Chapter 12

Harper

Lana had finally woken up and stayed awake this time.

For three days she was in and out of it, whether it was the meds they were giving her or what, I wasn’t sure. But I was so glad that my friend had finally come back to us.

Everyone was exhausted, both physically and especially emotionally. The doctor had come into the OR waiting room right after Lana had gotten out of surgery and explained to us that Lana had come close to dying. If she hadn’t gotten to the hospital when she had, she would have bled to death for sure. But there had been no complications during surgery, so she was going to make a full recovery.

With Lana now awake, and able to talk, she wasted little time in demanding everyone go home and get some sleep. Layla and Drake had argued, but Lana being Lana, had gotten her way in the end.

After sleeping in a hard plastic chair for the last few days, I was ready for my bed.

Linc and Dallas were on their way out; unlike me, they hadn’t been at the hospital day and night. Dallas hadn’t heard about Lana until the day after it had happened, and Linc had been at work. Figuring Shane would want to spend some time with his family, I called my goodbyes and started for the elevators with my roommates.

“Wait!” Shane called just before the doors closed.

Linc hit the open door button, forcing the elevator to pause and retract the sliding door. I started to step forward to ask Shane what was wrong when he pushed me back inside and hugged me against his side.

“Are you okay?” I demanded, looking up at his pale face and noticing the dark circles under his eyes.

He hadn’t been lying about the pacing thing. He had paced, and paced, and paced some more. Emmie had growled at him to sit down more than a few times. Even during the middle of the night, when we were all trying to catch a nap, he would alternate between pacing and holding me. Where the hell had he gotten the energy to do all that pacing?

“I need to be close to you,” he murmured against my ear so only I could hear.

His warm breath against my ear made me shiver, and I wasn’t feeling quite as tired as I had been just moments before. Biting my lip, I snuggled deeper into his side, relaxing against him as he played with the ends of my hair and the elevator descended.

Dallas, who was always mouthy, had been noticeably quiet the last few times she had come to visit. Even as good as I was feeling being with Shane, I noticed her troubled expression as we rode home together in the back of a taxi. When we got home I asked Shane to go ahead and shower while I talked to my friend.

As soon as my bedroom door closed behind him, I tackled Dallas. “What’s the matter?”

She swallowed hard but didn’t answer as she sat down on the couch, reaching for the remote to the television instead. With Linc in the kitchen fixing a quick dinner, I knew that I couldn’t count on him for back up. So I stood in front of the flat screen, forcing her to meet my gaze. “I’ll stand here for days if I have to, Dallas.”

“I don’t want to talk about it, Harp.” Her jaw was tense, her body vibrating with emotions, but her eyes were glazed with tears.

Dallas wasn’t a crier. I don’t think I had ever seen her cry.

“Is it about Drake and Lana?” Dallas and Linc had been at the same party as Drake when he had gotten drunk. She had told me that she didn’t think he’d slept with Gabriella because she had seen things at the party that suggested that Gabriella had already hooked up with someone before the other girl had taken Drake home.

“No. I swear.” She sighed and pulled her legs under her. “Drake wasn’t a big fan of Gabriella’s, even as drunk as he was.”

“Then what’s wrong?” I waved my hand at her. “This isn’t you, Dallas.”

“I think Axton hooked up with Gabriella at the party,” she burst out. “One minute he was beside me, the next he was gone. I didn’t put it together until I got to the hospital, but when I went looking for Ax he was coming out of one of the bedrooms. A few minutes later, while I was talking to Drake and Linc, I saw her come down the hall looking like she had just gotten the fucking of her life.” A tear escaped the corner of her eye. “When I asked Ax about it, he didn’t deny it. Just brushed it off…”

The tear broke my heart for her. I fell down on the edge of the couch beside her and hugged her tight. “I’m sorry, sweetie.”

Dallas was stiff in my arms, but I wasn’t expecting anything different. She really hated to be touched. “He loves her. Her fucking name is on his wrist, for fuck’s sake! Of course he wants her. I’m just a distraction…”

I didn’t know what to say, so I just sat there holding her while she vented. When she was done she went to her room and slammed the door shut. Sighing, I stood, feeling more drained than I had an hour ago.

Linc stuck his head out of the kitchen door. “Want something to eat?”

I grimaced. “Nah, but thanks. I’m beat. See you in the morning.”

“Night. If you need anything just call out.”

I offered him a smile before heading toward my room. I was pretty sure it was just my room now. Lana was most likely moving in with Drake. I could hear the shower still going when I shut the door behind me. Shane had left a trail of clothes leading to the bathroom, and I shook my head as I picked up his T-shirt and then his jeans.

Socks were next, and just as I had expected, no underwear. My man didn’t seem to like underwear all that much.

I stopped mid-step and a goofy smile lifted my lips. My man?

Yeah, he had proved that he was my man over the last few days. Constantly touching me, including me in his unusual family. Even with the crisis going on, it had felt like I belonged with the strange friends that had united as a family. Shane had made sure of it.

“Baby?”

I raised my eyes to find my man sticking his head out of my small shower. His head was soapy and he needed a shave badly. Water glistened off his muscular shoulders and what I could see of his chest. My sex flooded with need.

“Do you need something?” I asked, trying to think about anything but the deliciously sexy, dripping wet man just a few feet away.

“Do you have a razor I can use, beautiful? I don’t want to scratch you with this beard.”

The thought of that scruff scratching the delicate skin between my thighs while he licked and tongued my sex had me close to whimpering. I clenched my thighs together to ease some of the ache. “Um…No, sorry. I wax.” I dropped his clothes on the sink, and reached for my shirt. “Let’s keep the beard.”