“Yes,” I called, and it felt like so much work.
“Okay. We should probably leave soon. Can I help you?”
“Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you.” I sat back up, and the room swam around me.
Leo sighed audibly through the door. I needed to rally. A little coffee and food would help everything. My stomach churned unpleasantly at the thought of Daisy’s, and that’s when I should have realized something was really wrong.
I finally finished getting dressed and found my bag, making my way to the front door.
“Ready,” I declared, feeling rather proud of myself.
Leo tugged on his hair and looked me up and down. “Shoes?”
I looked down at my feet. I sighed and felt my shoulders slump. The idea of lacing up my boots was unbearable. I frowned as my chin trembled.
“Okay. No worries. You sit here.” Leo led me to a chair at the breakfast table. I slumped into the seat.
I extended my legs, and he laced up the boots one at a time. This was the second time he’d taken care of my footwear. He was either a sweetie or had a weird foot thing. I patted his head. No. He was just sweet. “Thank you.”
He’d finished tying my boots and was still crouched, an arm on his knee. His brows were pinched as he frowned up at me. I liked the way he looked at me. Not right now. Right now, he looked like he was trying to do math. But normally. Or when he’d pulled back to look at me during our kiss. That was a look I wanted to frame.
“I think you should consider staying home,” he said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Mari, I don’t know how to tell you this, but you’re sick.”
I reeled back. Had he heard about my other dreams? The dreams that were stressful in different ways and involved his deep voice, his wandering hands, and my gasps of pleasure. “Am not,” I said.
“You are. You should go back to bed.”
“I can’t. I have to get to the field, help the band set up, and ensure everything goes okay. I absolutely cannot be sick.”
To prove my point, I stood abruptly.
The ground tilted and came up to meet me. His arms were around me before I hit it. “That proves nothing.” I smoothed my hair into a ponytail. “Let’s go. I don’t want to be late.”
Leo worried his bottom lip. I’d kissed those lips. And it was wonderful. Thankfully, I wasn’t thinking about that anymore.
He cleared his throat and tested my ability to stand on my own. Success. Oh, I was holding on to him still.
He looked at me again, debating something. “Leo. I’m fine. Let’s go.”
“Is there anything else you need?” His gaze moved around the barren walls and sparsely furnished apartment.
“Tragic, I know. I’m not home much.”
“This is nice.” He picked up and shook the snow globe sitting on the counter. The only sign of life in this place. In it was a picture of my parents, brothers, and me at Disney World, on one of the few family trips we ever took. We smiled happily with our dorky matching shirts, and me with my gap-toothed grin. It was a perfect memory. Soon after that, Jonas and Noah got too cool for family trips.
I didn’t want to look at that snow globe. I just wanted to get out of here.
On the drive out, I’d tried to sit up as straight as possible. The truth was,the ache in my spine had gotten worse, so that my whole body had a draining fatigue. I was freezing cold, but the air coming out of my nostrils was burning hot. It wasn’t looking good for me, but I just had to get through today, then I had a full day off tomorrow.
I could handle this.
“Or you could just sleep,” Leo suggested.
He shot a look at me. “I had not realized my internal thoughts went external,” I said and clamped my mouth closed to keep my teeth from chattering.
