I want to tell him no, tell him to leave me alone and let me sleep, but instead I stand and follow him, my frustration growing with each step back down the hall.
I lost my voice years ago at the hands of Jeremy’s abuse, and it took forever to get it back only to lose it again less than a week ago when that terror walked back into my life. It seems I still haven’t gotten it back, and after everything I’ve been through, I can’t help but think that is the real tragedy in all of this.
Chapter 9
Rocker
Delilah, Ivy, and Izzy jumped at the opportunity to help get this place in order, going so far as to match the things Simone had in her old apartment to the things at the store to be replaced, but Simone seems apathetic to all of it.
“These are the vitamins the doctor recommended, but I can grab you something different if you want.” I hold the prenatal vitamins up from the counter so she can see them, but her eyes are glassy as she looks down.
“Why are you doing all of this?” She keeps her eyes lowered, and I can’t help but read her demeanor as submissive when that was never Simone.
She’s always been assertive with me, only handing over power when I’ve done the same. She’s always been first to take what she wants, voice her opinion when we spend time together. I don’t even know who this woman is. She was sassy earlier at the hospital, but something between there and here has changed her completely.
“Tell me what’s bothering you, so I can fix it.” I place the vitamins down on the counter and inch closer to her, lifting her head up with a finger hitched under her chin.
“Nothing.”
“Don’t give me nothing,” I say with a calm voice.
Jinx told me how she reacted when he got upset in her room that first day, so we’ve both been cognizant of how we speak to her. Neither one of us want her afraid to speak her mind around us. We don’t want her living in fear and wondering if she says the wrong thing if we’re going to smack her across the face.
“Tell me,” I urge when she lowers her eyes even though her chin is tilted up.
“I’m just tired.”
“I know you are.” I take a step closer, releasing her chin and pulling her against my chest. I haven’t had many opportunities to do this since that first day where she settled on my chest. I breathe her in as I press my cheek to the top of her head. “Go lie down. Do you need some Tylenol?”
“I’m fine.”
I chuckle as I take a step back, hating that she seems relieved that I broke the connection.
“The two worst words a woman could possibly say.”
She doesn’t crack a smile at my joke. She merely turns around and disappears down the hallway. The bedroom door closes with a quiet snick just as Jinx walks back in through the front door of the apartment.
A moment later the sound of the shower being turned on floats into the room.
“She’s off, man.” I grip the back of my neck, trying to relieve the crick that’s been there for days.
I haven’t attempted to climb back in bed with her, mainly because Jinx has stayed in the room the last two nights as well and it seemed a little weird. That means we’ve both been sleeping in crappy hospital chairs, and our bodies are hating us for it.
“We have a lot to talk about,” Jinx says. “But I think it’s best to include her in all of our conversations. We’re all in this together.”
At some point Jinx accepted the fact that he may be a father soon, but we haven’t discussed how he came around.
Without a word, we both head to the living room and practically fall into exhausted heaps on the sofa. Neither of us bother to reach for the remote to turn the television on.
“I don’t think she’s happy about this apartment,” I tell him.
“Did you tell her the rent has been paid for the rest of the year, and no matter the outcome she won’t ever have to worry about that bill again?”
I roll my head on the back of the couch to look at my best friend.
“She’d bite my head off if I told her that.” At least the Simone I knew last month would. “She’s adamant about her independence. She was the one who