Page 52 of Take Me Slowly: part 2
"She wasn't alone," Brooks said, giving them all the side eye. "I would have taken care of her."
"What if you weren't here?" Connor asked. "This needs to happen." At least for tonight, no one else had any more argument against the idea. Including me.
"I'll think about it," I said sleepily as Riley lay me down in the centre of the bed. That was a problem for future me. Something I’d think about in the morning. Or should I say, when the sun was up.
I was vaguely aware of one of them lying to either side of me before I was asleep again.
21
LEAH
A tapat the door roused me from a doze. It creaked open slowly and Whitney's face appeared in the gap.
"Hey." Her voice was soft, more tentative than usual. "Can we come in?"
"Um, yeah." I wiped hair off the side of my face and grimaced at the drool on my cheek. I must have been deeper asleep than I realised. "Hi."
She pushed the door open all the way and stepped in, followed by Fiona, Holly and Fiona's daughter, Sarah. Each carried a bag or covered tray.
"Connor said you had a bad flare-up and may need a bit of help." Whitney carried her tray to the kitchen and placed it on the bench. "He's caught up at the moment, after last night's snowfall."
I caught sight of it out the window, but mostly I'd spent the day on the couch with heat packs and painkillers, reading on my e-reader.
"That's sweet of him," I said.
"Riley texted me and said you'd need help," Fiona said. She placed a bag down in front of me and opened it to pull out some bath bombs, chocolate and a couple of candles.
"I brought you a blanket my grandma made." Sarah, suddenly looking shy, handed me a beautifully crocheted blanket in shades of blue and green.
"It's beautiful," I said, holding it up in front of me before draping it over my legs. "Thank you so much. And please tell your grandmother I said thank you."
I hadn't expected any of this. Leave it to the guys to make sure I was taken care of, even when they weren't here. I brushed away a tear and smiled back at Sarah, who looked pleased.
"This is from all of us." Holly placed a plate of cookies on the table in front of me, and took another tray into the kitchen. "Snack for now and dinner for later."
"You girls are the best," I said, wiping away another tear.
"Did we make you sad?" Sarah looked worried.
"No, you made me super happy," I assured her. "It's nice of you to take care of me like this."
"It's our pleasure." Whitney put on the coffee maker and came to sit down near me. She held the plate of cookies so I could take one, then snagged one for herself. "Besides, Connor was very insistent." She grinned and took a bite.
"He usually is." I bit into my cookie, enjoying the explosion of chocolate chips on my tongue.
"More so than usual. He's got it bad for you, girl." She hummed her appreciation of the cookie. "So good."
"Do you mind?" I asked. "Me and Connor, I mean."
"And Riley, and Brooks, and Josiah," Holly said with a teasing smile.
My face heated. "Well, yeah. But none of you are related to them." I paused for a moment before adding, "That I know of anyway."
"Riley is my cousin," Holly said. "I don't care what you and he do. As long as he doesn't do anything to hurt you. Otherwisemy brothers might have words to say with him." Judging by the expression on her face, they wouldn't be gentle about it.
"I think Riley would hurt himself before he hurt Leah," Fiona said. "He's just as gone as Connor."
"They're just as gone for each other," Whitney said. "And to answer your question, no, I don't mind. In fact, I'm happy for all of you. I never thought I'd see my brother settle down, even with Riley. Those two are wild together, but since you've been in the picture, it's like…" She thought for a moment. "Like the last piece of the puzzle is in place. Fuck, that sounds corny." She tipped her head back and laughed.
