. She complained about her weight under her breath, madecomments about how she shouldn’t be eating sugar, but to me, her body was perfect. I didn’t want a delicate woman I couldn’t fuck against the washing machine.
“Hey, I brought you food. Feel well enough to eat?”
Her head lifted, eyes brightening. “Actually, yes. I finally feel like I could eat something today.”
I nodded and let go of her just long enough to pull her over to the couch where I got her settled and began opening the cartons of food. “Stomach bug, huh?”
“Yeah,” she replied weakly.
I handed her the soup and she scooped up a spoonful immediately. Her eyes slid shut and I managed a genuine grin as I saw her have a moment with the plain broth. I knew every sound that came out of this woman’s mouth, and that moan was reserved for good food. Not even I could get her to make that exact sound.
Sitting next to her, I reached forward to open the bread, wrapped in multiple layers of parchment paper to keep it fresh. The scent of garlic permeated the air as the last piece of paper fell away. Which was weird, because I’d ordered the herb bread.
“Huh. They must have packed up the wrong?—”
Shae flew off the couch, her hand clapped over her mouth as she ran into the hallway. Her soup spilled in her haste to exit the room. I sopped up the soup, jammed a piece of the bread in my mouth, and then headed to her bathroom to check on her.
“Shae?”
I found her slumped over the toilet, her hand flushing down what little of the soup she got into her stomach. Instantly, I reached over and pulled back a few strands of hair that had fallen into her face. Her eyes were shut and she was breathing hard.
“Poor baby. You’ve got the stomach flu, huh?” I sat down behind her and supported her back.
In the last few months, she would never let me take care of her other than sexually. After making her that first sandwich, she never let me stay to have a full meal with her or to help her with any house project she was working on. It was fucking amazing sex…and then I had to leave. I ran my fingers lightly over her back, soaking in the feeling of being able to hold her just because.
“I’m okay,” she said a few minutes later. She twisted in my arms and gave me a weak smile. I tried not to let my gaze drop to her breasts. Her nipples were pebbled and pressing fervently against the thin tank top. It might just have been my imagination, but her boobs seemed bigger. More than the handful and a half they used to be.
I leaned in to kiss her, but she turned her face away, gagging. She lurched forward and lost more of her stomach contents into the toilet.
Well, fuck. I’d never had a woman react to kissing me like that.
“It’s…the…garlic,” Shae panted in between retching.
I stood up and reached for her toothpaste, pulling it out of the drawer and squeezing some out onto my finger without asking for permission. I scrubbed it around my teeth and then spit in her sink. She flushed the toilet and sat on the floor, her back against the wall, looking utterly exhausted.
There was a buzzing noise in my head. Something troubling that I couldn’t identify. My gut churned, but I knew it had nothing to do with catching whatever Shae had. It was a feeling of foreboding, I finally realized.
Something was not right here.
Shae had called out sick multiple times in the last few weeks. Skinnier, but bigger boobs. The blood drained from my face with my next thought. I couldn’t recall a single time over the last three months where Shae pushed me away at night because she wason her period. I already knew she wasn’t on birth control, which was why I always kept my dick wrapped.
But…
Oh, fuck.
