Harper sighed. “Boss, I’m not really asking here. I’m just waiting for you to get your head around the fact that Iamcoming in… And hopefully today, sweetheart. I’ve got like a gallon of broth in here.”
Broth?My eyes speared to the paper grocery bags in his hands.Like broth to make soup?
My next breath was slow, my blink even slower as the facts finally sank in. Harper was here at my apartment. He had groceries, maybe medicine, andbroth. And he was standing out there demanding that I let him in to take care of me.
Burning emotion licked the back of my senses in an unwelcome caress. But suddenly the ache in my chest felt lighter, almost of a separate origin than my sickness.
I looked at Harper, my voice ragged and hitching a little. “Why?”
His face went soft. All that stuff he was holding onto sodiligently suddenly became unimportant as he set it at his feet and stepped my way. Grasping my shoulders, he held my eyes. “Someone told me a girl I care about was feeling pretty shitty. I was hoping she’d let me help her.”
My lip wobbled, a whimpering hitch escaping my throat. It was like second nature to melt into the big, warm hand Harper used to cup my cheek. I shuddered with unknown emotion.
His hands were so soft, so warm, I never wanted to leave them. But that was just the sick talking. Had to be.
“Hey now,” he said, his voice even softer than his hands. “None of that, alright? Just let me in. Let me help.”
I don’t know how he did it. How he made it so easy to be everything I couldn’t be with others with him. But I was finally beginning to recognize the blessing he was.
Mine.
Ink trailed the corners of my vision. The ink of Harper’s forearms as he used his gentle grip to walk me inside. The ink of his biceps as he laid his hand over my head to feel how hot I was. The thin ink on his thumb as he held a thermometer at my lips and waited for me to take it.
I opened my mouth, letting him set the cool stick on my tongue and leaving my hands free to reach up and touch the ink stretching along the length of his thumb. I caressed the slightly raised wording. Small and thin and black, I couldn’t see it all clearly.
He let his eyes travel my movements on him, watching closely until the thermometer beeped and he pulled it out. Whatever he saw there made him frown, his earlier wariness seeming to disappear into begrudging anger. He flicked a look up at me, and this was oneof those times where he looked mean. “You’ve been like this all week?”
“I’ve gotten better, I think,” I said.
A glare came next. “That’s not saying much, sweetheart. You’re at one-hundred two and you’re shivering.”
I heard what he said, I did, but he’d let me hold onto him even as he fussed with the thermometer and I was too busy running my fingers along the warm skin of his tattooed hand to care all that much.
“What does this mean?” I asked leaning in to get a better look. “It’s too small for me to read.”
“Alta, have you seen a doctor?” he asked, ignoring my question.
I didn’t like when he ignored me. He never ignored me and it felt sour going down. So I ignored him too and brought it back to the conversationIhad started. Back to his warm hands and how happy I was that they were here now. “What does it say, Harper?”
“You need to listen,” he said, getting more serious. It tickled my chest in a way I hated. Before I would kill to have him be serious with me. Now, I felt like it was killing me. Oblivious, he just kept on withThe Tone.“Have you been running this high of a fever all week without seeing anyone about it?”
“No.”
“Are you lying?” he pressed, unamused and making me feel chastised and lectured with three simple words.
I became acutely aware of the fact that I didn’t like the prospect of disappointing him. Which is why I looked away abruptly, sniffing my nose in the air.
“No,” I answered.
It was pointless. The real answer was obviously yes, and I was obviously lying. Not to mention, he could tell.
His eyes dropped to the thermometer once again, and he cursed. “What the hell are you thinking, Ally? Youneedto see someone.”
That feeling in my chest tightened. My voice croaked as I whispered. “Stop yelling at me.”
He blinked, startled. “I’m hardly talking above a whisper. What’s wrong with you, aside from the obvious?”
I looked down, my eyes stinging traitorously. “I just wanted to know what your hand said. It’s stupid, I don’t even know why I asked. I was just excited to see you, that’s all.”
