Part 4 – Always Prepared

I continued to protest all the way from the hospital back toward home. Kevin drove and I pouted looking out of the window through his sunglasses. The bright sun was only making my head hurt more and he’d leant me the glasses to help since I’d broken mine as they were on my head when I crashed my skull into the hitch of my car. I couldn’t believe how much I trusted him. I had a hard time letting my own mother drive my car and yet I’d met him that morning and he was driving it. Technically yeah, I’d met him before and knew bits and pieces of information about him but he was still basically a complete stranger and I shouldn’t have trusted him so much so quickly. I shrugged it off as the concussion making me act weird, but Vinnie didn’t have anything as easy to blame for his behavior. From goosing Kevin in the elevator to him hanging out of the back window of my car as if it were no big deal that a man he’d never met was driving our car, Vinnie was acting as weird as I was but without the head injury and Vicodin to blame. Maybe it was Kevin’s eyes, or maybe his voice and the trace of a twang that slipped out every so often. It could have been the way he took care of me, or maybe just that he was gorgeous from head to toe and I hadn’t been that close to perfection basically ever in the seven years that had passed since we first met. Whatever it was, I was acting like the man sitting next to me was an old friend who I could trust with my deepest darkest secrets. It was freaking weird.

"I really think you should let me drive you home…" he told me as we pulled back into the parking lot of the condos.

"I’ll be okay…" I said quietly. "It’s a 5 minute drive."

He sighed and turned his body looking at me, "Let me follow you then. Make sure you and Vinnie get home, then I’ll leave you be."

I was beginning to hate the way his eyes hypnotized me, "Can I keep the glasses til we get there?"

He smiled and nodded, "Definitely… I’ll follow you."

Five short minutes later Kevin pulled his car in the driveway behind me and stepped out of his car. He walked me into the house taking Vinnie’s leash and I plopped my keys on the coffee table along with my painkillers and ice pack. I turned around and looked at him as I removed the sunglasses and handed them back, "Thank you…"

"Welcome…" He looked around the living room and smiled, "You’ve got a nice place here…"

I fought the urge to say “Yeah I know…” and instead said thank you again. I love my house. My house is my dream house. It’s a beautiful place that is basically like a big beach house with lots of windows, white washed wood, and lots of bright comfortable spaces for sitting and writing or reading or watching the waves. There wasn’t one thing about my house that I disliked, it was my present to myself after I’d finally started making money with my books and let me tell you, living where I did wasn’t cheap. But it was oh so worth it.

I watched Kevin as he looked around my place and Vinnie picked up one of his toys and dropped it on Kevin’s foot. He chuckled and picked it up groaning at the drool on it, "Eww…"

I laughed, "He slimes…"

"I can see…" he laughed.

"He wants you to throw it down the hall for him… that’s his favorite pastime…" I said as I sat down on the edge of the coffee table. Kevin nodded and tossed the toy down the hall causing Vinnie to race after it. I chuckled watching him as he fetched the toy and dropped it on Kevin’s foot again.

Kevin picked up the toy and threw it again, "You need anything before I go? Maybe I should give you my number in case you need anything tonight… Do you have something to eat? The doctor said you should eat with the Vicodin… I could make you a sandwich or something, or whatever you want..." I smiled looking up at Kevin as he threw Vinnie’s toy again. "What? Am I rambling?"

"Yuh huh…"

"Sorry…"

"It’s okay… I think I’ll be okay. My mom isn't too far of a drive away, if I…"

"And I’m only five minutes away so I’m giving you my number," he interrupted. I shrugged and smiled. "What, no arguing?"

"I’m too tired…" I grinned. “Vicodin…”

Kevin chuckled with a nod and threw the toy again. In his attempt to run down the hall at the speed of light, or at least what he thought was the speed of light, Vinnie knocked over a glass of water that had been sitting on an end table as he brushed it with his body. "Oh damn… towel?"

"Hall closet…" I pointed as I moved from the table to the couch and made myself a little more comfortable lying down and returned the ice pack to my bump.

"Wow…" I heard him murmur from the hall as he looked for a towel in the closet.

"What?" I asked with a puzzled look on my face.

"Oh nothing… you just have a lot of batteries in here…"

"I’m always prepared…" I whispered to myself with a chuckle.

"Huh?" he asked stepping back into the living room sopping up the water with a towel.

I laughed a little harder, "Nothing…"

He looked at me with a skeptical look and chuckled before looking back to the carpet. When the water was all gone, he got up and sat on the coffee table looking at me, "So… you never answered about food…"

"Um… Ramen Noodles and Oreos?"

"How about pizza?"

"I don’t have pizza…" I teased with a yawn.

"Well it just so happens that you’re looking at someone who makes a damn good pizza order… I’m a pro at calling Pizza Hut and I happen to know that there’s one not far from here…" he grinned.

He got me with his eyes again and I smiled with another yawn as my own eyes closed, “Their number is on a magnet on the fridge… wake me up when it gets here. And don’t let Vinnie boss you around too much...”