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I lunged for her, but missed and ended up on my hands and knees.
She gave the bottle to Josh.
Josh was here too. How did that happen?
“How did you get in?” I asked, getting to my feet and heading to the liquor cabinet.
Josh walked to the kitchen. “I was worried about you, so I called Katie.”
Katie held up something shiny. “And I still have the key you gave me last time I visited.”
He started pouring my scotch down the sink.
“Hey, that’s expensive stuff.”
“You can afford it,” Katie said as Josh poured the last of it down the drain.
I went around my sister to my liquor cabinet and opened it. It was empty. It couldn’t be empty.
“We cleared that out before we woke you,” Josh told me.
“Fuck you, I needed that,” I told him.
Katie offered me a cup and some tablets. “You need this more.”
The coffee was hot, but would have been better with some whiskey in it. The Advil would help, I hoped.
Katie started herding me toward my bedroom. “Now off to the shower. You smell even worse than you look.”
I made it to the master bath without falling. My eyesight was improving, but my head was feeling worse. I sloughed off the sweats I was wearing and stepped under the warm water.
“Here, drink this,” Katie said, reappearing with a glass.
I covered up. “How about a little privacy?” My sister could be awfully damned pushy.
“I’m your sister, remember? Nothing I haven’t seen before.”
I took the orange juice with my free hand, covering what I could with the other.
She stood there staring at me. “I’ll take the glass when you're done, and no pouring it down the drain like you used to do as a kid.”
“Ha ha.” I drank the cold juice, which went down easier than the hot coffee, and handed her the empty glass.
She stopped at the bathroom door. “I’ll be waiting on the patio when you’re done.” She wasn’t going to be shooed away easily.
A little while later, the kitchen smelled scrumptious as I limped through. I found her and Josh on the patio with a bacon-and-eggs breakfast Katie must have cooked, because it was beyond Josh’s capabilities.
I took a seat across from them. “Thanks, Katie. Smells good.” I spooned some eggs onto my plate.
“How come I have to hear about your lady friend from Uncle Garth? You should have called me.”
“Sorry. I never got the time.” My excuse sounded lame even to me.
“Right,” Katie said. “So tell me what’s special about her.”
“Nothing. She’s just another girl,” I lied. I didn’t care to rehash any of this with Katie or Josh.
“Right,” Katie repeated. “That’s why you were doing the drunk homeless guy imitation on the couch.”
