Page 135 of Against The Tide

“Eww! Calliope!”

“I know. After all these years, Twilight is rubbing off on me.” With a shrug and lopsided grin, she closes the door as she disappears out of the room.

It doesn’t take long for me to get washed. The shower feels good, and like Callie suggested, the longer I stand under the warm spray, the lighter I feel. As though the events of the last twenty-four hours really are being washed away.

Stepping out of the small cubicle, I pull the towel sitting at the top of the duffel out and almost fall to my ass with a startle when a hot water bottle falls out. Jo. Only she would think to wrap the towel around a hot water bottle to warm it through. The small gesture warms all the way through me.

It’s all these little details and thoughts that make this place home. That make all the people around us irreplaceable.

When I’m dry and start to get dressed, I pause at the sight of Rhett’s hooded sweater. I rush through getting my underwear and yoga pants on, and before I pull the sweater on, I hug it to my chest, inhaling the scent of the life I adore until my lungs burn with it and my head swims with every eager breath.

There’s nothing better in this world with the exception of Rhett’s embrace and the feel of Iris cradled into me. All those times we spent together, I never once feared this outcome. I don’t know why, but he was always a superhero in my eyes. Something so damn incredible that he must’ve been out of this world.

Slipping the sweatshirt on, I brush through my hair before I knot it up on my head. When I leave the bathroom, the smell of the coffee and cake hit me again, and before I’m sick all over again, I gather both and put them in the trash down the corridor so that Callie doesn’t notice when she returns. Last thing I want is to seem ungrateful when I am more than appreciative of her friendship and thoughtfulness.

It’s something that keeps nagging me about my friendship with Kayla. For her to do all those things. To betray me with Carl. To help in my father’s demise…and to try to kill me…

I shouldn’t be here right now. That bullet should’ve hurt me. It should’ve ended me. And I don’t know how things got so bad between us, so bad that she would do all those awful things. Maybe I wasn’t as good a friend as I should have been. Perhaps I wasn’t as appreciative and grateful of her as I could have been.

“Something wrong with the coffee and cake?” Callie asks as I walk away from the trash to find her standing at Rhett’s door with a couple of balloons in her hand—a pink and a blue—and another bigger duffel in her other hand.

“No, I-I…”

With a low laugh, she goes into the room. “Relax, I was just kidding. I didn’t think you were going to have any of it after…” She holds her hand out, wriggling her fingers in the direction of the bathroom.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what? It’s cake and coffee.” The blip of anxiety that was starting to fill my chest eases as I watch her put the helium balloons down on the small table by the windows. “They don’t allow flowers, and they’re all out of Get Well Soon ones, so I thought these would do the job.” Callie looks up proudly at her purchase, and something niggles at me as I chuckle at it. “I thought the ‘It’s a Boy’ wouldn’t look so weird if it had an ‘It’s a Girl’ to go with it. Brightens up the place, I guess.”

“Sure.”

“What’s wrong? Too much?”

“No.” I keep looking at the bear balloons and thinking over the last few weeks all the way through to today. Shit!

A laugh burst from Callie’s lips as she stares between me and the balloons. “You were careful, right?”

“Sure.” Except after the conversation we had about the troubles in his marriage, it didn’t seem like something I needed to worry about. Sounds stupid now, but…

“Then why do you look so worried?”

“I’m not,” I lie even though it sours on my tongue.

“Why are you lying?”

“I’m not.”

She bursts out laughing again while I’m about ready to cry. And I don’t know why because it’s not like it’s the worst thing in the world. But it’s another surprise I didn’t see coming, and for once it would be nice for life to allow me to plan for something. To prepare…

“Can I slap him awake yet?” she asks.

“No!” I blurt at her, jumping in her way in case she goes for it anyway. This is Callie after all.

“It worked with Rowan. A good bitch slap never hurt a man.”

“No…” A deep groan comes from behind us followed by a long cough, and it’s all it takes for my floodgates to open.

I’ve never felt so much relief and trepidation all at once as when I turn and bright green eyes blink awake, focusing on me even in their bleary confusion.