Page 29 of Take Me Home

A few steps in, her legs gave out. “Just keep your towel on if you can. I’ve got you,” I assured her. In reality, I wouldn’t be furious if the towel fell, but I wanted her to feel comfortable. I mean, yeah, duh, I wanted to see her naked. But only if she wanted me to. And preferably because she wanted me naked, too. And when she wasn’t sick.

“I’m not usually like this, you know,” she said, sounding frustrated. It snapped me back to the present.

“Like what?” We made it across the threshold of the bathroom.

“Weak, helpless, damsel in distress,” she said, disdain apparent.

“I know, Darce. You’re very strong. You forget that I see what you’re capable of every day,” I said.

“I must be really sick. You’re being freakishly nice to me today,” she moaned.

That actually surprised me. “What do you mean? When am I not nice to you?”

“I don’t know. You normally tease me more, give me more shit. You’re not doing that now. I must be in pretty bad shape.”

“You want me to mess with you more while you can hardly walk?” I asked, amused.

“It would make me feel less like an invalid, yes,” Darcy agreed.

“Alright, princess, I’ll behave according to the guidelines,” I ribbed her.

“There’s the guy I know.”

“Okay, I’ll turn around, but my hand is here if you need something to steady you while you get in.”

“It’s fine. I’m going to brush my teeth first.” She must have gotten a glimpse of herself in the mirror. “Oh, Jesus, I look like hell.”

Admittedly, she was not looking well. I laughed off her statement. “We’ll get you fixed up.”

Once she was in the bath, I went back to her room to get her some clean clothes. A t-shirt and comfy shorts were easy enough to find, but then I realized underwear was an inevitability. I was about to go through Darcy’s underwear drawer. Probably best to just grab something without looking. It was so not my business what she wore under her clothes. Not until invited that is.

Oh, God. I’d pulled out a lacy powder blue thong. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying not to picture how fucking delicious she’d look in it. The last thing I needed was an awkward boner when she was trusting me to take care of her. I wadded it up in between the shorts and t-shirt, not daring to dive into the drawer again. I thought of the least sexy things I could before walking in to check on her in the bath.

“Hey, uh, this is personal, but have you peed today?” I asked when I went back in.

“Uh, well…no,” she said sheepishly.

I checked my watch. It was almost 1 p.m. “If you haven’t peed by 3, we’re going to the ER, alright? And after we get you back in bed, I’ll make us some food.”

I pulled a chair from the bedroom into the bathroom, lining it with another towel and her clothes before sitting on top of them. I felt Darcy’s eyes on me, finding her smiling at me curiously.

“Truth or dare,” she said, a twinkle in her eye.

A naked (not that I could see anything) Darcy asking me to play truth or dare, plus that devilish thong, I was screwed. I tried to be as casual as possible, but she was working me up.

“Sounds like you’re starting to feel better. Truth,” I said, leaning my elbows on my knees to get closer to her eye level.

“Were you a paramedic because you thought you wanted to be a doctor?”

Okay, more positive signs. Darcy wanted to know more about my life and my motivations. She wasn’t running away from me and blushing.

“At first, yeah,” I sighed. “But the more I saw of emergency care, the less I wanted to do it. I was happy to be able to help people, but so much of being a doctor is tied up in paperwork. EMT wasn’t like that. You get them in, get them where they need to go, and move on.”

Her expression turned sympathetic. “I bet you saw some really tough stuff,” she said softly. I nodded, folding my lips between my teeth. I did see some unforgettable stuff outside of the typical alcohol-poisoning calls. Domestic abuse cases. Car accidents. Stuff that haunted my worst nightmares. Especially the car accidents. I threw up after we arrived at the scene of a fatal one. That was somebody’s mom, someone’s daughter, gone.

Darcy changed the subject, noting my mood. “What made you pick robotics?”

“Ah-ah! It’s my turn. And you’re not asking another one until you pee,” I objected.

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