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She rolled her eyes before retorting, “Since I actuallyamstuck with you for the foreseeable future, game on, Mr. Football.”
I chuckled. “Good night, Raina.”
“’Night, Foster,” she murmured back. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“You better,” I threatened. “For the next three days at least, while they have you induced in that coma, you better notthinkabout going anywhere else.” Because the alternative meant she’d died, and I really didn’t want her to die.
“I’ll see what I can do,” she assured.
* * *
When my alarmwent off the next morning, Raina groaned audibly. “Oh my God. Make it stop.”
I barked out an amused laugh and reached over to silence the persistent sound, glad to know she’d made it through the night. “Rise and shine, Spirit Girl. School’s back in session.”
“Mmph,” she mumbled, not sounding like a morning person today.
“Still drowsy?” I asked, rolling over to face her. Her curls were everywhere, and I wanted to plow my fingers into them so badly. “It’s probably all the anesthesia.”
She opened one eye to scowl. “You sound way too chipper to be preparing for a whole new semester.”
I shrugged and whipped off the blanket before crawling out of bed. “Only because I’m taking this epidemiology lab, and I’m kind of geeking out about it. I like studying things under a microscope.”
Her nose wrinkled as she sat upright to watch me pull clothes from my dresser. “Really? That sounds awful to me.”
“Or like puzzle pieces and a huge mystery to solve,” I countered. “I mean, what if I accidentally figure out how to cure cancer or something? How does that not sound exciting to you?”
She shrugged and mumbled, “Meh.”
Figuring she was too tired to give a better answer, I grinned at her and shook my head. “Be out in a minute. Don’t leave without me.”
She scoffed, muttering, “Funny,” as I shut the door.
Twenty minutes later, I was sliding on my shoes and ready to go. Hefting my book bag onto my shoulders, I told her, “Oh, and we’ll have company in the truck for a while. Since Dad returned to work again, I’ll have to take Brey to school. She’s in the fifth grade.”
Still wearing a pair of hot pink, silky pajamas and pastel pink fuzzy slippers, Raina yawned and scratched her mussed hair. “But not the rest of them?” she asked as I paused at the door before pulling it open.
“Nope,” I answered, a little loath to enter the rest of the house because, outside this room, I’d have to pretend she wasn’t there. “Amy’s a sophomore and can drive herself. Then Mom will drop Reed off at the middle school on her way to take Little to preschool.”
“So let me get this straight. Your family has one kid in college, one in high school, one in middle school, one in grade school, and one in preschool? Boy, did y’all timethatjust right.”
I laughed. “Or all wrong, as Mom puts it. You ready for this?”
Straightening her back, Raina sent me a salute. “Aye aye, Captain.”
She changed clothes in the blink of an eye, wearing shorty shorts that showed off way too much of her shapely thighs and a snug, lime-green shirt that had a little v’ed slit to show off some amazing cleavage. Heeled sandals finished the look with pure sexiness.
I lifted my brows, swallowing thickly.
And Raina frowned in confusion. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I rasped, shaking it off. “Let’s do this.”
Pulling the door open, I stepped into the hall to see Brey pounding on the bathroom door, demanding that Amy hurry up, and I had to pull up short as Reed almost ran into me when he exited his room with his nose stuck in a book.
“Oh, sorry, Fos.” He glanced over the top of the Kindle to send me a sheepish grin. “Didn’t see you there.”
“No worries.” I ruffled his hair and splayed out a hand to let him go ahead of me.
