Page 48 of Her Brother's Keeper

“Everything okay, man?” I asked. Sage looked past me at my bike ticking and cooling in their driveway. He rolled his eyes and stepped back further, opening the door wide.

“Yeah, let me guess, she’s not answering her phone.”

“Uh yeah, how’d you guess?”

Sage laughed, “She always gets super emo this time of the month.”

Stupid me; I blurted out, “I don't follow.”

Sage said, “She’s on her period, she’s in her room.” He was laughing now, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.

“Hey, knock it off,” I said pushing past him. I went up the stairs, easing my way down the hall until I could glance in Maren’s doorway. She wasn’t in that sexy as hell nightgown of hers. No, she was in some raggedy ass sweats, curled on her side, arms around her stomach. She looked asleep, so I backed off and nearly collided with Sage who looked amused.

“I’ll be back in a bit, gonna give it my best shot to fix this. Answer the door when I get back,” I told him.

He rolled his eyes at me again and I bent down nose to nose with him. “Disrespect me again,” I said; voice low, controlled, and even.

He swallowed visibly and said, voice shaking, “Sorry, Nox.”

I straightened up and nodded once, “Glad we understand each other.” I ruffled his hair and left him at his bedroom door, jogging down the stairs and on a mission.

Chapter 18

Maren

I hated how much my cramps took it out of me. I couldn't bear to be around people when they hit. I didn't even feel human. All I could do was curl on my side and wait for it to pass which, thankfully, only took the better part of the first day, with tolerable pain the second. I took two Tylenol the moment I got home and crawled into my favorite sweats. I lay curled on my side on my bed wishing for death or for the damn pain to juststopwhen a light touch fell on my head, smoothing aside my hair. I jerked, startled and looked up into Nox’s gently smiling face.

“Oh god, did you try to call?” I asked.

“No, Angel, your texts have been off your baseline all day. I texted to say I was coming over. Found you like this after Sage let me in. I left out and came back. Let’s see what we can do to make you more comfortable, okay?”

“Honestly, I’m not really up for any company right nowNox…” I said and hugged my middle, the cramps in my stomach close to unbearable, twisting down so tightly I thought my spine should suffer permanent damage.

“Not going to let you suffer like this, Angel. Not when there’s something I can do about it. Come on, up you go.” He helped me into a sitting position and I sighed.

“All I can do is take my Tylenol, which I did, and wait for it to stop, which I am,” I said glumly.

“First off, fuck Tylenol; take Ibuprofen. Second, have you ever tried heat or massage?”

“Okay, and no I haven’t… what does heat do?” I asked curiously.

“I take it your dad didn’t know much about these kinds of problems?”

“No,” I murmured.

“And your mom?”

I gritted my teeth, but not from pain and said, “Not around.”

“Not here to push, just here to help,” he said and he did help me to my feet. I let him take me downstairs and blinked at the crazy setup in my living room.

Nox stood by the table and held out a hand, “Hop up here. No need to take anything off, I can work around it for now. Someday, though, I’d like to do this for you for real.”

I hopped up on the side of the table and sat there, Nox came around and touched the side of my face, his fingertips lightly resting on the pulse point in my neck, his thumb grazing my jaw. I shivered and closed my eyes for a second, relishing the touch despite how I hurt to the point of nausea. God, I hated being a woman sometimes, and the march of the red menace wasdefinitelyat the top of my list of times I hated being female.

“You trust me, don’t you, Maren?” he asked low and the quality of his voice made me shiver again.

“Yes,” I said breathy, and it didn’t have anything to do with the pain.

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