The Beat Around Us (The Heartbeat Series, #2) by Meadows Ellie

Author:Meadows, Ellie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Eli Constant
Published: 2019-05-15T16:00:00+00:00

TELL ME ABOUT HER. Laurie wrote on a kitchen shopping pad.

“You can talk, Laurie. I’ve heard your voice before. And you’re healing. It’s good to keep using it whenever possible. And it’s just me. No judgment.” I pushed the pad back towards her, knowing despite my words that she’d continue to write rather than speak. “Tanner told me the good news by the way. I’m glad all your tests came back clear again.

She smiled and wrote ‘thanks’ on the paper. Now tell me about her. She persisted.

“You’re not going to let it go, are you?” I couldn’t help but quirk a smile. Laurie could be like a dog with a stuffed rawhide bone, worrying and worrying until the inside meat was exposed and ready to eat. So I might as well give in, and give her what she wanted.

“She’s beautiful,” I started.

Laurie shrugged and made an ‘obviously’ face, poking me in the arm to tell her something she hadn’t already guessed.

“She’s... in a lot of pain,” I added after much debate. At that, Laurie quirked an eyebrow and made a hand motion like she wanted me to come closer to her. When I didn’t continue speaking, she resorted to American Sign Language, which she wasn’t totally comfortable with. More. Now.

When I still didn’t open my mouth, Laurie picked up the pen she’d been using earlier to write and brandished it at me menacingly. I held up my hands in defeat. “Okay, okay. You win.”

Looking a little too satisfied with herself, Laurie sat back on the sofa, pulling her legs up and under her before tugging my old red blanket off the back of the couch to wrap around her body. She was settling in for the story, and there was no going back now.

“I saw her for the first time at our gig, remember? She wasn’t feeling well. Nearly passed out. She wouldn’t let me and Tanner take her to the hospital or anything. That sort of willful disregard and stubbornness isn’t something I... appreciate in another person. I’ve learned that you take care of yourself. You go to the doctor. You kill the habits that break you down.” I sighed, rubbing my hands together as my own stubborn, ever-present memory of itch flared to life in my veins. Seconds was all it would take, to sink back into habitual self-destruction. “But there’s something about her. Something...”

Laurie lifted both hands in the air, palms facing one another, and she pushed them together slowly until they met. Skin to skin. The way her fingers curved together. All I could see was Anna and me. Our bodies coming together.

And I shouldn’t be fucking thinking that way. I shouldn’t be. After all she’d been through.

“It’s magnetic,” I say nodding. “And every second, every damn second I’m away from her, the need to race to her side gets stronger.”

Her forehead wrinkled as Laurie took up the grocery notepad and pen again. What do you want when you look at her? Is it... she wrote the ellipse deliberately, point by point.

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