“Please go home,” he’d said when he saw Nora struggling to keep her eyes open and me barely able to hold a conversation. The day had been emotionally draining, to say the least, but seeing Brett awake had made me feel a little bit better, and I knew that Nora was glad to be there with me even if she wasn’t saying much.
Georgia had left a little while earlier, but promised to stop by the next day. Brett hadn’t said much about what they talked about, but it looked like Georgia was shaken up when she left. That seemed to be the only thing that he was excited about, not to mention his mom and dad were going to fly in the next morning. Between Georgia and his mother I was sure he’d be well taken care of.
“I’ll stop back by in the morning,” I told him. “I’m real sorry this happened to you,” I apologized for what seemed like the hundredth time.
“It wasn’t your fault, RT.” He gave me a groggy, medically altered smile. “Probably a good thing it was me, anyway. You’re probably too much of a * to handle this kind of pain.”
“That’s real easy to say when you’re speed clicking that morphine, Sally,” I’d laughed.
Nora leaned over and kissed his cheek before we left, barely saying two words. I could see the guilt she was carrying. It was the same as mine. Brett was hurt because of Beau, and Beau was acting like a jackass because of Nora and me. Even if Brett seemed to not be placing blame, I think we were both pointing the finger at ourselves.
I’d meant it when I said I was going to make it my mission to ruin Beau. The second my guys figured out exactly what went wrong with that bike, it would be over for Gregurich. I had a pretty good idea of exactly what I wanted to do. I’d been thinking about it since before the accident actually, but I wanted to talk to Nora first.
I was pissed that she went to his shop by herself, but this whole team mentality thing she’d mentioned—about us being in this together and protecting each other, was pretty fucking fantastic. God, I loved her. I didn’t think it was possible to love her more, but then I heard her telling Gregurich off and if I hadn’t been so consumed with the desire to beat his head against the wall I probably would have bent her over that desk and showed her just how sexy it was that she had my back.
“We’re home, baby,” I said, waking her gently. She’d fallen asleep on the short drive back to my place. Because we were both exhausted and Georgia took her car home, I’d driven us in her car from the hospital.
“I can’t believe I fell asleep,” she mumbled. She looked so cute with her tired eyes squinting as the dome light turned on when we opened the doors.
“It’s been a long day.” We walked into up the front steps of the porch and I unlocked the door. I opened the door and swept her up into my arms, cradling her legs and her back. She looped her arms around my neck and rested her head on my chest. “How about that shower?”
“Sounds fantastic.”
After locking the door behind us and carrying her up the stairs, I sat her down on the bathroom counter and turned on the bathtub faucet and pulled the shower lever. As the water heated, I took my time kissing her lips and neck as I pulled her shirt over her head. She returned the favor as I stood between her legs.
Between Brett and Beau and everything else that we’d talked about that day, neither of us were particularly chatty. The feel of our skin against each other’s as hot water cascaded over us seemed to be good enough. It was something I’d never get tired of, that was for sure.