“That I can do.”
“And maybe, a piggyback ride? Those heels ruined my feet.”
Brooks got off the bench and leaned over. “Hop on, Freckles. I’ll carry you to the truck.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
The Apartment
Brooks applied the bandage across my heel and then lowered my foot to the floor. “As good as new.”
If only he could bandage my heart so easily, I thought morosely.
“You need to text your friends,” he said. “Your phone keeps blowing up.”
“I don’t want to text them. If I text them, then Hadley and Salem are going to want to cheer me up and I don’t want to be cheered up. I want to wallow.”
“Your choice about how you want to handle this, but if you don’t at least send them a message, they’re going to show up?—”
There was a knock on the front door.
“Unannounced,” Brooks said with a smirk.
“How do you know that’s them?” I demanded.
“Because I know.”
“How did they get into the building without a key?”
“I gave them a key.”
“Yougavethem a key?” I asked. “They could barge in here while we’re naked.”
“I made them promise to only use it in emergency situations,” he said. “And this is clearly an emergency.”
“You mind letting us in?” Salem called through the closed door.
“Some of us have to pee!” Hadley added.
Despite my funk, I smiled. “Why don’t you just use the key Brooks gave you?”
A key sunk into the lock and a moment later, Salem and Hadley blew in to the apartment. Salem went right to the counter and set down brown bags while Hadley beelined it to the bathroom.
“You staying, Brooks?” Salem asked.
“Up to Poet,” he said, looking at me.
“Would it hurt your feelings if I said no?” I asked.
He shook his head and leaned over to kiss me. “Just text me when I’m allowed back into the apartment.”
“Cas and Declan are at the Copper Mule,” Salem said.
“Then that’s where I’ll be.”
The door to the apartment closed just as I heard the toilet flush. Hadley came out of the bathroom while Salem removed bottles from the bag she’d brought.
“Did we scare Brooks off?” Hadley asked.
