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“I’m fine,” I lie now, not wanting to cause her any distress when she is thousands of miles away.
“Have you been drinking?”
“Yes!” Fuck! Do I really sound that drunk?
“Do you need something?” she asks, and I can’t tell whether it is frustration or something else creeping into her voice.
“Yes.” You.
“What is it, Shane?” she says, softer now.
I love you, Jessie Ryan. “I’m think I’m homesick, is all.”
“Homesick?” she laughs softly. “Then come home.”
“I have a meeting tomorrow. And then…” I trail off. “I’ll be home in a few days.”
“I wish I could do something to make you feel better.”
“You already have.” I say that out loud, even though I only meant to think it. “Night, Jessie.”
“Night, Shane.”
I throw my phone onto the sofa beside me, and I lean back before closing my eyes. Was Mikey right about me losing my edge? Maybe I need to cancel my meeting in Vegas the day after tomorrow? Maybe I need to get my ass back on a plane to New York.
Chapter
Twenty-Two
JESSIE
Liam has an arm wrapped around my shoulder as he shuffles back to bed from the bathroom. He’s much more mobile now and insists on doing everything himself as much as possible. But this morning, he attempted a shower for the first time on his own and I found him sitting on the plastic chair Mikey put in the stall for him with the water shut off and him struggling to get back up.
“You should have waited for me,” I admonish him. “You could have really hurt yourself.”
“It was only a shower, Jessie. I wasn’t trying to run a marathon,” he snaps at me, his frustration at his body not being able to do everything he wants it to clearly evident, and I am reminded how difficult this must be for him. I understand how frustrating it is to need to push your body to do more than it is physically capable of. When I was first kidnapped by the Wolf, I was a weak little girl. By the time I escaped almost two years later, I was a strong woman capable of so much more than he ever gave me credit for.
“Sorry,” he sighs as we reach the bed and he sits down on it. “I thought I’d be able to do it on my own.”
“And you will be soon. But you’ve only been back on your feet for two days, Liam. You’re doing incredible, but if you push too hard, you’ll set yourself back.”
He rolls his eyes and lies back on the bed.
“Now stop making me nag you. I feel like I’m your mother,” I say as I jump on the bed beside him, leaning on my elbow as I look at his bruised face.
“Trust me, Jessie, there is nothing at all that is motherly about you,” he chuckles softly.
I open my mouth in shock, about to reprimand him after the way I have looked after him.
“At least not to me,” he adds quickly as he holds a hand up in surrender. “But you are the hottest damn nurse I’ve ever seen.”
“Good save.” I narrow my eyes at him as I place my hand lightly on his chest.
“Come here,” he whispers, holding up his index finger and beckoning me closer.
I lean my face closer to his. “Here?”
He shakes his head and traces his fingertip over his lips. “Here.”
