Playing Dirty(19)

“What’s so funny?” Jay turned to me after he’d finished setting Lizzy down on the rich leather of the back seat. “You sounded amused,” he added when I didn’t reply. I felt a blush spread over my cheeks.

“Nothing,” I said. I wasn’t quite ready to tell Jay exactly what I’d thought yet. I had to keep reminding myself that we really didn’t know each other very well. In fact, we barely knew each other at all. Just because we’d sat for a couple of hours and shared some food and talked about ourselves…well, that didn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things, right?

“Kate!” Lizzy’s voice was hoarse from the backseat. I turned around, expecting to see her crouched over the floor and vomiting. But she was grinning at me; a lopsided, cockeyed smile. “Katie, you need to go kick Josh in the balls. You wan’ me to do it for you?” She was still slurring, and her eyes rolled back in her head.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said with a smile as I turned back around in the seat. Jay looked at me from the driver’s side of the car with his eyebrows raised, but he didn’t say anything.

“I’m not being ridiculush,” Lizzy slurred. “Kick Josh in the balls and hop on the Jay train, girl, choo choo!”

I blushed a deep red. “Lizzy,” I said through gritted teeth as I turned around in the seat to face her. “No more talking, okay?”

She gave me a blank look that was such an artful imitation of her sober self that I almost burst out laughing. “Don’ tell me what to do,” she managed to get out. I was dreading another outburst but she simply yawned loudly and propped her head up on her arm.

“Are we almost there?” I turned to Jay. “Thank you again for driving.”

“Not much longer now,” he said as he expertly navigated the Mercedes through the narrow streets. He raised an eyebrow at me.

“I really appreciate this,” I said quickly. “I mean, thank you so much for your help.”

“No worries. Anytime.”

Jay pulled into the hospital a moment later and I leapt out of the front seat and darted around to the back. “Please help us,” I called to the nurse who rushed out to greet the car. “I think my sister has alcohol poisoning, she’s really sick!”

“Hold tight, love,” the nurse said. She took a quick look at Lizzy. “She doesn’t have alcohol poisoning. She’s just arseholed.”

I blinked at her colorful language. “I’m really worried about her,” I stressed. “Can you please take her in to see a doctor just in case?”

The nurse ducked her head to the driver of the car, and I could tell she was just about to ask about Jay when he stepped out of the car and grinned at me.

“I’ll go park this and meet you inside,” he said. “Be two ticks.”

The nurse gave me an incredulous look as we supported Lizzy upright and carried her inside. I was left sitting in a green-colored waiting room as Lizzy was admitted, and when the nurse came down to get me, Jay was just walking in.

“Your sister’s down this way,” the nurse said. Her eyes were focused on Jay and she was practically drooling. I felt a wave of intense annoyance wash over me, which I tried to brush aside again. After all, Jay wasn’t mine. “She’ll be fine, ma’am. Just give her some time to rest.”

“Thanks very much,” I said to her. Jay flashed her a wink, and I swear she almost fainted.

If he’d wanted to come here just so he could flirt with nurses, that was fine. See if I care, I thought, just as I felt a hand on my shoulder. Startled, I looked up.

“I’m coming with you,” Jay said in a pointed voice.

I had to work hard to hide my smile at that.

Lizzy was propped up in a hospital bed, against some massive white pillows. Her skin was pale and sallow but she already looked better than she had at the clubhouse. As I got closer to the bed, she covered her eyes with her hands and moaned.

“I feel so bad,” Lizzy moaned. “My head hurts so much, Kate. I want to die, seriously.”

“Well, don’t, please,” I said. I smiled at her. “You gave me a scare, though. Did you really have to try drinking those guys under the table?”

Lizzy grinned at me. “I thought I could take ‘em, too,” she said in a more subdued voice. Jay and I watched as she yawned and closed her eyes, settling against the pillows. “Can we dim the lights in here or something? They’re killing my head.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” I said.

I fiddled with the light switch, and then Jay and I watched as Lizzy fell into a restless sleep.