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“You have nothing to be sorry for.”
He gestures to my face. “Look at you.”
“You don’t look so hot yourself.”
He scoffs. “I always look hot.”
I smile and shake my head. “One day someone’s going to knock that ego right out of you.”
“Unlikely.” He glances down at his phone as it dings in his hand. “God, my brother is relentless. He has texted me every twenty minutes to remind me to check on you and tell you to take your pills.”
“Tell him I took them, and to stop worrying.”
He heaves a sigh and tosses his phone onto the bed. “Impossible. The man worries constantly. I told him he’s going to take years off his life if he keeps worrying so much.”
“I don’t think he can help it.”
He shakes his head. “It’s been bad since Mom died. It’s like he thinks he can single-handedly stop anything bad from happening to me or Dad.”
“It’s an awful way to live.” I pat the space next to me. “How old were you when your mom died?”
He lowers himself onto the bed. “Eleven. None of us expected it. It really fucked with us. My dad started drinking.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “Really?”
He nods. “He almost lost his job. They put him on leave so he could go to rehab and get his shit together.”
“I can’t picture him like that. It must’ve been so hard for him to lose her.”
“Every night, I wish it was me who died and not her.”
My heart breaks thinking about Leo not here, in this moment, on this earth. I clasp his hand and squeeze it as hard as I can. “I used to wish the same thing about my dad. I would’ve switched places with him. But we can’t. We just have to learn how to survive without them.”
I’m about to ask how she died when my phone buzzes in my lap. I show Leo the name flashing across the screen, and he snatches my phone out of my hand to answer it. “She took the damn pills, James. I’m not a complete fuckup.”
James’s impatient voice blares through the phone. “Put her on.”
But Leo hangs up on him.
I gasp. “Leo, he’s going to kill you. Stop torturing him.”
“He’s gonna call back. Watch.”
Sure enough, my phone vibrates. “Hi, James. I’m fine.”
He grunts. “Why does he have to be such a pain in the ass?”
“He’syourpain in the ass. Just remember that.”
He mutters something under his breath. “How do you feel?”
“Just sore.”
“I’m going to stop by the store to get a few ingredients before I head home later tonight. I’m making you chicken soup for dinner.”
Leo grins and shakes his head.
“You don’t have to do that, James. You’ve done plenty.”
