Page 48 of The Broken Hearts Club

“Maybe later.”

“Okay. Let me know when you get hungry.” He got up and stretched his arms over his head. My gaze automatically flickered to the bare skin that appeared above his waistband when his T-shirt rode up. Not that I had any sex drive these days, but he was still nice to look at.

As he stretched his back, he said, “You must be happy about finally getting out of here.” I was allegedly going to be released the next morning.

“I would be, if I believed it was actually happening.”

“It should. Your fever hasn’t come back, and you’ve been doing great.”

Great was a bit of a stretch, but I was making progress. The stitches on my huge incision had come out a week ago, the doctor was dialing back my pain meds so I wasn’t quite so loopy, and I’d been able to gradually increase my slow laps up and down the hall.

I knew I was getting better, but it was happening at a glacier’s pace. I had very little energy, and I didn’t know when my appetite would return. Plus, every time I coughed or sneezed, I had to grab a pillow and hug it to my chest, because it felt like my sternum was going to split in two.

I wanted to be back to my old self. Not that I’d been the most energetic guy on Earth, but I’d felt so much better than I did now.

A few minutes later, my phone buzzed. I read the message and told Miller, “Jeannie wants to video chat. How horrible do I look?”

He gently brushed my hair back and said, “You look beautiful, Collie.”

He was a liar. I knew that because he always said the same thing. He’d even said it a day or two after my surgery. Then I’d caught a glimpse of myself and saw that I actually looked like an extra in a zombie movie.

Miller got up and asked, “Are you ready for that smoothie?” I nodded. “What flavor this time?”

“Surprise me, but not by adding kale to it, like that one time.”

“You couldn’t even taste it.”

“But it looked like swamp water.”

“Fine. No kale.” He ran his hand over my hair again. It felt less like he was fixing it, and more like he was petting me. I had zero complaints about that. “I’m going to do a couple of laps around the block first, because I need some exercise.”

“Take your time.” I watched him go, and then I video called Jeannie.

She answered right away and said, “Hi, sweetie. How are you feeling?”

“Okay. They might actually let me go home tomorrow.”

“I’m so glad!”

I pointed at the screen, drawing a circle around her with my index finger as I asked, “What’s going on here? You look like you’re in disguise, but as what I don’t know.”

Jeannie was in her parked car. A floral scarf was wrapped around her head and tied under her chin, and she was wearing a baseball cap on top of that. She was also wearing her biggest pair of sunglasses. “I did something terrible, Collie.”

“I can’t help you bury a body right now, but if you stick it in that huge freezer in your garage, it should be fine until I can come for a visit.”

“I appreciate the offer, but it’s not that. You know that thing you’ve had to talk me out of during each of my pregnancies?”

“Oh, no. Don’t tell me you gave yourself bangs.”

“It’s so much worse than that. My hair was bugging the crap out of me…”

Jeannie was a natural blonde with gorgeous, wavy hair. Ever since I’d known her, she’d worn it long. When I’d left, it had been more than halfway down her back. “What did you do? Show me.”

She took off her sunglasses and the baseball cap before untying the scarf and pulling it off her head. Not only did she have short bangs, but her hair was cut into a chin-length bob that was turned up at the ends. She burst into tears and wailed, “I look like Mrs. Puff from Spongebob!”

She totally did. All that was missing was the little blue sailor cap. But as her best friend, it was my duty to tell her, “No, you don’t! You look like a blonde Audrey Hepburn. It’s so chic, Jeannie.”

“It’s not! I ruined my best feature!”