Justine chuckled and hugged her with her good arm. Her voice sounded like she had a lump in her throat as she said, “That’s my badass mom fighting her inner hover-mother.”
Charity laughed out loud. “Am not. Just going to miss him.” With a sigh, she added. “My head aches and I’m getting sleepy.”
“I’m starting to get really stiff,” Justine commented, grimacing as the cast impeded her efforts to wiggle into a more comfortable position. “Ready for a night of being awakened every two hours?”
With a sigh and a grimace, Charity remembered again why she hadn’t wanted to stay overnight in the hospital. It would’ve been much nicer to be awakened during the night by one of her guys. Not that they could do much. But it would be home at least.
* * * *
“Nice try, beautiful,” Noah said with a smirk on his handsome face.
Justine held up the clunky cast on her right arm and pointed at it and gave him a “like, duh!” look but he shook his head and kept on pushing her wheelchair in the direction of the exit.
“The prom isn’t for a month, Justine. And even if you still have the cast on your arm, I’ll want you to be my date.”
“So you say now, until I accidently conk you in the head with this thing while we’re dancing. Besides, my dress and all the stuff to go with it were in the back of Mom’s SUV which I heard is a total wreck.”
Noah snorted behind her as he wheeled her into the elevator and leaned down so his lips were next to her ear. “Your dad told me that Val and Ransome saved all of your stuff. Your dress is undamaged and waiting for you at home.” He rested his forearms on the wheelchair handles and wrapped them around her gently, careful of squeezing her stiff and achy body too hard. Heat raced into her cheeks as he pressed a light kiss to her temple, the first time he’d ever done anything like that.
Justine’s throat constricted in reaction to his touch. “I just wanted you to know you have an out if you wanted it. I wouldn’t hold it against you.”
“Why would I want an out? And the only thing I want to hold against me is you.”
She gasped as he chuckled behind her and wheeled her out of the elevator as the doors slid open. She was about to reply when she saw her dad in the hallway.
He handed the truck keys to Noah and said, “Will you help her into the truck, son?”
“Sure,” Noah said with a nod. Her stiff neck probably wouldn’t allow it but Justine wished she could see Noah’s reaction to being called son. Then she remembered that her dad had been calling Noah “son” for years. It just seemed to mean more somehow.
“Sweetie, I’m on my way up to get your mom. She told me she was going upstairs to see Grace for a minute before leaving, so just sit tight.”
Justine half expected her dad to give Noah “the Intimidator look” but he didn’t. He just stepped into the elevator and reached for the button. He gave her a wink as the doors slid closed.
A little surprised, Justine laughed and said, “Have you been sucking up?”
“Me? No. Your dad—sorry dads—are cool. And I still want to know why you think I’d want out of our prom date.”
Biting her lip, Justine murmured, “I don’t know why I said that.”
The automatic doors opened as they approached them and he rolled her to a stop beside the four-door truck and keyed the remote to unlock it. “Justine, you’ve never struck me as the kind of girl who doesn’t say exactly what’s on her mind.”
Her head ached where she’d hit it as she frowned and said, “Hey, I do not—”
“I didn’t mean that the way you think I meant it,” he said as he squatted down so they were eye level, which she appreciated, given her sore neck. “You obviously thought I meant you talk too much but that’s not it at all. You’re not yappy, like some girls I know. You’re careful about what you say but I can rely on you to say what you mean, mostly because you’ve thought it out.”
She frowned again, wondering how he’d drawn that conclusion. She’d have thought until the last few weeks that she’d barely even registered on his radar.
He smiled at her and raised an eyebrow as if he was waiting.
“Oh. Well…I figured that you might’ve reconsidered about dating me and I just wanted you to know that I’d understand…” Oh, shut up. He obviously had a high opinion of your reasoning skills and now you’re sounding more and more like you don’t know your own mind. Just shut up.
Judging by the look on his face, he wasn’t satisfied with her answer as he stood and opened the rear door to the truck and then moved to her side. She braced herself to stand and yelped softly as he put his arm around her back and under her thighs. “What are you doing?”