“Hey.” Lifting her chin, I forced her to look at me. “I really do want to help. This would go a lot easier if you decided to stop being pissy with me.”
“Fat chance,” she spat.
“Then this is only going to be harder on you.”
And with that, I got up and gently set her back on the couch. Then I forced myself to walk away and make myself busy, because if I stayed with her on that couch, I would forget about all my plans and lose myself in her.
I woketo the sound of a crash, followed by swearing that could rival any sailor’s mouth. Sighing, I tossed off the blanket and unfolded myself from the cramped couch I’d been relegated to for the past three nights.
For days, she’d ignored me, choosing to pretend I wasn’t even there instead of talking to me like an adult. Not that I could blame her. She was pissed at me, at the whole world for the position she was in. And forcing my way into her house and refusing to leave only made things worse.
The only time she actually spoke to me was when she demanded I take her to the hospital to get her cast put on. And even then, the Cassidy I was used to was long gone. In her place was a grouchy woman who hated me with every fiber of her body.
I strode into her room and found the dresser tipped over with Cassidy underneath it. The only reason it hadn’t crushed her was because the drawers slid out and hit the ground first, then her body. Thankfully, she wasn’t fully underneath it; otherwise, she would be banged up even more than she already was.
“What the hell is this?” I asked, walking around her to lift the dresser off her, while also keeping the drawers from falling out on her.
“Don’t even ask,” she snapped.
“What were you doing?”
“I just said not to ask!” she shouted.
Once the dresser was up, I hoisted her off the ground, laying her on the bed.
“Get your hands off me!” she yelled when I lifted her shirt to see if she was injured. “I’m fine!”
“You’re gonna have a pretty decent bruise,” I murmured. “How’s your leg?”
“My leg is fine.”
But I didn’t miss the tears streaming down her face and the tight lines of pain as she struggled to hold it all in.
“I’ll get your meds.”
“I don’t want them,” she said, stopping me in my tracks.
“Cass, if you don’t take them, you’re gonna be in a lot of pain. You were hit by a car!”
“They give me bad dreams,” she argued.
“Then I’ll stay with you.”
“I don’t want you here! What part of that don’t you understand?”
“All of it,” I said, stalking over to her, pulling her into my arms in the most awkward hold ever.
“I don’t need your help. You stayed. You got my cast. Now, can you just leave?”
“I can’t leave you. Cass, you need someone here. We’ve talked about this.”
“Yes, I’m a burden to be looked after,” she scoffed. “I can take care of myself!”
“You just had a dresser land on you!”
She wiggled hard until I finally let her go. The woman was so damn stubborn, refusing to let anyone help, but that wasn’t the only problem.
“Cass—”
