AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She thought for a moment, leaning against me. “How long is the trip?”
“Bikes, we should be able to make it in seven hours or less. Cars, eight hours or more.”
“I can probably do that. As long as I can take the superprofen first.”
Ivan raised his eyebrows. “Superprofen?”
“She took a high dose of ibuprofen instead of a pain pill. She said that’s all she took with her back and it worked. No ill side effects either,” I said.
Ivan cursed under his breath. “Really? That’s all you took?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I guess I’m a weirdo, but it works. Whatever lets me fucking eat again, I’ll gladly do.”
As if her stomach was waiting to be invited to the conversation, it growled loudly. Everyone laughed. Andrei ran into the kitchen and came back with a partial loaf of bread from earlier in the day.
“Here, spider monkey, this will tide you over until dinner.”
“Bubba. Let’s get married in Naples. I’m tired of waiting,” she said, ripping a huge piece off the chunk of bread and shoving it into her mouth.
She handed the bread to me, knowing I was likely just as hungry as she was. She was right. Between us both, we finished it quickly.
Viktor asked, “You think you can do the car?”
She shook her head. “No, that’s not what I meant. I can do the bikes with the superprofen.” They all looked at her, surprised. “What? This shit works.”
Laughing, I kissed her temple.
God, we all missed her.
She spent almost the entire dinner convincing the guys that she’d be able to travel the next day. They were willing to wait a couple more days until she was better.
“Once we get to Naples, what’s the plan?” she asked in between bites of food.
“Armando is meeting us there. We’ll spend a couple days there before going on to Sicily,” Viktor said.
“See. I can rest there after the trip. It’ll be fine,” she said. “You guys all need to sleep since I’m apparently the only one that’s done that lately. We can leave like lunch time tomorrow and still get to Naples before it gets dark tomorrow.”
They thought about her suggestion for a few moments. I had to admit, it wasn’t a bad plan. I could use some extra sleep right now, as could everyone else, including her. She could time her superprofen to where she could take it before we left and then she’d be able to take it soon after we arrived in Naples. If she said she’d be up for the trip, I wasn’t going to argue with her. She was, after all, apparently difficult to kill.
Ivan looked at her, a serious expression on his face. “If it becomes too much, you tell me. We’ll stop for the night before reaching Naples.”
“I will tell you if it becomes too much. I promise,” she said.
As we were finishing dinner, Stephen appeared in the kitchen, looking just as horrible as everyone else had and not at all rested. The guys all saw him before he saw Sephie. We all quickly walked outside to give them their moment alone, without him even realizing she was up yet.
Once we were outside, Misha spoke up. “That was kinda mean, but I would’ve loved to have seen his face when he realized he was alone with her.”
It didn’t take long and we heard her yell, “It’s safe. You can come back in.”
We filed back into the kitchen. Stephen’s face was red, but he looked relieved. He looked at all of us as we walked in. “You guys are assholes. I nearly shit myself.”
We all grinned at him. Sephie said, “You’re lucky I’m slow right now or I would’ve tested that.”
Laughter erupted in the kitchen. Everyone needed that little bit of comic relief. I looked at everyone as we laughed and they continued to tease Stephen. They were all going to sleep well tonight now that they knew she was back and they were forgiven. I felt that pull in my chest toward her as I watched her bring light back to every one of them. I hadn’t realized how much her light shone on each one of them until it was gone briefly. My breath caught as I looked to her, finding her eyes on me and her smile wide across her face.
God, we all missed her, but me most of all.
Chapter Thirty-Five
