Love Simmers (5 page)

“
I’ll lose my
scholarship if I get charged with assault,” the smallest of the men
cried.

“
What do we
do?” The two turned to the one who had tackled me. An uneasy
feeling settled in my stomach. I’d seen enough crime shows to know
that they could very well now decide to kill me and hide the body.
If I’d learnt anything from crime dramas it was some people
genuinely thought the solution to assault was murder to cover up
assault.

“
Go now. I
can’t describe your faces. Just leave. I’ll get myself to a
hospital.”

They took off running before
I’d even finished the sentence. They just ran away with their tails
between their legs leaving me to deal with the mess they had made.
That was men for you! I thought it best not to mention to them
before they’d ran that I could describe their car pretty
accurately. I’m sure it would dawn on them sooner or later. I hoped
every time they heard a siren they thought it was coming for them.
The thought of them squirming a little gave me some pleasure.

I guess my earlier fears of
murder had been a little premature. I had to stop watching crime
shows. They made me paranoid.

Getting up slowly, I pulled my
phone from my pocket and screamed in anger when I saw it was
smashed from the fall. I threw it into the bushes in frustration
and started walking back clumsily to the restaurant, trying to move
my arm as little as possible. With every step I took the pain
intensified. Those three jerks had broken a lot of stuff
tonight.

I banged on the restaurant door
after what felt like the longest ten minute walk of my life. The
wooziness was unbearable now. My head pounded and my body trembled.
I’d hoped a car would go by but of course since I needed one none
did. When you didn't need one there was a traffic jam. That was
life for you.

Ollie pulled open the door
holding a broom, his face livid until I stepped into the light.

“
Can you drive
me to the hospital?” I showed him my arm.

Ollie stared in disbelief
before wrapping my shivering body in his coat and yelling out for
Nate.

“
What the hell
happened? It’s been barely twenty minutes!” He wiped the blood off
my head with a tissue and grabbed a dishtowel to wrap my arm in. My
eyes started to loose focus.

“
What
happened?” I heard his terrified voice but couldn’t find the words
to answer.

“
Logan? Logan,
are you okay?” Nate shouted as he pulled me into his arms and
carried me to the car.

“
Rabbits,” was
the last thing I mumbled before I passed out cold.

I woke up in a hospital bed
with a cast already on my arm. Looking around groggily I found my
brother in the chair beside the bed starring at me intently. He
moved to sit beside me.

“
How are you
feeling?” He asked in a quiet voice, his distressed expression
making him look years younger.

“
Fuzzy.” I used
my left hand to rub my face, annoyed that my dominant hand was
broken. It would make the next little while difficult.

“
You broke your
arm,” he stated the obvious. I knew from the snapping sound and
excruciating pain when I fell it was broken. I’d had a fracture
once before as a kid, this had been far worse. “And you have five
stitches in your head.”

“
I figured,” my
vision took a minute to focus. I saw Ollie clearly, his eyes
troubled and his face pale in the terrible hospital lighting. I
felt bad for him. His restaurant and his sister had been damaged
tonight.

“
Now you’ve
broken two more bones than me,” he said.

“
So you’re
finally admitting you did break my toe and not just bruise
it?”

“
I’ll give you
that if you admit it was an accident on my part,” he smiled, “I
mean, what type of six year old drops a Lego set on his sister’s
foot on purpose?”

“
An angry one.
I did take your cupcake just before it happened.”

I looked up as Nate entered the
room with two cups of coffee. He handed one to Ollie. “I thought
we’d put the great Lego accident of 95’ to bed years ago,” Nate
said as he caught the end of our conversation.

“
We reopened
it,” I said, feeling a sense of relief that he was here beside me
now.

“
I called your
mum and Maddie,” he told me as he took the seat Ollie had left.
“Your mum wanted to cut her trip short.”

“
I hope you
told her I’m fine.”

I didn’t want to ruin her
relaxing night away. My poor mother, one of the few times she
leaves town for the night and her daughter breaks her arm. There
was no such thing as vacation when you were a parent.

“
I’m sorry,” I
said at the same time Ollie said a heartfelt “Sorry.”

We smiled. We’d done that all
the time when we were young. Not so much lately though.

“
I shouldn’t
have thrown you out. I mean, you had been targeted by a hate group
and I pushed you out on the road alone with no ride home.” Ollie
shook his head in disbelief at his own actions.

“
I’m sorry
about Sails. Please let me try and make it right,” I apologised
again, taking a sip of the water on my bedside table. The pain in
my arm and head was a dull throb now. I guess I was pretty dosed
up.

“
That would be
great,” Nate said. I leaned my head back onto the pillow, reaching
a hand up to my head to feel around the large plaster on my
forehead. I hoped the scar wouldn’t be too bad. If it was, at least
it was a badass story to tell. The scar on my wrist was from when
I’d fallen at an ice-skating rink. That was a lame story to have to
tell over and over.

“
The police
will be in later but can you tell us what happened,” Nate asked, a
strength in his tone that reminded me he was a force to be reckoned
with when angry. Nate had never been in a fight he’d
lost.

“
I was walking
home. A car pulled up and three guys wearing rabbit masks hopped
out.” I stopped to laugh, “hopped, get it.”

Neither of them was amused. I
laughed loudly, the painkillers more to blame for my outburst than
the joke I think.

“
I ran. One
tackled me. I hit the ground and he landed on top of me. My arm
broke and I hit my head. They ran when they saw the
injuries.”

“
Can you
describe them?” Nate pressed, his jaw clenching in fury.

I shook my head lightly;
figuring the last thing he needed was to take justice into his own
hands. He needed to focus on fixing Sails.

“
I’ll go tell
the doctor you’re awake.” Ollie gave me a light kiss on the head
before leaving the room.

Nate moved closer to me,
picking up my left hand and kissing it softly. His stubble tickled
my skin.

“
You gave me a
heart attack when I saw you standing there covered in blood,” he
said raggedly. I pulled my hand from his and touched his face
tenderly.

“
You’re always
so calm in the face of chaos.” I used to hate that about him. When
I was young I thought a man had to be explosive to be passionate.
But calm in the face of crisis didn’t mean that a man was not
passionate, it meant that he was rational. That when you were
broken and in need of help, he could take care of you first and
react later.

“
I don’t feel
calm. I want to smash something,” he took a deep breath to calm
himself, “but I also want to be here for you. And that outweighs
everything else.”

His words filled me with
happiness. I felt a warm fuzzy emotion tighten in my chest. I
didn’t want to analyse it too closely. Nate was the only guy who
had ever touched my heart. And I’d run from him.

“
Miss Blake,
I’m Doctor Scott. How are you feeling?” A young, handsome doctor
came into the room followed by Ollie, his face friendly yet
professional. I bet the female nurses and patients had wild
fantasies about him. He was this hospital’s very own
McDreamy.

“
Fine,” I
replied tiredly, ready to go home and hopefully sleep peacefully in
Nate’s arms for the night.

“
Let’s run
through some questions. If all goes well, I’ll send you home. Are
one of you staying with her tonight?” Doctor Scott looked between
Ollie and Nate. “She’ll need to be woken up every few hours to make
sure she has no concussion.”

“
She’s staying
with us so I’ll check on her,” Ollie answered, crossing his arms to
watch as the doctor checked my vitals. I squeezed Nate’s hand in a
gesture that hopefully conveyed I wanted him to check on
me.

“
I can do it,”
Nate said to Ollie. I noticed my brother frown, as if finally
realizing how close Nate and I were becoming.

Half an hour later we headed
home. I’d barely made it through the door when mum called to check
in on me. I soothed her concerns and promised not to walk the
streets alone anymore at night. Apparently, I was a trouble magnet,
even in a small town with a near non-existent crime rate.

Maddie had sent me a brief
get-well text but when I tried to call there was no answer. I was
more worried about her now than myself.

Nate and I headed to his room.
We’d almost made it when Ollie’s voice stopped us.

“
How long?” He
asked and we both knew what he meant.

“
Today,” Nate
answered and put an arm around my shoulder.

“
Hmm,” was the
only sound that Ollie made as we walked into Nate’s room and closed
the door.

“
He’s worried
about what happens when I leave.” I guessed, knowing my brother as
well as I knew myself. That’s what I was worried about so I’m sure
it was what he was worried about.

“
So am I,” Nate
said as he pulled off my clothes and tucked me into bed, his body
wrapping gently around mine. He made certain there was no pressure
on my arm.

“
I’ll wake you
up in a few hours.” He kissed my check and I sighed in relief that
I was here with him. I was safe with him.

“
Thank you for
taking care of me,” I whispered in the dark, quiet room.

“
Always,” he
said and there was a truth to his words. Ever since kindergarten
he’d been there for me whenever I’d been in trouble or sacred or
even just lonely. He’d been there for me.

My head and arm throbbed in
equal measure the next morning. I felt like death would be a
welcome relief from the pain. My tendency for melodrama was clearly
in overdrive from the night’s events.

I opened my eyes as Nate
entered the room, the effort to sit up exhausting me enough that I
wanted to lie back down and go to sleep.

“
Water,
painkillers and eggs and bacon,” Nate’s voice was quiet as he
placed the breakfast tray on my lap, his eyes searching my face for
signs of discomfort. He didn’t need to search hard.

“
Eggs are
cooked through?”

“
Of
course.”

“
Bacon is
crispy,” I checked to make sure.

“
I wouldn’t
dare bring you bacon that wasn’t crispy,” he pretended to be
irritated that I had checked.

“
I thought you
might have forgotten.”

“
I haven’t
forgotten anything about you.”

I smiled and looked down at the
meal in front of me.

“
It’s
perfect.”

I threw back the painkillers
with a gulp of water, digging into the hot breakfast with gusto. I
was hungry and food always made a person feel better. Comfort
eating was a problem of mine. Pilates was the solution.

“
We’re going to
head over to Sails…”

“
I’ll come,” I
interrupted Nate to say, eating the rest of my food quickly and
heading to the bathroom to shower. The painkillers had numbed my
arm and head enough that I was able to face the day.

“
Are you sure
you wouldn’t rather rest?” Nate helped get the shirt off and wrap
my cast up.

“
I want to help
you guys fix the mess that I’m responsible for.” I hopped in the
shower, gasping in surprise as Nate stepped into the stall behind
me, his hands taking the soap.

“
Nurse’s
usually give sponge baths while dressed,” I leaned into his chest,
his hands tenderly washing my arm before moving along to my neck
and shoulders. I moaned as his firm hands moved onto my breasts.
His finger’s teased my nipples and I lost all train of
thought.

“
I guess that
means I’m your nurse with benefits.”

His fingers slid down my
stomach. I held my breath as he lathered more soap on his hands and
knelt down to wash my feet. I stared down at him with anticipation.
My legs trembling with need once there was only one place he had
yet to touch. This felt better than the painkillers.

He put the soap bar down and
stepped out of the shower.

“
What?” I
cried, staring at him in shock. “Why?” I practically sobbed in
frustration.

“
Your doctor
said not to exert yourself for a few days,” he smirked boyishly as
I chucked the soap bar at his head. “That was just a taste of
what’s to come.”

“
You’re a
tease,” I stepped out of the shower, standing before him proud and
naked. His eyes couldn't help but skim over my wet body. I smiled
as his body began to react to the sight of me naked.