Page 24 of Saving His Heart

Emory

Opening one eye, I peer around.Where the hell am I?Slowly and painfully, I open the other eye and attempt to survey my surroundings. That’s when I land on Preston, slumped over in a chair. What am I doing here? But before I can remember the answer, I fall back to sleep.

When I open them a second time, I can’t help the low moan that escapes. The tiny marching band in my head is making my stomach queasy.

“Oh good, you’re up,” Preston whispers, smelling like bacon.

Good grief, this guy knows a way to a woman’s heart, and still, I can’t help but tell him to shush.

“Not feeling great?” he asks. His voice laced with humor.

I can’t even answer. I just shake my head with as little movement as possible.

I feel the bed dip and know he sat down beside me. “Sweetheart, I’m guessing you’ve never had a hangover?” he asks in a buttery soft voice that I shouldn’t like as much as I do.

“No,” I croak out, “not like this.”

Sure, when my sisters turned twenty-one, I took them out, but I was the responsible one. I made sure everyone got home, so I have definitely never felt like this before.

I hear a clinking noise, then my senses are assaulted by the aroma of all the diner food I could want. Peeking over the covers, I see that Preston has a tray full of every greasy food imaginable.

“I wasn’t sure what you would want, but these are all my favorite hangover cures.”

“Oh my God, did you order from every diner in the city?” I ask, glancing at the food before falling on his face. He looks embarrassed, and I feel like a jerk.

“Ah, no, actually. You’ve been sleeping for a while, so I cooked.” He gives a little shrug of his shoulders, then averts his eyes.

“You what?”I can’t possibly have heard him correctly.

“I cooked. Here, bacon cheeseburger, blueberry pancakes, eggs Benedict, and biscuits and gravy. The biscuits and gravy are my go-to, but the others help, too,” he says sheepishly.

“But why?” I blurt.

“Why what, sweetheart?”

I watch as he positions the tray near me. “Why did you cook all this? For me, I mean.”

“Well, it’s my fault, or at least my friends’ fault, you ended up in this position.” He laughs while sweeping his hands up and down my body.

That’s when I notice I’m not wearing my clothes.Oh no, what did I do?

“W-Why am I wearing your clothes?” I ask timidly, not at all sure I want to know the answer.

“Well, how much of last night do you remember?”

Placing my fingertips to my temples, I close my eyes and think.What do I remember?

“Um, I remember playing Never Have I Ever. There might have been a dance party? Someone definitely knocked on the door and asked us to turn down the music. Everything else is a little blurry,” I admit.

Preston’s laughter fills the room and makes my head pound. Noticing my discomfort, he chokes on his amusement.

“Sorry. Okay, well, I can’t speak to what happened downstairs, but Lexi is the only one who wasn’t drunk, so she can probably fill you in there. When the four of you came busting in here, though, that was a sight.” He laughs again, and I vaguely remember a hot tub.

“Do you have a hot tub?” I ask, cringing as I see his reaction.

“I do have a hot tub. Lanie made it her mission to knock a few things off your Never Have I Ever list. The hot tub being number one.”

“But, I don’t have a bathing suit,” I say stupidly, somehow praying this isn’t going where I think it is.