12
Rhett
Beau: How’s Summer?
Rhett:Seriously?
Beau:Yeah. Are you being nice to her?
Rhett:Why is everyone so worried about Summer?
Beau: Because you’re a dick and she’s really nice.
Rhett:Oh, yeah. I’m sure it’s her personality you’re after.
Beau:It doesn’t hurt that she seems really smart too.
Rhett: You done here?
Beau:I also really enjoy looking at her, so there’s that. She’s like the total package, ya know?
Rhett: Can you fuck off now?
Beau:Sadly, no. You’re stuck with me forever. Don’t die out there tonight!
Rhett:What if that was the last thing you ever said to me?
Beau: Then I’d think to myself: if only Rhett had listened to my good advice.
* * *
I’m sitting on the edge of my bed, scrubbing at my stubbled face with my hands, when I hear a soft knock at the door.
As I march toward the door, I realize that while I’m still tired, I’m not as sore as I was. Though the pain did wake me up at one point in the night, and I got up to take more pills—which Summer had laid out in a row for me.
Seeing them sitting out like that made my chest pinch in a completely new way.
In the same way it does when I swing the door open and see her petite frame standing in the hallway, bundled in a puffy down jacket holding a paper cup of what I’m assuming is coffee in her hand.
“Good morning,” she says flatly, holding one cup out to me. She seems a little tired now that I get a closer look at her.
“You okay?” I ask, holding the door open wide for her to come in.
Summer sighs when she steps across the line and brushes past me toward the desk where her medicinal treatments are laid out. “I’m fine,” she says, counting the pills that she left there. “How are you feeling this morning? You woke up to take a pill? Or have you just had one this morning? You need to take the twelve hour one.”
“Yes, Boss.” I swagger over, having an internal laugh at her fussing over me like this. I one hundred percent get off on it.
After grabbing the pills and the stale glass of water—the one that still tastes a smidge like bourbon—I toss back the medicine while noting the dark smudges beneath her eyes and the way her lashes flutter shut while she takes a deep swig of her coffee like she needs it to survive.
“You look tired.”
She tilts her head and hits me with her most unimpressed look. All wide eyes and pursed lips. “Thank you. How charming. Now lose the shirt and get on your bed.”
I blink slowly as I put together the real meaning behind what she’s saying. “That’s very forward, Summer.”
“Don’t test my patience this morning, Eaton. I need at least three cups of coffee before I can deal with this adorable version of you.”
“It’s alright. I like it when a woman knows what she wants and just asks for it.” I chuckle as I head toward the bed, lowering myself to the edge in the exact spot I sat last night.