“Here.” Caleb produced a handkerchief. Trust him to have one. He gently wiped her cheeks. “Blow.”
Embarrassed, she reached for the hanky.
“Uh-uh, you’re gonna have to learn how to obey, jelly bean,” Caleb growled. “I didn’t say hold it. I said blow.”
All of them were silent, watching. Shit. She blew. He wiped. “And again.” She blew. Another wipe and she was ready for death. Was there anything more embarrassing than having a hot guy blow your nose for you?
Oh yeah, having two hot guys watch.
Don’t be silly, Vivi. There’re more embarrassing things. You could be naked. Or you could have peed your pants.
Oh wait, she’d already done that.
“You don’t always have to fight, Vivi,” Aleki told her. “Sometimes it’s okay just to give in and let someone else be in charge.”
Caleb ran his hand over her hair. “You don’t have to be strong all the time. It doesn’t make you weak to need help or to not make all the decisions or to trust someone else to look after you.”
“I’m so used to doing it all myself.”
“Now you have us,” Caleb said confidently. “You don’t have to.”
If only she really did have them. “You’re not angry I took off?”
“It’s been eight years and trust won’t be rebuilt quickly,” Caleb told her. “But if you open up and let us in, I promise that we will look after you.”
God, she wanted that so badly. To tell them everything. To not carry it all herself. To have them close again. It was an ache that had never gone away.
“How about we talk about this back at the hospital,” Aleki suggested. “She’s exhausted and she needs to be checked out by the doctor.”
11
By the time they got back to the building that housed the private hospital, she was squirming in Aleki’s arms.
“Stay still,” he ordered.
“You shouldn’t carry me so far. I can walk and what about your back?”
“There’s nothing wrong with my back. And you weigh hardly anything. You need to start eating more.”
“I’ll get her some dinner,” Wolfe said as they stepped into the elevator.
“And you shouldn’t be walking on that foot,” Caleb told her. “I can’t believe you walked two blocks on it and in flip flops.”
“I couldn’t get a shoe onto it. And I didn’t know where they were anyway.”
Jesus. She really had to go. She pressed her thighs together. She’d always had the tiniest bladder.
“I threw them out,” Wolfe told her.
“What? Damn it, they were the only pair of shoes I had other than these.” She waved her hand at her flip flops.
“They were covered in mud and other substances I don’t
want to get into,” Wolfe told her with a grimace. “I’ll buy you more.”
She ground her teeth together.
“Hey, don’t do that.” Caleb cupped the side of her face, peering down at her worriedly. “What’s wrong? Are you in pain?”