The Corner of Forever and Always by Lia Riley

Author:Lia Riley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2017-09-26T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

“There.” Tuesday plumped the goose-down pillow behind Beau’s head as he reclined on the black leather couch in Belle Mont’s den. “Better?”

“Feels the same as the last three times you did it,” he said gruffly. The scent of bubble-gum-flavored lip gloss hung in the air. It took almost five minutes before a name could be attached to the feeling warming his chest. Comfort.

Strange, considering she’d caused the injury in the first place. But with Jacqueline it had felt like there was only room in their relationship for one person to ever be taken care of. He was the man, the rock, the dependable one, and cool in a crisis. The truth was that role came naturally to him. Still, every so often it felt damn nice knowing someone in the world cared whether or not you got home okay.

“Refill?”

He gestured toward the full glass of water with cut lemon on the coffee table. “I’ve got plenty, thank you.”

“Fresh bag of ice for the noggin?”

He slid the frozen bag of broccoli off his head and set it to one side. “How about taking a seat? You’re making me nervous with all that hovering.”

“I feel terrible about hurting you,” she said.

He knew she was being honest. For the last half hour he’d dutifully swallowed two ibuprofens and allowed himself to be subjected to her battery of concussion tests, the ones she’d looked up on her phone.

His pupils had dilated in response to the flashlight that she insisted on beaming into his face. No. He didn’t feel nauseous. No. He had no amnesia around the events from the accident. On the contrary, he remembered the details in clearer imagery than he’d like. Every two-by-four thwack was tattooed in his brain. He did have a lingering headache, and that made Tuesday insist on sticking around for further observation.

“And just what are you hoping to observe?” he asked.

She sank into his great-great-grandmother’s carved rocking chair. “It’s just a little something I hear on TV shows. Nurse?” She affected an official doctor-sounding voice. “Ensure the patient is kept under observation.” She giggled and tucked her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around her shins and setting her chin on her knees. “Want to know a secret? Once I tried out to be on a hospital daytime soap. I even made it to callbacks, but I never got the part.”

He stretched out his sore back. “Too bad. You are a natural.” He meant it, too.

She crouched beside him. “No sleeping.”

“For how long?” Not that he was planning on crashing anytime soon. In fact, between the adrenaline from the accident and the fact Tuesday Knight was in his house, he felt hot-wired and hyperaware.

“I’m not sure. But a while.” She glanced around the large room stuffed with furniture and animal heads on the wall. “Cheerful room,” she said, gesturing to the frowning ancestor over the mantel. “How many bedrooms are in this place anyway? Four hundred?”

“Eight. Plus the carriage house.”

“Good gravy. I bet I could stand up straight in your fireplace, too.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.