Page 21 of BillionHeir
“I am fine,” I say when it becomes clear that she wants to see the rest of the house. I can’t blame her for being curious. “Go ahead and check everything. Let me know if anything is out of order.”
She looks like she is ready to walk out of the room when she finds my eyes again. “How did everything get here so fast?”
“My staff are paid well so that they are available to serve me on a moment’s notice.”
Chloe says something under her breath, but it is too quiet for me to hear. Normally, I would make her repeat herself, but I am exhausted right now, and I just don’t care.
“Why don’t you close your eyes and go to sleep?” Chloe suggests.
“Good idea,” I say as my eyelids immediately start to feel like tiny weights are pulling them shut.
* **
The next time my eyes open, it is already dusk. The room is filled with golden light from the late afternoon sun. I am extremely groggy, like I have been sleeping either for too long or not long enough. I start to bring my hand up to wipe the sleep off my face and groan at the pain it causes.
“Morning, Sleeping Beauty,” Tristan says from somewhere to my right. I twist my head and find him sitting on the other side of the sectional couch. “I don’t think I have ever seen you sleep so much in my life.”
I roll my eyes. “Two words. Helicopter. Crash.”
“Yeah, yeah. You act like it is so terrible, yet you have hired the hottest nurse possible to take care of you? I am not buying it.”
“She is best friends with Jackson’s girlfriend,” I say, not quite defending myself.
“Are you telling me there wasn’t one other nurse in New England who would be your private nurse? Isn’t there some kind of service for this type of thing?”
He is right, of course, but I am not going to admit that to him.
“It is not the same. I don’t want some stranger in my home.”
“Have you ever met this woman before two days ago in the rehab?”
“Yes,” I fib. I have seen her before, but technically we weren’t introduced.
“Uh huh,” Tristan says, clearly not buying it. “Whatever you say, man.”
I look around. “Where is Liam?”
“He is out back giving Chloe a tour of the pool house,” Tristan says with a smirk on his face.
“What?” I start to sit up, but the pain in my back smacks me in the face, forcing me to lie back down. I have done more than I should have today and my body is protesting in a major way.
“What is wrong with that?” Tristan asks, arching his brow and using a voice that tells me he knows exactly what I might find wrong with it.
“Nothing.”
“Mmhmm.”
“Would you stop with that shit?”
Tristan has the nerve to laugh at me. “What the hell did I do?”
“Mmhmm,” I mock. “You are getting on my nerves.”
“Well excuse me for coming to help you,” Tristan says with his hands up defensively.
I suppose I am grateful that they came to help, but their idea of help and mine are two different things. I don’t know why I am feeling so proprietary about my nurse, but there is something about her that has me foolishly wanting to keep her all to myself.It is not like she is mine in any sense of the word. Hell, I hardly know the woman. I need to get a damn grip.
I stretch, trying to get comfortable, and end up in even more discomfort than before. When I shift my weight, a groan involuntarily escapes my mouth as I try to control the sharp pain throughout my body.
