AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m fine, honestly.”
“I’ll hear no such words from you. Give me your arm.”
Ordinarily, I might not be comfortable with a woman taking me to the bathroom, but under the circumstances, I might pee myself if I didn’t go now.
“You sit there.” She guided me to the toilet. “I’ll be just outside the door. You give me a holler when you’re done.”
She turned her back and pulled the door to. Relief coursed through me as I emptied my bladder. When had I last gone?
After I was done, I sat for a while, trying to make some sense of the past couple of days.
“Have you fallen down the hole, Liam? Now that’s a good Irish name if ever I heard one.”
Without waiting for an answer, she rushed back in and helped me to the basin. She washed one hand, making sure to keep the other dry. How the fuck I was going to manage, I didn’t know.
“Now, your fella out there. He’s a good-looking man. If you’re ever tired of looking at his face, you can send him my way.”
I laughed. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Orla, and very happy to meet you. I hear you’re going home today. That’s a shame. I reckon we could have had some fun.”
“I believe I am going home. Well, I’m staying over at John’s place for a while until things settle down.”
“Ooh, you’ll be there for Christmas, then? It’s not too far away now.”
I hadn’t even thought about Christmas. It’d be a first for me for quite some years to actually spend it with someone.
“My parents will be visiting too, so it’ll be a new experience for him.” John had stepped back into the room and caught the tail end of our conversation.
“I can stay at mine. It’s no bother.”
“Liam, if the man says you’re to stay at his house, you listen to him. You need some looking after, and he looks like the kind of man to do that for you.”
She helped me back into bed and tucked the covers around me.
“I’ll leave you boys to it.” She winked and left the room.
“It’ll be too much for me to stay with your parents there.”
“No, it won’t. They don’t arrive until after Christmas Day, so we can spend that together. Mama and Pops are only flying in for my aunt Sylvia’s seventieth birthday party. You might be my saving grace. If I’m staying home looking after you, I won’t have to go.”
His broad smile reminded me why I loved him so much.
What the fuck? When had love come into it?
“Everything all right?” he asked. Had he seen the panic on my face?
“All g-good,” I stammered. “Yep, nothing wrong.”
“Well, you look exhausted. Why don’t you take a nap until it’s time to leave? I’ll be right here.”
“But you have work.”
“It’ll wait. Sam’s got it covered.”
I lay back and closed my eyes, suddenly weary.
Why was I always surrounded by so much drama? From as far back as I could remember, there was always something. Putting up with me was a task in itself.
