Page 24 of Johnathan
Abby opened her eyes, pleasantly surprised to discover that the pain in her head had quieted to a manageable level. But even more surprising than that was the very handsome and sleep ruffled man sitting in a chair by her bed.
“John? What are you still doing here?”
His cheeks turned a delicious shade of red, and she couldn’t stop herself from looking over his features. Bright blue eyes filled with concern had her stomach doing flips, and thank god it wasn’t from nausea.
“You needed someone to stay and check on you all night. Since you didn’t want me to call your mom or your brother, I stayed. I promise I just sat over here for a while in case you were sick again, and then I slept on your couch.”
“What about Katy? And your work?”
He shrugged, like staying there to watch over her was the most natural thing in the world. “My parents have Katy and I don't have a shift for a few days. I was worried about you. I didn’t want to find myself knocking on your door at an ungodly hour and waking you up to make sure you were okay.”
“That was really sweet of you. I’m usually fine a couple hours after a migraine sets in, though. I feel bad you had to sleep on my couch. That couldn’t have been very comfortable.”
“I’ve definitely slept in worse places.”
She couldn’t hold in her look of surprise, and his laugh filled her room.
“I wasn’t always a law-abiding sheriff’s deputy, Ms. Cooper. But those are stories for another time.”
“I definitely want to hear them.” She rolled over in bed, reaching for her phone. Her heart slamming in her chest when she saw the time. “Shit! I’m late for work.”
Her body bolted out of bed, but a brick wall of warmth surrounded her as the room faded away.
“Whoa. No work today, Abby.” John guided her back to her bed, and she wished his warmth had stayed wrapped around her just for a moment longer.
“What do you mean? It’s not the weekend, is it?”
“No, it’s Wednesday. But I talked to Margery, and she said, in no uncertain terms, that you are to take today off and rest.”
“You called my principal and told her I needed the day off?”
“Of course. I didn’t think you’d want to just not show up to work and have them worry about you. I wasn’t really sure of the call in procedure though, so I just started with her and hoped for the best.”
Her neck itched along the edge of her scar, just like it did every morning, and Abby absentmindedly scratched at it. Until she saw John’s eyes laser focused on the spot she was touching. The spot she hadn’t let anyone see since leaving the hospital. The spot that was no longer covered because she wasn’t wearing her work clothes.
“Oh god,” she squeaked, pulling the comforter up to her neck.
“What?” John sat on the edge of the mattress and placed his hands on either side of her hips. Holy hell. Forget about her scar, she could barely breathe with him caging her in on her own bed.
“You can’t… I mean, I don’t want you to see.”
“Abby.” She saw the instant he realized what she was talking about. “I’ve already seen it. You don’t have to hide it from me.”
“But it’s so ugly.”
“It’s still healing. And it’s a reminder of just how lucky we are that you’re still here.”
“We?”
“Yeah.” His hand went to the back of his neck, and Abby forced herself not to look at the veins on his arm. “Your family. The community.”
“Oh.” Well, that was an arrow right in her heart.
“And Katy and me.”
Oh, indeed.Apparently, Cupid himself delivered that arrow, because she felt like a teenager seeing her celebrity crush for the first time. She really needed to pull herself together.
Was it boiling in her room? Oh, no. That was just the blankets bunched up by her face. Abby lowered the blankets down, not daring to breathe as she watched John’s hand come up towards her neck.