Page 15 of Sweet T

“You’re awake.”

The voice startled him. His gaze went toward the sound of it. There he saw a man looking down at him, smiling.

“Welcome back.”

His vision was still blurry, but the large man was bending down closer to him. He was wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans. As he got closer, Evan’s eyes focused in on the man’s face—dark blond hair, mussed, above the kindest brown eyes, grinning. Dimples.

“Are you—”

The face said nothing, just raised its eyebrows in anticipation of the rest of the sentence.

“—an angel?”

The man chuckled. “No. It’s not that bad. I’m just a friend. Take it easy now. You got hit in the head pretty hard. I’m Tucker.”

Evan tried to latch onto the words, but they drifted above him in a sea of haze. He tried to lift his hand to reach one, but it was too heavy. Instead, he sank deeper into the recesses of his mattress.

Things went dark again.

* * *

When he awoke again, it was daylight outside. He was in a hospital and there was a nurse checking his IV drip.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Morning,” Evan murmured.

“Here. Can you drink a little?”

Evan nodded. The nurse poured some water in a Styrofoam cup and held it for him. Once the cool water hit his lips, he sucked it down fast, not realizing how thirsty he was.

“That’s good. Take it easy, though. You’re still loopy from the painkillers. Baby steps.”

She took the cup away from him, and Evan relaxed back into his pillow.

“How hungry are you?”

“Very,” he said.

“Good. I’ll see that you get some breakfast. You rest now.”

“Wait. What about the—”

He almost said angel, but stopped himself. As he did, he recognized the man in question entering the room, sipping from a cup of coffee.

“—trucker.” Evan said instead.

“He’s much better. I’m gonna see he gets some breakfast,” the nurse said to the man on her way out the door.

“Thanks, Juanita.” Tucker smiled at Evan. “You look a little less confused than when we last spoke.”

“I’m not confused,” Evan said, trying to sit up. “You’re the trucker.”

Tucker grinned. He set his coffee down on the nightstand, reaching for the bed controls and pressing a button that raised the mattress and Evan to a sitting position.

“My name is Tucker. I told you that last night when you woke up for a minute.”

“Wait,” Evan said, trying to remember.

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