“You’ll be my eyes and ears, right? You won’t hide things from me if there’s something I need to know?”
“Of course.” She smoothed the covers over me. “But I won’t subject you to the minutiae. You don’t need that right now.”
“Am I allowed music?”
“For now, just sleep.”
It would have been impossible not to given how tired I was. My eyelids seemed to get heavier by the second. The next thing I knew, I smelled the delicious combination of toasted cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.
“Mm, butter.” I opened my eyes. “Hey.”
“Don’t move just yet.” Stone placed a breakfast tray on a chair that hadn’t been by the side of my bed before I fell asleep. “Let me help you to a sitting position, okay?”
“You don’t have to.”
“Do you want to get up and eat at the table?”
I wrinkled my nose. “Not really.”
“That’s what I thought.” With a snort, he wedged pillows behind me. Using those and the body pillow Ariel gave me, we managed a comfortable sitting position.
“You shouldn’t have to provide room service.”
“Tomorrow morning you can start moving around.”
He cut my sandwiches into gooey, crispy strips before stirring my soup to cool it. Stone didn’t meet my eyes. I waited.
He cleared his throat. “How do you want to do this?”
“I can handle the sandwiches.” I sounded pitiful, but I didn’t care. As long as I could get him to feed me the soup.
“Soup’s a little hot still. Why don’t you get started?”
I picked up a golden crusty sandwich slice with cheese oozing from the edges and took a bite. “Mm. So yummy.”
“Ariel left a ton of food, including sharp cheddar and fontina cheese. Molly said you like grilled cheese and tomato soup.”
My chipmunk cheeks were full when I said, “Love it.”
“Open.” He held a spoonful of soup for me. “Too hot?”
I shook my head. “It’s fine.”
He brought another to my lips, then waited while I ate more sandwich. It took several more rounds of trading soup and sandwich bites before I finished everything. Stone was a little distracted.
In the hospital, he’d stared at me like I was a puzzle he wanted to solve. He’d touched me often whether he realized it or not. More than once, he’d swiped a thumb across my lower lip when it was perfectly clean. He’d also stroked his finger over my eyebrows and down the side of my face when he thought I was asleep.
Why was he acting so cold now? “Is everything okay, Stone?”
“You are so pretty.” He put the tray aside and stared at me.
My tongue seemed to stick to the roof of my mouth.
He glanced at his hands. “Of course I knew that, but Ariel called while you were sleeping, and she couldn’t stop talking about how gorgeous you are in person.”
I rolled my eyes. “Pro tip, men are usually called handsome.”
“I know, right?” Stone faltered. “I’m sure she wasn’t being mean. I know her well enough to believe she was talking about how light your hair and eyes are. And your bone structure. I think you just surprised her.”
