fine as soon as they let him out of this fucking hospital so that he could go home and take up his life of soaps, beer, and naps once again.
When he felt her stop rubbing his back, he growled a warning that had the inconsiderate woman sighing heavily, muttering something that he chose to ignore, and once again commencing with the backrub that helped settle his stomach.
Closing his eyes, Chase bit back a groan that let her know exactly how much he was enjoying this and let himself drift off, knowing that he was in good hands.
*-*-*-*
“Beer,” the man who had given her the biggest scare of her life mumbled as she helped him in bed.
“Yeah, that’s not happening,” Sloane said, trying not to groan when she shifted his weight off her shoulders.
God, he was really freaking heavy and it didn’t help that she couldn’t stop trembling. She’d almost killed him last night. Just the thought of seeing his ashen face when she opened his bedroom door to check on him still had the power to make her heart stop.
As she pulled the blankets up and tucked in the most stubborn man that she’d ever met in her life, she tried to remind herself that it wasn’t her fault. The hospital and his sister had screwed up by not making sure that she had an up-to-date medical chart for him, but she knew that some of the blame still belonged to her. She should have picked a different battle to have it out with him and let him know that things weren’t going to get better for him until he accepted the fact that his old life was over.
It seemed cruel considering everything that he’d already gone through and it was, but that was his new reality. As much as she would love for things to work out differently for him, they never would. He would never have his old life back, get back the time he’d lost recovering from his accident, and he would never have the future that should have been his. No matter what she did, what she said, or how badly she wished that she could perform miracles, she couldn’t.
He had a new life ahead of him, one that was going to take a lot of work, tears, sweat, and pain to build and one that he probably didn’t want but was going to have to work his ass off for anyway. It was either that or accept the life that his sister expected for him and Sloane couldn’t let that happen.
He also didn’t deserve a beer, but the stubborn bastard had been asking for one ever since she got him in the car and his sister decided to take that as her cue to chew her out again. Sloane had stood there, taking it, because she had no other choice. If she thought that his sister would hire someone else to take her place to take care of him, she would have told the sister where to shove it and walked away, but she was terrified that once she was gone, his sister was going to wash her hands of him and put him in a nursing home.
“Beer,” the pain in the ass that she was determined to help mumbled with a sleepy little sigh as he turned his head and settled in for the night.
“Beer?” Sloane repeated as she stood there, rubbing her temples.
“Beer,” Chase grumbled again, earning a muttered, “Unbelievable,” as she walked away, shaking her head in disgust because she already regretted not telling his sister to take this job and shove it up her well-pampered ass.
Chapter 8
“No,” the pain the ass that he probably owed his life to said as he sat there, giving her his most intimidating glare, but she simply ignored him as she piled another pancake on his plate.
“Yes!” Chase hissed, pushing the plate filled to the brim with pancakes, home fries, eggs, bacon, and toast that had his stomach growling, away.
“It’s not happening,” Sloane said, barely paying attention to him as she pushed the plate back in front of him along with a bottle of maple syrup, butter, jam, and a large glass of orange juice that actually looked pretty good.
“It really is,” he said, somehow finding the willpower to push the plate away. “I want my usual breakfast.”
“And what’s that?” the smart-ass asked as though she didn’t know that his usual breakfast consisted of beer and Doritos.
“Anything but this,” Chase said instead, hoping to piss her