the shower, insisting on helping me wash the areas I couldn’t reach due to the pain in my ribs, but that’s beside the point. It’s not like I can normally reach the center of my back on any other day.
“Really?” He grins even wider. “That’s what you’re complaining about? I’ve licked every inch of your perfect body, and you’re getting huffy over me seeing you naked in the shower?”
The intimacy of it is what really bothered me. The attentive way he ran the soapy washcloth over my skin and the way it made me feel. How I wanted him to strip down and join me. How fucked up it was that I just killed my husband and I was fantasizing about another man, regardless of the bruising marring my face and body. All of that and because I can’t get a single second of time to think through all the racing thoughts in my own head without someone in the room standing witness to it.
“I’m just exhausted,” I say instead.
“And tonight, you’ll get to sleep without interruption.”
I look past him at the clock hanging on the wall. Time has crawled since this morning when the doctor made rounds and assured us, I’d be out of here by lunchtime. Of course lunch came, some honestly disgusting casserole and asparagus that wasn’t even close to the right color, and still no discharge papers.
Just as I open my mouth to complain again, the door swings open and Jinx walks in pushing a wheelchair.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he sasses when I crinkle my nose.
“Really?”
“Hospital protocol,” he says as he locks the wheels.
“They sure have a lot of those,” Rocker grumbles, and I know he’s just as exhausted as I am.
“We haven’t gotten my discha—”
“Got them,” he says, pulling a stack of folded papers from his back pocket. “I charmed the nurse.”
My grin grows. “Of course you did.”
Rocker stands the second I try to slide off the bed. He’s at my side, ready to help me, but I bat him away.
“I swear if you don’t move—” I snap my mouth closed because even though I’d never physically hurt him, even empty threats about doing it seem wrong with everything that’s happened.
“I just want to help,” he whispers, and I don’t miss the way his hand sweeps down my back and over the curve of my ass before he backs away.
“Help by grabbing her bag of shit,” Jinx snaps, but when I look up, I can see a sparkle of mirth in his eyes.
I grin, but at the same time it makes me realize that these two are a team. They were long before I came along, and I don’t know how that’s going to fair for me after the paternity test. They don’t seem angry with each other, and maybe that has to do with them both being there the night I got pregnant rather than finding out someone else they don’t know is in contention for becoming a father.
Rocker grumbles about being a bellhop and service boy as Jinx wheels me toward the elevator. Stubbornly, I don’t let either one of them help me into the backseat of the SUV Jinx has parked near the front entrance. I ache everywhere, but I do my best to not show the pain. They’ve both been very attentive to the point of irritation, and honestly, I’m looking forward to some time alone.
It won’t happen on the way home I realize as Rocker climbs into the back beside me rather than hopping up front beside his buddy.
I keep my mouth shut, however, only wincing a couple of times with the dips and bumps as we leave the parking lot. Jinx must sense my discomfort because he drives slowly and cautiously on the way back to my apar—
“This isn’t the way to my place,” I say when they take a left at Main Street rather than turning right. “Where are we going? I’m only allowed to take Tylenol, and I have that at home. So I know we aren’t going to the pharmacy. Am I being kidnapped?”
Jinx looks in the rearview mirror, but he doesn’t direct his attention at me. It’s on his best friend instead.
“I…” Rocker begins, frowning when Jinx clears his throat. “We didn’t want you to have to go back to that apartment. With everything that happened there, we figured you’d be happier someplace else.”
“I’m not going to the clubhouse,” I argue immediately.