Page 83 of Overtime
“I don’t know yet. I’ll reschedule or get a different flight. But I’m not leaving. I’ll be here in the morning somehow. So don’t worry.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Colt. I don’t want to be anywhere else right now. Not after I saw you on that field. I need to know you’re okay.
“All right.”
“I’m gonna talk to Violet and Ben, working out a schedule for checking on you in the night. Hopefully, I can do it, but just in case I sleep through an alarm or something, I want to be sure.”
“Let them take turns with you. That’s what they’re here for. I feel stupid that they have to be here at all, so let them at least be here for a reason. And you look like hell Joss. Let one of them sit with me while you take a shower and relax a bit, okay?”
“Okay.” She nods and starts to leave the room before she stops. “Colt?”
“Yeah,” I say as I lay back against the pillows.
“I’m glad you’re okay. I just… can’t imagine life without you in it, you know?”
My heart squeezes in my chest, and I give her a small, cracked smile. I want to confess everything to her, but I know I don’t have the energy right now. I need to take it easy and trying to convince her to do a thing like risk it all on me and my love for her is going to take everything I’ve got. So instead I just nod.
“I know, Dollface. Same.”
She smiles back and then hurries off to find Violet.
* * *
When I wakeup the next morning the smell of breakfast is wafting toward me and as I open my eyes, I see Joss standing there with a tray. She smiles at me when she sees my eyes open, and the sight of her makes my stomach twist and my heart squeeze tight. Because she’s still here. Which means she didn’t take the flight she was supposed to. She didn’t leave, and she meant it when she said she was going to stay.
But my heart aches all the same because she doesn’t want to be here. She’s just worried because I don’t have someone to look after me besides hired help, and she knows my family won’t want to come out, and my brother can’t.
“I sent Ben and Violet home to do their thing, but they want to come back and check on you later. Your brother called and I told him you were good, and I promised to tell you so you could call him back when you were awake. But I want you to eat first. I made you eggs, toast, and some bacon. The bacon’s a little burnt but not bad. And there’s a little fruit bowl because your trainer said to take it easy but not to let you have too many treats. I also made the protein shake to his directions, but it’s still in the kitchen. I’ll go get it,” she explains as she sits the tray down on my nightstand and then evaluates my position in bed.
“Thanks,” I mumble, she looks back at me and my position and frowns, turning and walking back toward the bed.
“Here let me get you some pillows, help you sit up in bed.”
“I can move the pillows.”
“But that’s what I’m here for. To fluff pillows and bring you food and not let you overtax yourself. Give your brain time to heal.”
“Grabbing a pillow is not going to overtax me.”
She reaches over the bed despite my protests to grab more pillows and motions for me to sit forward.
“I know you’re used to being super independent with everything. But right now, you’re going to have to let me be in charge. You need to get better, and the more you rest the more likely that is. Everyone’s worried about you. They’re lost without you. So the sooner you’re back on your feet—the better.”
“And I need to hurry up, so you can get back on the road,” I say bluntly because we both know that has to be a consideration. Her awkwardly staying here looking after me doesn’t make sense.
“I’m here as long as you need me.”
“I appreciate that, but you should get back to work. I don’t want you wasting your time here when you have clients waiting on you.”
“I’m not wasting my time being here for you. You would do the same for me—look at what you did with the studio. I can’t buy you a studio Colt, but I can be here for a week while you recover from a brain injury.”
“Brain injury,” I snort, shaking my head. “I just bumped my head.”
“A concussion is a brain injury. The doctors are treating it like one, so I’m going to treat it like one too.”
“Being treated like a child is going to make me grumpy.”
