Vague recollections flooded my mind: heated arguing while I lay on the ground, overcome by visual evidence of a reality I’d never realized coexisted with our own. Screaming, moaning, and then I was in Griffin’s arms, being carried. Then here, slurring like a drunkard as I insisted on taking a “suuuuuppah fassssht” shower to wash off the sweat before I collapsed into bed. Then beneath the rainfall showerhead, crying out as the water somehow reactivated Magnum’s lightning energy. Every one of my friends swarming into the shower, desperate to help me escape the pain that had me shrieking and whimpering.
I groaned at the memory. Besides seeing me being all wimpy, they’d also seen me all naked, including Griffin. Including Brady, the self-declared boob connoisseur. He’d probably never let me hear the end of it.
Fuck, the note! I hadn’t gotten into the shower with it, had I?
I lifted the duvet in case it might be tucked into my fresh clothes, but nope—I wasn’t wearing any. Not even underwear.What the hell?
Yanking the covers back down, I blinked up at the ceiling for several moments while trying to remember what else happened.
I couldn’t.
Eventually, I tried to get up. But my entire body ached like I’d gone ten rounds with Homer, Yolanda,andArmando all at once, and lost to every single one of them, badly.
So instead, I croaked out, “Uh, guys? Bobo?”
Instantly, several sets of sneakers squeaked and ran across the floor, growing louder until they reached me.
Griffin was first to rush into the room, his eyes wide as they jumped across what was visible of my body—from the shoulders up. The concern tightening his brow softened, and he walked into the room as Hunt, Brady, and Layla piled in behind him.
Automatically, he reached for me, but then he pulled back. “I should wash up first. I was working on Clyde. I didn’t want to leave your side—”
“But then I made him,” Layla interjected, plonking down at the foot of my bed with a bounce. Even if the guys had all been working on the Mustangs, knowing Layla, she’d probably just sat beside them to sketch, as she preferred to do more often than not. Whereas grease smeared a line across Griffin’s cheek, Layla looked freshly clean.
“He was fussing over you the whole time,” Layla continued, “but you were just sleeping and sleeping and, shit,sleeping. Girl, you’ve been out for, like, three days again.”
My own eyes widened as I moved to sit up, but then I remembered my state of undress and slunk deeper under the covers. “Three days? How’s that possible?” I did have to pee something fierce though.
“You tell us,” Hunt said, standing to hover beside Layla at the foot of the bed. “It’s not just been Griff. We’ve all been pretty messed up about it.”
“What happened—where’s your dad?”
Hunt’s face fell. “They took him.”
I moved to sit up in bed again only to recall I’d be flashing titties if I did.
I shook my head. “You know what? I need to hear it all. But first ya gotta let me pee and get dressed. I didn’t exactly expect to wake up full-on naked here.”
Griffin grimaced, but Brady only grinned. “Joss, dude, your body’s slammin’.”
Layla reached across Brady to smack him on the arm. “Bro, not helping! You don’t want her to think you were all perving on her when she was passed out, now do you?”
Brady’s smile dropped, his eyes widening in alarm. “No, Joss, you know I didn’t mean it that way. We’d never—I’d never. I was just messing with you.”
I waved away his concern. “I know, Brade. I’m just not in the mood to give you guys another show while we talk.”
Brady relaxed, laughing easily. “And what a show you gave us, girl—”
Layla smacked him again before standing and shooing him out. She and Hunt followed. When Griffin lingered, I glanced up at him.
His gaze trailed across my face. “You really had me so majorly worried. Don’t ever fucking do that again.”
I chuckled darkly. “Well, I’d say ‘sure,’ but I don’t really know what I did.”
“Yeah, I know. Get dressed and we’ll catch you up. You want me to get your clothes out for you?”
He seemed to recognize how exhausted I felt. I smiled up at him. “Yes please.”
He rummaged through the chest of drawers, pulling out sleep shorts to start, obviously expecting me to keep resting. “Layla couldn’t sit still while you were out. She put away all your clothes.”
