Page 77 of Slew Foot
When the coughing finally ended, Rafe glanced up to see Tanner and Mickey staring at each other, not saying anything.
“Fine!” Tanner said, throwing up his hands. “C’mon, big guy. I’ll help you shower.”
“Umm,” Rafe said, reaching for a glass of water on the nightstand, confused and not sure how to tell Tanner he wasn’t into the idea.
“Dude, my shorts will stay on, and you can handle washing your junk yourself,” Tanner said with a laugh. “I’m just gonna keep you from falling on your fucking face. You’re hot but you’re three hundred percentnotinto me and I’m cool with that.”
Rafe thought about it. He did feel gross and even with a stuffy nose he could tell he smelled even worse. The steam from the shower would probably help his head and lungs and …
“Okay,” he rasped and staggered out of bed.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The shower had been worth it, Rafe decided as Tanner helped him crawl into bed a little while later. He barely had the energy to exist, but his lungs didn’t hurt so much, and he was fresh and clean. Mickey had changed the sheets on the bed while he was gone, and they felt cool and smooth against his damp skin.
He settled in bed with a tired but happy sigh.
“I’ve gotta go get ready for practice,” Tanner said, looking apologetic as he patted his hair dry. “You need anything else before I go?”
Rafe thought about it, then shook his head. “I think I’m okay. Thanks for the assist in the shower. You’re a real one.”
Tanner grinned. “No prob, dude.”
They bumped fists.
Honestly, it hadn’t been so bad. Kinda like showering at the arena, but Tanner had been closer in case the wall didn’t do its job holding him up when he got wobbly. Tanner had pretty muchspent the whole time chirping him about random shit anyway, which made it a lot less weird.
Even if Rafe’s laughing had set off another coughing fit which made him wonder if his lungs were going to end up on the tile floor.
And yeah, Rafe had handled washing all his own bits,thankyouverymuch.
Mickey came in a few minutes later, carrying food on a baking tray. “We don’t have a bed tray, and I wasn’t sure how hungry you were but …”
“That looksperfect,” Rafe said with a happy sigh. There was tea and orange juice and fruit and scrambled eggs, and toast cut up into little shapes. He reached for the toast immediately.
“Toast tastes better when it’s in little shapes,” he happily mumbled around one piece.
Mickey gave him a soft look. “Yeah? I did it because—because my mom used to do that when I was sick as a kid.”
“Mine too,” Rafe muttered. A few crumbs went flying and he brushed them off the covers because,eww, who wanted crumbs in the nice clean sheets? Besides, Mickey had gone to all this hard work and he didn’t want Mickey to think he was ungrateful.
“How was your shower?” Mickey asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.
“Good. Thanks for changing my sheets.” Rafe smiled at him.
“You owe me one,” Mickey teased. He looked tired though. There were circles under his eyes and his shoulders were kinda slumped.
“Yeah, I do,” Rafe said softly. “You and Tanner both.”
“You scared us,” Mickey said, staring down at the covers.
“Is that why you slept in here last night?”
Mickey shrugged. “Just—just wanted to be sure your fever didn’t go too high.”
Rafe nodded, not sure what to say. “I hope I didn’t get you sick.”
“Me too. But I’ll deal with it if it happens.”
