Page 36 of Shy Girls Can't Date Celebrities
I swallow hard over the lump in my throat. “Because of another girl.”
“No way,” he says firmly. “If I didn’t always want you, I wouldn’t have woken up from a coma thinking about you.”
I clamp down on his hands. “I just want to be with you, Wyatt.”
His grin lights up his face. “Then let’s be together. There’s no one standing in our way.”
“But our lives are so different now.”
“Let’s worry about that later. For now, we’ve got this comfy couch and this wicked view.”
I settle against him, still unnerved by Portia wreaking havoc in my thoughts. His hand runs over my curls and he gently nudges my head to rest against his shoulder.
As he runs a hand over my arm, he smirks at the inside of his bicep. “Did you know I have a tattoo?”
I smile at the Sanskrit inked into his skin. “Yes, I knew.”
He stretches his arm out to view the design. “I don’t even know what it means.”
Giddily, I mumble, “Perception is reality.”
“Huh?”
I lean my head against his shoulder as I run my thumb against the inscription. “It’s what the tattoo means; perception is reality.”
“How do you know that?”
I blush. “It was in an article I read online. It’s written in Sanskrit.”
“Oh, okay.” He flexes his arm again, watching the tattoo. “You must know more about my life than I do.”
“Well, I am a super fan.”
He laughs. “Whatever.”
I giggle. “Hey, I am.”
He lets his arm flop and then reaches across to hold me. “Well, heck, at least I got a tattoo and can’t remember the pain.”
“You wouldn’t have felt the pain. You’re such a tough guy now.”
“I dunno. At the moment, I’m feeling battered and bruised.”
“But you’re healing.”
He kisses the top of my forehead and settles in beside me. We hold each other in silence, only breaking apart when Nurse Liza returns with Wyatt’s new dose of painkillers.
At the kitchenette, Liza fills a glass with fresh water and presents it to Wyatt with a small plastic container with two pills inside, half blue, half white.
Wyatt breathes out slowly. “Thanks. It’s been agony waiting for these.”
My mouth falls open and I gently whack his arm. “You didn’t tell me you were still in pain. I said, don’t put on a front.”
He flashes a guilty smile. “Maybe agony was too strong a word.”
I eye him. “Or, maybe it was the truth.”
Wyatt avoids my eyes and quickly throws back the pills and chases them with three big gulps of water. He hands the pill container and glass back to Liza. “Thanks.”
