Page 72 of My Scorned Best Friend

He slides closer to me. “My girlfriend is sick and it’s my job to get her healthy again.”

Although I feel guilt, it’s one of the most thoughtful things anyone has ever done for me. “Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me.” He slides his arms under my ass and arms. “But you do have to go to bed.” He carries me upstairs.

“Tell me the elephant is under the jeans?”

“Sorry, but if you get healthy, I might’ve packed them. All depends on whether you get better before I leave.”

As he’s about to drop me on the sheets, I remember how wet they are. “The sheets, I sweated out my fever.”

“Does that mean you need to shower? Jeez, talk about a hard job.” He winks and leaves me on the edge of the bed, going into my bathroom and turning on the shower. “And you know that I’ll have to go in with you just in case you get light-headed.”

I roll my eyes. “Well, if you must.”

“I insist.”

He gets undressed and I really wish I was healthy so I could enjoy that perfect athletic body of his.

“Which key did you use?”

“The one in the rock. I think you need to switch it out.” He goes back into the bathroom. “It sticks,” he shouts over the water.

“Well, it’s about eighty years old. Why didn’t you use your key?”

He stands in the doorway, naked and uncaring. “I put it away when we were fighting, and I didn’t want to use it until I felt sure you’d want me to.”

I rise from the bed and walk steadily toward him, my eyes never straying from his. “Use the key, X. It’s yours.”

He nods. “Okay. Now shower time for my girl.”

He opens my shower door and I step in, and he joins me right after. I stand under the cascade of water and my eyes close because it feels good. Then two large hands land in my hair. Suds fall down my shoulders as he threads his fingers through my long strands of blonde hair.

“Do you think you’ll ever go back to being brunette again?”

“Why? Did you like me better with dark hair?”

“I don’t care if you have purple hair. It’s up to you.” He kisses my shoulder.

After the shampoo, he piles conditioner in my hair.

“X?” I hate to broach this subject right now, but after he’s done a complete one-eighty and shown up here, I feel as if I need to.

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Anything.”

His fingers are like magic as he runs them against my scalp and my eyes drift closed. I’m barely able to remember what I wanted to say. “Your fears about… us… relationships… they seemed to have disappeared and I just wondered as your best friend, not your girlfriend.” I turn around in his arms and he holds me close. “Are you really doing okay? We’ve moved so fast.”

He walks his fingers up and down my spine. “Honestly?”

“Always. Please never tell me something just because you think I want to hear it.”

“I’m so happy. Sometimes I’m pissed that I never allowed us to cross that line before. How was I so blind not to see you in that way? I guess I finally realized that if I sat back and stayed scared, I’d never have moments like these with you. I just had to push past the fear, and what’s on the other side is life changing. I can’t predict the future, but I want to spend as many days making memories with you as possible, regardless of what the future brings.”

“Really?”

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