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I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. Does it matter as long as you get the help you need?”
She shook her head. “I don’t need any help, though.”
“Okay. You can sleep in the room across the hall tonight. Think about if you really don’t need any help.” She was as stubborn as any woman, probably more so because she’d never struggled or wanted for anything in her life, until now.
She stood with a huff and stomped across the hall, shutting the door hard but not quite slamming it behind her. Thirty seconds later, the door opened again. “What are all my things doing here, Calvin?”
I smiled. “We’ll talk about it in the morning.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Fine. But I’m not sleeping in your bed.”
I shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
I wasn’t going to push my luck by trying to get her into my bed. She was already warming up to me, and I didn’t want to ruin it.
A low growl escaped, and I thought that was it, until she spoke. “Okay. In the morning,” she shot back. “Over pancakes. With real maple syrup. And bacon.”
“Anything else?”
She was quiet for a long minute. “Yeah, and more of that fancy coffee of yours. It’s delicious.” The door slammed again, and this time I knew she was in for the night.
I chuckled to myself as I went to my room, feeling more hopeful than I had in a long time.
Yeah, I was hopeful, but I knew it wouldn't last.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Bonnie
Morning came too soon, and with it came thoughts of things that I didn’t need to be thinking about. Like Calvin Ashby. The murderer.
And getting a quick fix before breakfast.
“Ugh, breakfast,” I groaned quietly into the mid-morning silence that permeated one of the guest rooms in Cal’s part of the Manor. I remembered my own conditions for staying.
Pancakes and real maple syrup sounded amazing. It was my favorite breakfast. Something I hadn’t had since the morning my parents took off for parts unknown. Had I known it would be the last meal we shared together, maybe I wouldn’t have taken it for granted so much.
And now Calvin Ashby would be making me pancakes. With real maple syrup.
That thought lit a fire under my butt. I sat up slowly, looking around the room to make sure I was exactly where I thought I was. I’d never had to worry about my whereabouts before, but after last night, I didn’t know if I was coming or going.
I was still in Cal’s beautiful guest room, sitting up in a bed so plush it had to have been made for royalty, certainly not the likes of me.
Still, I slid to the edge of the bed and crept across the plush blue carpet to the en suite bathroom, complete with a separate shower and bath, and a his and hers vanity. It was the ultimate in luxury, and if my life wasn’t in total shambles, I might have been in a frame of mind to appreciate it.
But I couldn’t. The warmer the bathroom got as the hot shower steam filled the room, the colder I got. So cold I started to shiver and my teeth began to chatter. After stripping down I stepped into the hot shower, which immediately relieved me of the chills.
Unfortunately, it felt like my body was shutting down. Nausea had me in its sights, and I stood under the hot spray, willing the urge to puke to go away. But the sensation stayed with me as I soaped up my body and then my hair.
And suddenly I was hot. Too hot, even for a hot shower. And my muscles ached. Something was wrong, I just knew it. Since I couldn’t afford to have any medical issues, I stood under the hot spray and turned it cold for a second and then stepped out.
Now, feeling worse than when I’d stepped in. A quick look at the clock said it was almost ten-thirty. I knew I didn’t have much time before Cal came looking for me, so I rummaged through my purse and then my luggage in search of a pill. A baggie. Anything to make this constant pain and nausea stop.
“Shit!” I must have left the pills in the car. If I went outside now, Cal would know I was looking for them. If I didn’t get any, the chills wouldn’t stop.
Tears threatened but I knew there was no time so I squeezed my eyes shut as tight as I could until they stung. A tear or two made an appearance and that was it. I pushed down the pain and nausea, and the on-again 0ff-again muscle aches and looked at myself in the mirror.
Same old Bonnie, same flaming red hair and pale freckled skin, only now I was paler and thinner. A ghost of the girl smiling beside Maisie on the day we graduated college. Shit, had that only been a month or two ago? Seemed like a lifetime.
