Page 61 of Devoured

"Excuse me?" her dad said.

I cleared my throat. "Not sleeping with her. I was just in bed with her. Sleeping next to her I mean. Just beside her." I shoved my hands into my pockets. Why the hell had I said that? The man already hated my guts.

Fortunately her mom laughed. "Don't be ridiculous, James. We'd like to get to know you." She walked into the room and sat down in one of the chairs. Penny’s dad walked over to the only other chair and sat down. His arms were still crossed.

I half stood, half sat on the edge of Penny’s bed. The last thing I needed was for them to picture the two of us in bed together. I usually wasn’t easily intimidated. But Penny’s father wasn’t just some guy I could fight in a bar. This mattered.

Penny reached out and grabbed my hand.

I automatically relaxed. She knew just what I needed. I took a deep breath and squeezed her hand. We were in this together.

An awkward silence settled around the room. And for the life of me, I didn’t know how to fill it. Luckily there was a knock on the door and the doctor walked in.

"You look a lot better this morning," she said. Her eyes flit toward me for a second. Hopefully that staff member hadn’t ratted me out.

"Do you think I can go home today?" Penny asked.

"Let's see." She pressed a button on the machine that had been monitoring Penny’s heartbeat. It started printing out a long chart. "Well that's strange."

"What is it?" Penny’s father asked.

"Well, it looks like there was a twenty-minute period of escalated pulse."

I laughed and then turned it into a forced cough. I hadn’t thought about the doctor bringing up the fact that we’d fucked last night.Please don’t say anything else about that.Penny’s father already hated me enough. I squeezed Penny’s hand and looked down at my shoes.

"How are you feeling?" the doctor asked. "Are you struggling for breath at all? Have you noticed that your heart is racing? Or any palpitations?"

I pressed my lips together. They probably thought she was about to have a heart attack or something.

"No,” Penny said. “Not at all. I'm fine."

The doctor flipped a few switches on the monitor. "It could have been a computer malfunction. It seems to be working fine now, though. Strange." She leaned down and unplugged the machine and then plugged it back in.

"Maybe it was just a nightmare or something," Penny said quietly.

Oh, Penny.She wasn’t as good of a liar as I was.

"Possibly," the doctor replied. "So the man who brought you in said you had fallen a couple nights ago and hit your head pretty bad. And then you fainted yesterday afternoon. Are you feeling lightheaded at all today?"

"No. I feel a lot better."

"Well you have a moderate concussion. You shouldn't have been walking around by yourself. Plus you had an empty stomach and you were dehydrated. It's no wonder that you fainted."

I winced. That was all my fault. "Will she be okay now?" I asked.

"She needs to rest and build her strength back up."

"Can she leave today?"

"Let's keep the IV in for a few more hours to help with your dehydration. I'll be back to check on you soon. And if everything looks good and your heart rate stays down, you can head home."

"How long should she stay at home?" Penny’s mom asked. "She has classes." She looked at her husband. "I can take tomorrow off. I just need to call in."

"I'd recommend taking it easy for a few days. Definitely no classes on Monday. And just see how you feel on Tuesday. Don't push yourself. I'll be back in a few hours to check in." The doctor nodded at Penny’s parents and walked out of the room.

"Okay, let me call the office." Penny’s mother stood up and grabbed her purse.

"She can come back to my place," I said. I’d only just gotten Penny back. And I wasn’t letting her out of my sight again. Honestly, I didn’t really want her to be alone with her father. The last thing I needed was for him to spew poison in her ear, when I’d already done enough harm myself the past couple weeks. I wasn’t sure how important his approval was to her. "If that's okay with both of you, of course."

---