“Hey, you okay?” Cole asked leaning over and grabbing my hand, making me realize that I’d been crying. It still hurt to talk, which was a blessing right now because I didn’t really talk about Louise with people, so I just shrugged. “It’s okay, baby, we’ll get you some new stuff.” I appreciated his efforts, but he didn’t know exactly what I’d lost.
“Yo guys,” Parker greeted as he walked through the door. Getting him as my doctor while I was in here was a relief, and I knew that he’d pulled a twenty-four hour shift just to look after me because he still here. “I swear you’ll do anything to get out of working, Eb.”
Forgetting about how dry my throat was, I snorted and then started hacking the lung up that had been screaming at me for freedom since I’d woken up.
“Yeah, maybe best not to do that,” the wise ass said looking over my oxygen levels and stats. “So, you’ve inhaled a lot of smoke…”
“No shit Sherlock,” Cole snapped. “Seriously, is that the best that you can do man? All of those years in college studying and we get, ‘You’ve been in a fire and inhaled some smoke’? When you were helping our troops did you go, ‘Well, you’ve been shot…by a gun…with a bullet’?” He punctuated it with a scandalized sounding gasp.
“What’s up with Gimpy McRimmer over here?” Parker stage-whispered. The laugh that came from the door had us all turning our heads to see the rest of the Townsends and Isla and Luke standing there with the twins.
“Maybe he’s in pain?” Ren suggested with an evil grin, and the memories of Cole shot full of Dilaudid and running around with his ‘magical horn’ came to mind making me smile for what felt like the first time in weeks.
“Wait,” Parker turned back to Cole. “Are you?” The evil grin was evidence enough that he wasn’t asking out of doctorly concern; he so wanted to see Cole in action again.
“Please be in pain!” This came from Luke who only just got the words out through the laughter that was causing the baby in his arms to shake slightly, poor Dewi.
“Shut up,” Cole hissed, glaring at everyone now standing in the room, apart from me.
“It’s no problem, dude,” Parker stood up and turned to the door. “I can go and get you something right now. What is it? Headache? Toothache? Earache? Ingrown toenail?”
“Uhhh…are you meant to be doing that?” Maya questioned, her bump being held as always by her husband. “I mean, that’s strong stuff.” She was right, and I knew that Parker wouldn’t actually give him the drugs, but it was funny all the same, and I couldn’t stop the wheeze of a laugh that came out of me. Unfortunately, this also brought the attention off Cole and onto me. The varying looks of pity coming from them all had me fighting tears again.
“So, Eb,” Parker started, then stopped when Cole growled. “Problem?” He asked, turning to face Cole fully. I couldn’t see the expression on his face, but whatever it was had Cole glaring even harder.
“No. You may proceed,” Cole replied, waving his hand in my direction.
Turning back to me, Parker looked at all of the machines that I was hooked up to and back down at my chart. “So, your oxygen levels are up, and I’m happy with where you’re at now. I’m going to release you but on two conditions.” I raised a brow knowing exactly what those conditions were going to be. “One - you rest, and I mean rest, Ebru. You take a couple of days to lie in bed and just get your lungs free of it all. Two - you come back in if you have any issues at all breathing. Do I make myself clear?” I nodded, and then it hit me that I had nowhere to go anyway. “Where will she be staying?” Parker asked the other occupants of the room.
Luke, Ren, and Jack put their hands over their wives mouths and looked at Cole who answered while watching me. “At mine.”
I shook my head repeatedly and looked up at Parker begging him to say no, but the shit-eating grin was aimed at me this time. “Excellent! We’ll give her something to take home for her throat and outline all of the warning signs, but after that, she’s all yours.”
I was going to kill him!
Chapter 5
Cole
I ’m not ashamed to admit that I took full advantage of Ebru’s inability to talk and quickly got her into the car. Her lack of fight was worrying, and it hadn’t escaped me that she’d been crying this morning, then again she had just lost her home.
Pulling up in front of my house, I turned to her to fill her in on something that had just occurred to me.
“So, listen…I don’t have any beds in the guest rooms just now.” The slow turn of her head in my direction and narrowing of her eyes pretty much screamed what she would have been actually screaming at me at that moment if she could. “I know, I know, but it’s true. So what I’m going to do is give you the bed, and I’ll take the couch okay?” The glare she was shooting at me softened a bit, and I got a second of feeling smug at my idea before she went back to it.
Sighing, I got out of the car and walked around to her side to let her out. She still looked pale and didn’t seem to have much energy either, so I leaned in, picked her up and walked towards my door with her slapping me on the top of the head.
“Stop, or I’ll drop you.” It was only fair to give her a warning because with my luck, I’d trip or something.
One of Coleman’s guys, whose turn it was today to stand sentry at my door, watched her beating the shit out of me and then turned and opened the door for us. The twitching of his lips didn’t escape my notice, and I gave him a glare as I walked past; asshole. It wasn’t funny, she hit hard!
I’d just kicked the door closed behind me when the sound of nails tapping on the floor and mini grunts sounded, making their way towards us. Fuck, I’d forgotten I was babysitting Dash and Pippa until Maya had the baby. From the sound of it, they’d been in the kitchen too which meant one thing…they’d been going through the garbage again.
Dash had actually been better behaved with me since he’d come to stay at mine. The leg humpage hadn't been happening as often, something that I was relieved about because it was embarrassing as fuck!
“I’m gonna put you on the couch for a minute while I go and get you something to drink so you can take the shit Parker gave you,” I told the now grinning beauty in my arms. God, I loved her smile. What I didn’t say was that I was also going to be picking up the trash that would no doubt be spread everywhere and that it was a miracle they hadn’t dragged it through here today like they normally did.
Someone, most likely Mom, had put pillows and a throw on the couch, so I made sure she was comfortable and wrapped up before stepping over the hyper piglet and Dalmatian who was wagging his tail so hard that his entire booty was moving with it.
“Turn around and go back in the direction you came from,” I pointed toward the kitchen. Dash gave me the sad eyes and lay down with his head on his paws which made Pippa do the same; then they both looked in Ebru’s direction. Oh, they were good! “Nuh uh, don’t you play that shit. You know what y’all have done…” I didn’t expect the kick to the ass that I got, and when I turned around, Ebru was glaring at me even harder than before.
“I’ll remember this you little shit sniffing piss licking ass breathing fart sniffers,” I hissed, earning another kick up the ass. This one had been a bit too close to my balls for my liking, though, so I took the opportunity to move out of the way before she decided to give me another one. Like my balls hadn’t been through enough recently.
Walking into the kitchen, I was relieved to see that it wasn’t as bad as I’d thought. The garbage only covered half of the room so apparently, they’d only just started. This meant, though, that they’d be getting another bath because after recording them to see what the fuck they did with it, I now knew that they ran through it like fucking bubbles and that was just nasty. Ten minutes later and a shit ton of mopping, the smell of pine reigned supreme, and the garbage was nowhere to be seen, so I walked back through to see my girl and give her the medications that Parker had given her. In my absence, the four-legged turd brains had tak
en over with Dash lying along the side of her with his head on her lap and Pippa curled up under her chin. Maybe Mom could look after them until after Maya had the baby?
“Dash, Pippa, down.” I pointed at the floor, and of course, they just gave me a look. “Right, let’s get this straight then. If you don’t get down, you,” I pointed at Dash and then at my crotch and made a scissoring motion with my fingers. Fucking right he jumped down. “And you,” I pointed at Pippa but didn’t get to finish the threat before a little foot was flying out at me again, just missing my crotch. Looking up at its owner, I saw the same scowl as before. “And you,” I pointed at her and saw the tiniest smile, “need to take these, so sit up and then I’ll take you upstairs for a shower.”
Had I been thinking about what I said and not focused on the smugness I was feeling over making her smile, I might have chosen my words better; unfortunately, I wasn’t. She might argue in weeks to come that it was a ‘tap’ to the crotch, but I knew for a fact that it felt like a horse had done it.
I’d eventually managed to get up off the floor after taking a punt to the balls that an NFL player would be proud of, and I’d carried her slowly up the stairs to the ensuite in my bedroom for a shower before tucking her into my bed. Not surprisingly, she’d been out like a light, but just as I was leaving to go down to the couch, she’d started whimpering and moving around, so I’d pulled my recliner over beside the bed and gotten comfy. I was exhausted and kept falling asleep, but every couple of minutes she’d make a noise again and I’d wake up. Eventually, after an hour of this, I decided it might help if I lay out beside her and held her, so she knew that she was safe. I’d managed to get three hours of sleep before she moved her leg quickly and hit me to the side of my crotch. Close call! I’d been watching her sleep ever since and was now a pro at moving out of the way of her legs after one too many hits. She was a violent little thing both awake and asleep.
Looking at her now, it hit me what I’d almost lost. What if they hadn’t gotten to her in time? I could have lost the chance to make it up to her or never had the chance to prove to her that I was worth her time. I also would have never had the opportunity to actually apologize for all of my fuck ups and the bullshit things that just seemed to come flying out of my mouth where she was involved.
Adele and I had been over for years, but the scar that she left was a permanent one. It had stopped being a constant thought rolling around in my head, but it still hurt and popped into my mind with monotonous regularity, especially since Isla and Maya had come into our lives.
When I’d gotten home from work yesterday, Adele had been standing at my door waiting for me. How she’d gotten there, I had no idea, but obviously, she was under the impression that regardless of what she’d done, and the evil bullshit that she’d pulled, that I’d be happy to see her. I wasn’t an asshole, so it wasn’t in me to call her all of the names that I wanted to, but that didn’t mean that I wanted her near me. Why was she back, though?
We’d gotten together when we were nineteen. We’d been in the same grade in high school, but hadn’t really had a reason to socialize with each other until one night at a party at my friend’s house. I’d made the mistake of hooking up with her, and afterward, she’d been like a fly around shit, impossible to shake off, so I’d given in and started dating her. She’d seemed like a nice enough girl to begin with.
Two months into our ‘relationship’, Brett had had an issue with a chick who was going to try and get knocked up by him, but Mom had gotten wind of it, and that was the end of her. This had given the rest of us a kick up the ass, and we’d become somewhat wary of the opposite sex. The night that I’d broken up with Adele she’d shown her true colors and had told me that she was only with me to get close to Brett and Ren; something that, honestly, I really didn’t give a shit about. She’d then tried her best to get their attention, but blood really was thicker than water, and they wanted nothing to do with her.
Ren had just opened the garage, and we’d been working all day when we decided to go to Jilly’s. Obviously, being underage it wasn’t going to be a wild night for me, but all the same, I needed to let off steam. I’d just walked across the forecourt when Adele’s voice calling me had me gritting my teeth. When she’d told me that she was pregnant with my baby, I’d laughed in her face, but she’d pulled a scan and piss stick out of her bag and held them up in front of me. Of course, I did what any nineteen-year-old would do…I walked away and drove home to think about it and had convinced my family that I had a stomach bug so that I didn’t have to go in to work.
A week later, I’d walked into Jilly’s to meet up with Ren and Brett and tell them the news and then plan what I wanted to say to Adele - that I wanted to be in the baby’s life. When I’d gotten there, Adele was trashed, as in could hardly put one foot in front of the other trashed. Fuck, I’d been so angry; she was pregnant and the baby could be harmed with how drunk she was, so I’d pulled her outside. I’d just been building up to the part where I wanted to be in the baby’s life when she’d said the words that still killed me to this day.
“It’s gone. I got rid of it!” she’d sneered in my face. “Maybe if it was Ren’s or Brett’s I’d have kept it, but what do I want with a Cole Townsend bastard?”
Scrubbing my hands over my face now, I did my best to get rid of the memory of that moment from my mind. No good ever came from thinking about that bitch, and sure as shit, no good ever came from thinking of that moment.
My phone pinged with an incoming text message and her name flashed up on the screen, as if the Devil summoned her himself. I had zero interest in anything she had to say, so I threw it on the side table wincing when Ebru gave a small start at the noise. Once she’d turned away from me and I was sure that she hadn’t woken up, I wrapped my arms around her. Then for good measure, I did the same with my legs, just in case she tried to shift while I was asleep, buried my nose in her hair and passed out.
Ebru
Blinking, I looked around the room again still not recognizing one thing. Where the hell was I? Then another sense clicked on, and I felt the arms and legs that were holding me tight against a hard body. Oh shitting hell, what had I done?
“I know what you’re thinking,” a deep voice rasped from behind me. It reminded me of those spoof scary movies where the bimbo picks up the phone and hears ‘I can see you’ and the bad guy’s feet are sticking out of the curtains or something. Maybe it was because I recognized the voice?
“No, you don’t!” I croaked.
“Yeah, I do.” Why did the limp dick, or not if I was right about what was pressed up against my back at the moment, always have to argue?
“Trust me, you don’t.” Because honestly, he didn’t.
Huffing out a big sigh, he pulled back and somehow turned me over before I could make a move to get out of the bed.
“You’re at my house. I’m in here because you were crying in your sleep, and yes that was what you thought it was pressed against your back. Am I right?” Smug twat.
No way was I admitting defeat, though. “Actually, I was thinking that I needed to find a place to live,” and then I remembered all of Louise’s stuff that I’d lost. “And to see if any of my stuff survived the fire,” I whispered, looking down so that he couldn’t see that I was close to crying.
Of course, he wouldn’t allow that to happen now, would he? “I’ll take you today, baby,” he said, lifting my chin so that I had no choice but to look at him. “I know that there will be things that can’t be replaced, but I swear I’ll do everything I can to try.”
This was another thing that bugged me about Cole, and maybe it wouldn’t seem like a huge problem to most people, but to someone who didn’t do closeness, it got to me. He was sweet, as in the sweetest and nicest guy that I’d ever met. Sure, he did asshole things and had a total lack of brain to mouth filter, but he was a genuinely great guy. Unfortunately, he had no idea how impossible it would be to replace the things and memories I had of Louise.
“True, but it doesn’t mean that I won’t try.”
“I don’t do relationships,” I blurted out. “I don’t do…well…relationships.” Why the hell didn’t I just stop after the first time I’d said it? Now I sounded desperate or insane!
He was quiet for so long that I started to fidget, but his arms were that tight around me that I couldn’t move away from him.
“I’m thinking that you don’t want to discuss this in depth right now. Am I right?”
“Or ever,” I think his lack of brain to mouth filter was contagious. “But right now works.”
“In that case, give me the Cliff Notes version.”
I wanted to tell him about my fucked up family, about losing Louise, but thinking of her reminded me of the things of hers that I’d lost and I horrified myself by bursting into tears. Immediately, he had my head under his chin and was whispering in my ear. I couldn’t actually make it out, but whatever it was it was welcome. I don’t know how long I cried, maybe almost as long as I did when she first died, but it was cathartic…until I realized that I had my face in his neck and that he was probably covered in drool and snot.
“I’m sorry,” and I was. No guy deserved drool and snot running down their chests, especially not one who was just doing something kind for someone.
Reaching behind him, he picked up the box of Kleenex from the table and put it on his stomach before pulling a handful out.
“Okay,” he said, putting them over my nose. “Let’s get the little green man’s shoes into the shoe shiner.”
I couldn’t help the nasal sounding burst of laughter that shot out of me at that and thanked all that was Holy that there were tissues over my nose. “Give me that,” I grabbed them and blew my nose which at least only sounded disgusting instead of him feeling it too.
Providence Series Books 1-4 Page 55