Page 60 of The Crush Next Door

"What is all this crap?" he asked.

Yeah, I had a pretty good collection from Whole Foods. "I hate being sick. Okay?"

"Hey, no need to get defensive. I'm here to help."

I sighed. "Fine. Thank you."

And soon, I found myself in the same position Devon had been in most of the weekend, propped up on the couch, sucking on a lozenge and drinking tea, half-watching the game on TV.

Josh hopped over the balcony a few times to grab stuff from his place, including some chicken noodle soup since I was out. He also helped Magic jump over, and I was thrilled to see the big guy who cuddled up next to me, keeping me warm. I had really missed him the last several days.

"So that was really nice of Devon to bring you a big, fat cold," Josh said from where he sat on the other side of Magic. I glared at him, but he cracked up laughing, holding his hands up in surrender. "Joking! Just a joke."

Returning my attention to the game, we both watched as the Dodgers scored a run then promptly hit a pop-up fly to end the inning.

"So did you have a good time?" Josh asked as commercials took over the screen.

"Yeah. It was nice. Devon was pretty sick the whole weekend. But we still had fun."

"Well, good."

"Got a lot of wedding stuff done."

"Oh, really?" I could almost hear the distaste in his voice, but he at least tried to hide it.

"Mm-hmm. Even settled on a date."

"Oh, yeah? So when's the big day?"

"May fourteenth. I mean, fifteenth. I think. I don't know. I have it written down."

"May? I thought you weren't getting married until the summer?"

I gave a half-shrug. "I don't know why it changed. What do I know?"

"You are kind of the bride," Josh said with a quiet chuckle.

He was too much to handle right now, and I had no energy to contradict him. So I said nothing, just lay there like a slug, not able to move.

After a while, though, I grew curious about him. "So what about you? What'd you do over the weekend? Do you owe me a Dodgers game by chance?"

He shot me a funny look, brows pulled together. "What? No. I'm still celibate if that's what you're asking."

Relief spread out in my chest at those words. "Oh, I heard a lot of noise over there, like you had a party with a bunch of hot prospects."

Josh let out a loud laugh. "No hot prospects. Just a bunch of my guy friends. I hadn't seen them in a while."

Huh, that was interesting. But what exactly did that mean? "Because of me?"

He shook my blanket-covered leg. "Not because of you, silly. Because of me. I've been so focused on work, the podcast, watching games with you so we can establish a rapport, you know, all of that."

"Oh, right. Establishing a rapport. Yes, of course." That was a good way to put it. That was what we were doing. "Well, good. Glad you got to see your friends. You know, you can have them over too while we're watching the games..."

He shrugged. "Yeah. Maybe. They're kind of a, um, interesting group."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, they're pretty obnoxious."

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