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Maybe he wasn’t as out of it as she thought if he could quote the Lord of the Rings and remember which side her tattoo was on. She’d heard people were totally horny after near brushes with death. “Royce…”
Royce tried pulling her bra and sundress down. “Are you really here, Vandy?”
“Yes, I’m here, but…” Now she was reconsidering how aware he was.
“True allegiance is freely given. Let’s go back to my place to Netflix and chill.”
She tried to pull his hands away from her clothes. “We should take Sean.”
Royce twisted in confusion, getting tangled in the hospital gown. “You want a threesome with my brother?”
“A threesome? Not that kind of Netflix and chill. I meant let him see you are safe. Watch Robin Hood on Netflix, which was made before I was alive.”
“My plan is better.” He tried to kiss her again but overbalanced, and they tumbled off the bed.
Fortunately, it was a slow motion tumble but enough to knock over what was left of the suture tray.
Royce chivalrously tried to roll them so he was on the bottom. So instead, Sean came back in to find her sprawled across Royce, her skirt barely covering her butt.
Sean stared at them with disapproval.
Vandy scrambled off of him. “It’s not what you think. We were talking, and the Versed got him confused.”
“Right.” Sean’s statement said volumes.
After adjusting her dress, she tried to get Royce back on his feet, but he was much heavier than her, and she didn’t want to hurt the parts of him that were just sewn up.
Sean reached out, lifted from under Royce’s right arm, and got him back on the bed. At least, he had scrub pants on in addition to the hospital gown.
Thank God for small favors.
However, Royce was doing her no favors. He gave his brother a charming smile. “You’re the best brother ever. And Vandy said no threesome with us.”
CHAPTER 11
Four hours later, still in the hospital gown, Royce was passed out on the couch with Eowyn the cat, Vandy, and Sean on either side. Despite a stream of conscious conversation about Sean’s police car the entire ride to his apartment, he hadn’t even lasted the first ten minutes of Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.
Sean and Vandy got up to wash Royce’s one big bowl, little bowl, and teacup they used to serve popcorn.
“Getting him to buy more dishes is on my list of things to do this weekend,” Vandy said.
Sean glanced around. “Yeah. This place used to look a lot different. Alyson had expensive taste. He spent all of his money trying to keep her happy, not knowing that she was draining him like a vampire bat. Are you ready for this?”
“Ready for what? I don’t want Royce to buy me stuff.” She took out a dish towel.
“No, to date someone who’s running into burning buildings or getting shot at. People like us, we spend a lot of time away and our partners face the instability of wondering if we’ll come home after our shift. Girlfriends cope in different ways. Royce always hoped he could make up for it by showering her with love, affection, and gifts.”
“You aren’t blaming her?” Vandy hadn’t expected this out of Sean, who had been so utterly protective of Royce.
“Oh, she was a stone-cold bitch, but she’s out of my jurisdiction now. Royce made the mistake of putting himself in the position of giving her the power to destroy him. Then he was too proud to tell anyone how far-gone things were. And I didn’t know until it was almost too late.”
“He told me,” Vandy said.
“Did he tell you he’d stopped eating to try to save money, and she had turned his electricity and water off? Or his car had been repossessed? Or that he owed 50K?” Sean pressed.
Vandy covered her mouth. It was probably greater than Royce’s entire salary for the year. “Wow.”
“Late fees, back rent, unpaid utilities, skipped car payments. I couldn’t even start to cover it. The older three of us had helped our parents pay off their mortgage, and we were tapped out.”
