Page 23 of You Can Make Me

He stared up at me with big eyes.

“First, you are even more beautiful to me now than you were the night you seduced me over pizza.”

“What?Iseducedyou?”

“Second, I would kiss you anytime, anywhere, even with a mouthful of goddamned anchovies, puke breath, or after you had an onion and garlic orgy in your mouth.”

“Oh, Den… You need some fresh air. This place is getting to you.”

“Third, I have informed our guests that if you want them gone, I will honor your wishes.Youare my priority, don’t ever forget that. And I brought them here because, as my priority, you needed a reminder of how much you are loved.”

Six

Cooper

“You evil man.”

A tear rolled down my face as I stared into Denny’s stormy green eyes. He was, without a doubt, too good for me.

He pressed a kiss to my forehead. “You can hate me later.”

“I could never. I don’t. You know that, right?”

He let go of me and sat up on the edge of the bed. He turned and gave a half-hearted shrug. “I’ll give you a minute?—”

“Dennis.”

His faint smile fell, and I saw the sadness in his eyes. I’d pushed him so far. He’d brought my family here because… God, had he actually thought I would end my life?

Oh,fuck. No. I needed to quit wallowing.

I pushed myself up to sit against the headboard.“Thank you. For all of it. I mean it.”

He stared at me for several moments, pressed his lips together and nodded. He stood from the bed. “Do you need anything?”

You to love me. You to never give up on me, no matter how awful I am or how ugly I look.

“No thanks. I’m going to shower, though. And brush my teeth. Actually…maybe you could help me tame this thing on my face with the trimmers? I’ve never had to wrangle a beard before.”

He smiled. “Okay. Let me go tell them we’ll be a little while. We should do it before you shower so you can rinse the hair off. I’ll meet you in the bathroom?”

I nodded, trying not to be terrified about facing the firing squad, though I was just as nervous about being naked in front of Denny right now.

I’d developed the ability to be outside my body whenever Denny had to help me with showering when we first got here, with changing bandages, especially the ones on my ass. I’d been able to withdraw enough to not think about how he was seeing me, but that all changed when he held me last night in the hot spring. His touch hadn’t been medicinal or caretaker-y. He’d held me like before, and I’d wanted to pretend we couldbelike we were before.

Then he told me why he’d pulled away…and I felt even worse about how I’d treated him. The poor man had lost a good friend and faced a health scare, and instead of standing by his side, I’d thrown a tantrum, thinking he’d ghosted me.

Since when had I become such a narcissistic bitch?

I reached for my cane and pushed myself up to standing. The action didn’t hurt nearly as much as it had in the beginning. The first time I’d tried, my skin felt like it was ripping open again. Sitting had been nearly unbearable, and the time I’d spent lying in a hospital bed had left my joints and muscles so stiff and atrophied that everything was five times as hard to do.

Now that the worst of my pain was nearly gone, I wanted to move. I liked the freedom of being up and around instead of stuck in bed or in a chair.

Thankfully, the bathroom had an entrance from the bedroom as well as the hallway, so I didn’t have to face my guests.

Ugh.What was I going to say to my parents? What a terrible son I’d been. I’d made Dennis tell them I didn’t want to see them! After everything they’d done to give me a more-than-wonderful life? This was how I repaid them?

And Gene and Sam. They’d been nothing but supportive, always. And Sam needed me, needed her best friend.