Beck laughed. “Jesus Christ, babe. After the great Colorado food poisoning incident of 2013, there isn’t a damn thing I haven’t seen.” Him, Sky, Jud Pauley, and fucking Parker in a hotel room with one bathroom. Words couldn’t describe the horror. “I’m coming in.”
“Goddamn…” He opened the door to find Sky caught on the edge of the bathtub, face down on his hips, face red and streaked with tears. “I told you no.”
Shit.
Shit shit shit.
He kneeled next to Sky. “You asshole, why didn’t you call me?”
“Because we’re fighting, butthead. Eventually you’d hear my butt hit the floor.” Sky closed his eyes, face lined with pain. “But since you’re here, give a man a hand?”
“We’re not fighting. We’re…”Assholes. “Come on.” He helped Sky get upright and then lifted him carefully out of the tub, but Sky had gone white as a sheet, and he didn’t like the sound of Sky’s groan. “Hang on, I’ll get you in bed and find your pain meds okay?”
Sky had been there so long, he wasn’t really wet from the shower anymore.
“What the hell, Sky? Seriously. I’m going to kick your ass when you feel better.”
“You’ll try. You-you decide where to go for food?”
“Yeah. The kitchen.” He set Sky in bed, eyes roaming all over Sky’s body, frantically looking for bleeding or bad bruises. Ones Sky didn’t get last night, that was. “How bad is this? Do I need to take you to the ER? Did you dislocate something or…how bad is this?”
“Hey. Babe. Look at me.” Sky locked glances with him as soon as he glanced up. “It hurts like a bitch. It’ll bruise. Getting hurt is part of what Ido. I’m good at it. If I need to get it looked at, I’ll say.”
“Sorry. You’ll let me know. Got it.”But you didn’t say you needed help getting off the goddamn floor, so I’m not sure I trust that.Beck got up to look for the pain pills he’d been keeping in the nightstand.
“I know that…I don’t want to ruin our weekend. If we need to fight, let’s do it so we can move on.”
He took Sky’s hand and flipped it palm up, poured two pills out, then walked around to his side of the bed and grabbed a half-drunk bottle of water. Whatever. If he had cooties, Sky had them too.
This fucking situation? Also his fault. “I…shouldn’t have left you alone in the shower. That was stupid. I should have at least stayed upstairs where I could hear you. I’m sorry.”
“I’m a big boy. I ought to be able to get myself out of the shower.” Sky took the pills and sighed. “Thanks for the help. I appreciate it.”
“I love you. I want to help.” He cupped Sky’s cheek. “Your eyes are so—can I hold you a minute?”
“Please. More than a minute. I wanted to have our weekend.”
He climbed up and leaned against the headboard so Sky could rest against him and be comfortable. Maybe they could put the morning behind them. “It’s a beautiful day. We’ll get outside. If you can manage it, I’ll take you down to the boat. If not today, maybe tomorrow.”
“You love boats. I can’t wait.” Sky took a breath, shifting to find a comfortable spot.
“I do. We’ve done fishing boats, you and I, but have you ever been sailing?”
“I haven’t, no, but I want to.”
He could feel the tension in Sky’s muscles ease.
“Well, we’ll get on the boat. We’ll see how you’re feeling before we decide to go out. We’ll take her out a lot, though. Later.” It was his favorite thing, being out on the water, riding the wind and cutting through the whitecaps on the lake. Motoring home at dusk as the sun went down. He was looking forward to sharing it.
“Cool. And you’ll let me take you out to supper.” Sky blinked up at him. “Those hit hard on an empty stomach.”
Out to supper sounded nice actually. Fun. He bent a little awkwardly to take a quick kiss. “I can only imagine. I’ve got you, babe. Hopefully you’ll feel a little better when you wake up.” Empty stomach, exhaustion, of course they would work fast. That was good, Sky needed the rest and wouldn’t get it if those damn things didn’t hit hard.
“Please stay.” The words were soft, rough, raw.
“I will, I promise.” He needed to.
“I love you. I’m going to make you believe in me.”