AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hudson moved closer until he towered over me. “I’ll stay home if you stay with me.”
“I’m off today and already planned on staying in.” February was too cold for me to do anything else but stay in and read.
He smiled, then bent down and slipped off his boots. “I’ll call Randall.”
When Hudson coughed and stumbled, worry tugged at my insides. “Go lay down or something. I’m going to get a thermometer and medicine in case you are spiking a temp.”
He turned and gave me an honest-to-God pout on his perfect lips. “You said you were staying here.”
I couldn’t help but giggle again. “We need medicine.”
He reached for his boots as if he hadn’t just taken them off. “I’ll go with you.”
The man was impossible. Did he think I couldn’t do anything myself?
“I can handle going to the store,” I said, stepping in front of him and rubbing his arms. “You take care of me all the time, so let me do the same for you.”
“It’s likely a cold. I’ll be fine, so there’s no need for you to trouble yourself.”
“Go lay down,” I said to Hudson, but it was Max who walked away and plopped himself near the couch.
Hudson slouched forward suddenly, planting his forehead on my shoulder. He had to be running a fever. I patted his back, inhaling his scent. “It won’t take me longer than an hour.”
“Okay, baby.”
Something about that huge man being such a baby while calling me one had butterflies fluttering in my stomach. Hudson Henderson was a giant teddy bear. No matter how cranky I saw him get with his workers every day, he was so good to me.
I wanted to return the favor.
???
When I returned, I found Hudson shivering on his bed. Ripping the thermometer out of the box, I put in the batteries and checked his temperature—101.4 Fahrenheit. I knew he was running a fever.
I left the room and grabbed him a Gatorade from the fridge before I hurried back.
“Hudson, I need you awake a minute,” I told him as I tore into the Tylenol box and put two capsules in my palm. “Take this medicine for me, please.”
His eyes fluttered a few times before he managed to open them. Grumbling, he sat up and took the medicine. Frowning, I watched him rub his temple.
“Body aches?” I asked, and he nodded. “It could be the flu. Do you want to go to the doctor?”
Hudson shook his head. “I’ll be fine, but if it is the flu, I don’t want to give it to you. You’ve already been exposed enough…” He let his gaze trail over me slowly. Despite the sickly droop in his eyes, I could feel the heat in them. “Especially after last night. I don’t want you to get sick.”
We didn’t kiss the night before while we screwed, and I didn’t think he had a fever at that time. But as I thought about it, I was sad that our lips didn’t meet at all during that encounter. “Don’t worry. I’ll be okay.”
“I am worried,” he went on.
“Rest,” I instructed. “How does your stomach feel? Do you have an appetite?”
“No.”
“I’ll try to cook something that will be light on your stomach later.” The key word wastry. I wasn’t an excellent cook like Hudson, but I was sure I could whip up homemade soup of some sort. There would be no guarantee of how it might taste. It didn’t really bother me because I wanted to do that for him.
I didn’t like him feeling bad, but I couldn’t help being slightly giddy at the idea of doing something for him. Maybe that was the answer. If I started behaving like him, helping in some way, maybe I wouldn’t feel so guilty for sticking to him like glue.
THIRTY-NINE
HUDSON
