Clay was bamboozled. She was smiling—or trying for a reasonable facsimile thereof. What was going on?
"Joshua Maddox is a very good friend of mine, and I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't look like you want to throttle him with both hands."
"Just a friend?" he ground out.
"Just a friend. A very, very good, close friend."
"How close?"
She cleared her throat. "I don't have to justify or explain my friendships to you, Clay."
"Why did you leave me last night?"
When he had been talking about Joshua, she'd met him head on, even though hers wasn't in the best shape right now. She stood up to him, quietly, but didn't back down. But when it came to her behavior last night, she turned away from him. He could see her fidgeting with the blanket, rubbing it with her fingers as if she was trying to grind the fabric into a fine pulp.
"Was it that bad?" he asked, only half kidding.
She turned back towards him, too quickly, and winced. "No, no, of course not. It was wonderful. It was fantastic—"
"I'm sorry for falling asleep right after we made love. I shouldn't have. I should have stayed awake and cuddled. I'm better trained than that. But to be honest, I was just exhausted, not that that's an excuse—"
Elodie interrupted his heartfelt mea culpa. "It was fine. I mean, I wouldn't want it to be a continual habit, but I'm not mad or anything."
"So it wasn't that either, then." Clay leaned forward and put his hand on her hip, one of the few places not encased in either plaster or gauze. "Tell me what it was that drove you away from me, out into the night."
She avoided his eyes and compulsively folded the hem of the starched hospital sheet to within an inch of its life. "Nothing in particular."
He didn't say anything for a few seconds, then issued a loud, "Ahem. I'm not buying it. So try to sell me something else. Like the truth."
"April."
"What about April?" he asked, figuring he already had a good idea, but knowing she needed to be prodded into talking it out.
It tore at his heart when he saw her eyes fill with tears. "I just—I just felt like—like I had betrayed her, you know?"
He knew. He knew very well exactly what she was talking about, because he had felt it, too. "You could have gotten me up, and we could have talked about it," he cajoled, "instead of sneaking out on me."
"I didn't feel like it. I wanted to be alone. I needed to work some stuff out."
Although he didn't want to, he did understand what she was saying. "Next time," he growled huskily, "I'm going to stay awake, and I'm not going to let you leave my side all night long."
Clay couldn't see anything on her skin but purple bruises and red scrapes, but he knew that she was blushing nonetheless.
"Now. Back to this Joshua character," Clay said.
"Did I hear my name being taken in vain?" The owner of the voice on her answering machine knocked once on the open door and waltzed in as if he owned the place, running up to Elodie's other side and kissing her loudly on the cheek.
"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry! I came as soon as I heard. Are you okay?"
He hadn't so much as acknowledged Clay with a glance. All of his attention was focused on Elodie, and Clay was seeing red, especially when the man reached out and caressed her hair as if he had every right to.
"She's going to be fine," Clay said as he stood and took his place on Elodie's other side, his hand on her shoulder staking an indisputable claim.
The other man's response to all of what Elodie would refer to as 'macho posturing' was to smile from ear to ear and hold out his hand. "You must be Clay Carver. I'm so glad you were here for her."
It was too much of an ingrained response to take another man's hand when it was offered for him to refrain. Clay shook hands with the man he considered his closest rival for Elodie's affections, noting reluctantly that he had a good, firm handshake. He didn't want to like anything about this man, dammit.
Elodie looked back and forth from one man to another. "Clay, this is Joshua Maddox. He's one of my best friends, and absolutely no threat to you at all. He and I are not romantically involved in any way, so you can put down your caveman club any time now."
His mouth twisted at her depressingly accurate interpretation of his feelings, but he wasn't going to stand down just because of what she said. He intended to size up the stranger himself. Clay did sit back down again, but he also kept his big paw on her shoulder, just in case Mr. Maddox got any ideas.
At least he didn't stay long, and as far as even Clay's narrow definition, he didn't say anything he shouldn't have. In fact, he was very loving and affectionate towards Elodie, but in an almost neutered way. Clay couldn't find an objection to that; Elodie needed all the loving support she could get.