Page 43 of Before You (Reckless Love #2)
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Marley
“I’M SORRY,” I mumble again, pulling the blanket over my face as more cheering sounds outside our building.
Leave it to me to end up with the worst sinus infection on Halloween, while also having my period. Talk about a double whammy. “What are you apologizing for?” JJ asks, wrapping his arm around my shoulders, and I don’t even have it in me to try to pull away.
“Because you’re here instead of the party we were supposed to go to.
And because I don’t want you to get sick again,” I say, pressing my fingers to my sinuses as if it will do anything to relieve the pressure.
JJ’s been pushing himself especially hard the last week and a half since his family left, despite the fact he’s supposed to be taking it easy after the hit to his knee, not to mention the stomach bug he came down with last week.
I suggested he should maybe see a doctor, but JJ insisted he was fine.
Aside from getting sick, I’m worried he’s not fine. Asher’s been glued to his side since his parents left, but I suspect part of it’s because it gives him an excuse to be around Bria.
JJ kisses the side of my head, pulling the blanket tight around us. “Sweetheart, there is nowhere else I’d rather be than next to you.”
“Mar, are you sure you don’t want anything to eat?” Bria asks from the kitchen, and I moan as my face throbs. “I’ll take that as a no,” she says, assuming correctly.
“So what movie are we watching?” Asher asks, and I’m jealous of how lively he sounds. I came down with the sinus infection over the weekend while they were in Arizona for a game, but my period started yesterday so the cramps are killing me.
“It’s Halloween. What do you think we’re watching?” she asks, and JJ chuckles, his fingers twisting through my hair.
“ Ghostbusters ?”
He couldn’t be more wrong, but it’s part of what makes them so perfect for each other. I’m pretty sure he spent the night last night, but I’ve also taken so much cold medicine I could be delusional. I tap JJ’s chest, hoping to get his attention without having to move too much.
“Yeah?” he whispers.
“Did he stay here last night?” I ask, keeping my voice quiet as Bria informs Asher we’re going to watch a slasher movie instead.
“Yep,” JJ murmurs, and I smile, curling my fingers around the soft fabric of JJ’s shirt as I focus on the steady rise and fall of his chest. I totally called them getting together. Kaden is never going to believe me when I tell him it’s happened.
Bria’s always been a hard nut to crack, and sometimes I wonder if she gives Asher a hard time just to see what he’s willing to put up with. To determine if he actually wants her instead of the idea he might have of her.
I think I understand it a little, because part of me wondered if there was a chance JJ was more in love with the fictional version of me he’d created in his head, but every moment with him has made me regret even considering the thought that his love wasn’t genuine.
Maybe it’s why I fought so hard against forgiving him in the first place for not telling me the truth about Trent.
I know it wasn’t very long ago, but it feels like an eternity has passed since then.
“Can’t we watch something less . . .” Asher trails off, and Bria snorts.
“Suck it up, buttercup,” she says, and I can only imagine the look on his face.
“Halloween is her favorite holiday,” I say, wishing I could have a little more enthusiasm, but I am so tired. If I hadn’t looked like death attending classes yesterday, I’m sure my professors would have assumed my emails written in a drug-induced haze were actually from a Halloween-sized hangover.
“Marley, maybe you should go to bed?” Bria suggests, but even the thought of moving hurts.
“I’m fine,” I say, wincing as my uterus cramps, but then because I moved my face, I’m reminded of the pressure in my nose.
“Yeah, you look fine,” Bria says sarcastically and JJ combs his fingers through my hair gently.
“Earlier, you said she looks like a corpse,” Asher chimes in. Seriously, someone needs to talk to him about the time and place to say certain things.
“I also told you where the door was, and not to let it hit you on your way out.”
JJ’s chest shakes with silent laughter underneath my cheek, and I can feel myself drift closer toward the lull of sleep as I breathe through my mouth, listening to the intro of Bria’s favorite movie I’ve seen a hundred times.
I stir when JJ shifts, slowly opening my eyes to focus on the sight of Asher sitting with his arm tucked around Bria as her face is lit by the screen of her phone. “JJ, have you seen this?” she asks, scrolling.
I hear JJ yawn as screams sound from the television. “The movie? Yeah,” he says, and I don’t want to get up to go to the bathroom, but I know I need to.
“Oh shit,” Asher says, peering over her shoulder, and I feel my insides cramp again. I can take more medicine if I get up too. I swear, being sick on your period makes it a thousand times worse than usual.
I sit up slowly, my head spinning as the congestion in my face shifts. “You okay?” JJ asks as I pull myself up.
“Yeah, just need to use the bathroom,” I say, standing up to head toward my room.
When I step out, the lights are on and the movie’s forgotten in the background as JJ paces on the phone and Bria types furiously.
“Mom, I’m going to kill her,” JJ says, tugging a hand through his dark hair, his gaze landing on me a moment later. “Gotta go. Love you too,” he says, hanging up.
“What’s going on?” I ask, cringing at how nasally my voice sounds. “Who are you going to kill?”
“My sister,” he says, sighing. “Um, you remember how she flipped off the cameras during the game while they were here?”
“Yeah,” I say, not following.
“He’s tiptoeing around the fact you guys made the papers after everyone caught a glimpse of you sitting between America’s favorite Olympian, and the next golden goose of the NFL.
The press’s words, not mine, just to be clear.
Honestly, I’m kind of shocked it took them this long to piece together who you are. ”
“Is that it?” I ask, feeling woozy again, grabbing the doorframe for stability. JJ’s at my side in an instant, sliding an arm around my waist to help support me.
“I’m taking you to bed,” he says, a note of finality in his tone.
“If you insist,” I relent, accepting my fate. I can think of worse fates, though.
JJ pulls the covers back on my bed, and I climb in, a smile pulling at my lips when I see how many pillows are on the side JJ’s inadvertently claimed as his. He’s a pillow princess, and I’m starting to wonder if I need to worry about him stealing mine out from under me in the middle of the night.
“Do you need anything else? Heating pad, or water?” he asks, tucking the blankets around me. I shake my head and pull at the covers on his side.
“Just you if you’re still not worried about getting sick,” I say and JJ flips the lights off, the bed dipping a few moments later as he climbs in next to me.
“You can get me sick anytime, Marley,” he says, and I curl into his arms again.
“You wouldn’t be saying that if you had as much pressure in your face as I do right now,” I say, laughing miserably. “I’m sorry your Halloween was hijacked.”
“I’m not,” he answers without hesitation, and I’m honestly not sure what I did to deserve JJ, but I know I’ll do anything to keep him. “Does it really not bother you about the press?”
My brain is only working at sixty percent capacity, but I’m functioning enough to know JJ and I haven’t had a conversation regarding what a relationship will actually look like outside our bubble here at Beaumont.
Maybe I’ve been avoiding it because I don’t want to scare him off, but based on the way everyone reacted in regard to his family while they were here, I’ve been hopeful he won’t care.
“Sure, it’s frustrating, but it’s not anything I’m not used to already. Here, we’re in a bubble, and no one really cares who we are or what we do, but I figured it was only a matter of time before the rest of the world learned about us,” I mumble, hoping I’m making sense to him.
“I hope it goes without saying, but I’m not with you for your money,” he says, his arms tightening around me.
I wish I weren’t sick so we could talk more about this, but I’m hanging onto consciousness by a thread. “It went without saying, amore mio. Thank you for staying.”
“I’m here as long as you want me to be.”