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“Yeah. It is. Besides, you don’t have room for her.”
Hampton pushed to his feet. “You miss her, don’t you? You like having her here. Admit it.”
I shrugged. “She just needs to be in her own bed. Besides, I work from home, so I’ll be here with her for the first few days.”
“Smith doesn’t work during the day, so he’d be with her. And we’ve got a couch that’s just as comfortable as a bed.”
I couldn’t believe he was even suggesting letting Smith take care of Piper. “No way. No chance I’m letting that asshole take care of my girl.”
Hampton leaped to his feet, surprisingly agile for a man his size, and crossed the space between us in two long strides. His face had darkened by the time he got in my face. “What’s your problem?”
I held my hands up. “How long did you know Smith before you two got married?”
“Not this shit again.”
I put a hand on his shoulder, but he shook it off. “I’m just lookin’ out for you. There’s something about him I don’t like.”
“I don’t need you to look out for me.” Exasperated, he pushed a hand through his hair. “What the hell do you know about relationships anyway? I practically gift-wrapped Piper for you and you still haven’t made a move. Instead of worrying about my love life, how about you worry about your own.”
“You gift-wrapped her for me?” My gut turned, disgusted at how callous my little brother was. “First you ask me to take her like she’s an unwanted pet and now she’s an object you gave me? What the fuck, Hampton?”
I knew Hampton loved and cared about Piper, but he’d been a dick the last couple of months. He blew out a breath and shoved a hand through his hair. “You’re right. That was out of line.”
I nodded. “I’m not in the mood for a fight today. When Piper’s released, she’s coming here. End of story.”
Hampton jerked his chin in agreement and stalked to the door, but he paused when his hand touched the knob. Craning his neck, he dropped his voice to barely above a whisper. “Don’t know what your problem with Smith is, but I’d really appreciate it if you would at least try to give him a chance.”
“I just don’t—”
He turned all the way around and cut me off. “Just give him a damn chance, Lawson.”
With my hands raised in surrender, I conceded. “All right.”
Hampton turned back to the door and pulled it open. Over his shoulder he winked, “Your girl should be discharged tomorrow,” and then walked out, slamming the door behind him.
21
Piper
“You don’t have to take care of me, you know?” I grumbled before erupting into a coughing fit. It took several seconds to catch my breath, my lungs burning. Lawson waited patiently and though he was smirking, he wisely kept his mouth shut. When my chest finally stopped spasming, I groaned, “Fine, maybe I need just a little bit of help.”
Once he was convinced I was okay, he set the tray he’d been holding on the nightstand. I peeked at the contents and spied a steaming mug of black liquid. “Is that coffee?”
“Yep.”
Greedily, I grabbed the mug from the tray and brought the steaming mug to my nose. I inhaled deeply and as I did, my lungs spasmed, causing me to slosh coffee all over the bed. Through the coughing I grumbled, “I need a lung transplant. All this coughing is starting to piss me off.”
“You had the worst case of pneumonia the doctor had ever seen,” Lawson deadpanned. “If anyone should be pissed, it should be your lungs. Seriously, Piper, what the hell were you thinking?”
“I was thinking I had one last shift in the ER. I didn’t want to have to make it up.” I whined as I flopped onto the mountain of pillows Lawson had just fluffed for me.
“Well, dying would have been one way to avoid making it up.” He shrugged and tried to play it off like he was joking, but the crack in his voice told me he’d been just as worried about me as everyone else.
“You have a point,” I murmured as I squeezed my eyes shut.
Lawson had had a lot of points lately. Starting with his insistence that I go to the doctor. They always say that doctors and nurses make the worst patients and apparently that was true. My stomach twisted as I thought about what would have happened to my poor mother if I had died. How could she have ever gone on without either of her children?
I shook my head to clear the image of my mother’s worried face, but the same concern was reflected in Lawson’s face as he watched me. I couldn’t stand the guilt that was rooted in my belly, so I changed the subject and pleaded, “I’m tired of being in a bed. Let’s go somewhere. The mall. The zoo. Anywhere.”
