Page 104 of Contentious

“Told you,” Carson said to Cresley.

She buried her face in his shoulder.

“Keep it up, and we might get rid of you around here,” the nurse added as she left the room.

“You heard her. We need to keep it up—and trust me, it’s up.”

“Carson, stop it. We’re not getting busy in a room full of windows.”

His lip came out in a cute pout. “You’re no fun at all.”

“I believe I’ve proven otherwise.”

He hugged her as tightly as he could with one arm. “I can’t wait for you to prove it to me again.”

“I can’t either.”

Chapter Twenty

Two nights later, after Carson had been moved to a regular room, Griffin and Ethan came in to visit, bringing the cheeseburger and Animal-Style Fries he’d requested from In-N-Out. They were fries topped with American cheese, caramelized onions and the chain’s signature spread, what his sister Jordan called a revolting combination.

“I thought you didn’t eat that crap, as you call it,” Griffin remarked as he handed over the bag to Carson.

“I usually don’t, but I’ve been craving it for some weird reason.”

“A near-death experience is a good reason to eat whatever the hell you want,” Ethan said. “How’re you feeling today?” He was about six two, with thick, wavy dark hair that he kept long enough to receive regular commentary from their father about needing a haircut. Ethan liked to say that the ladies loved to run their fingers through his hair, and there was no way he was ever cutting it. Women also loved his golden-brown eyes and handsome face made more so by the perfectly curated stubble on his jaw—another thing their father hated.

“Like I got sliced up and stapled back together.” Carson dug into the fries like he hadn’t eaten in a year. “But better since I’m not attached to a hundred beeping monitors.”

Ethan cringed. “That sounds horrible.”

“Didn’t feel too good either.”

“Do you remember it happening?” Griffin asked.

“Vaguely. It replays like something I saw happen to someone else.”

“Did it hurt at the time?”

“I don’t recall pain so much as surprise at realizing someone had stabbed me. And I remember collapsing like a house of cards and not being able to control any aspect of the fall.”

“Damn,” Ethan said. “The whole thing is just crazy. When I heard you’d been stabbed… Like, what?”

“It was fucking terrifying,” Griffin said. “Not knowing for hours if you were going to make it.”

“Sorry to put you through that.”

“Not your fault, man,” Ethan said.

“Still no sign of him?”

Griffin shook his head. “The FBI is involved, too, because he’d shown up as a suspect in one of their cases before the stabbing.”

“I’m officially a federal case.”

“Too soon for jokes,” Ethan said.

“Since when is it ever too soon for jokes in this family?”