Teacher's Pet Complete Series (41 page)

“The coma? Never mind that. Help me get out of here, Lynn.”

“Simon, I don’t know—”

“Lynn, help me get up…please,” he implored.

He pulled out his IV with a slight wince and grunt, and he lifted up his covers and groaned. “How many fucking lines do they have me hooked up to? Don’t look.” Then he gestured for me to turn my head, as he presumably dealt with a catheter. I heard him grunt again in discomfort, but he quickly freed himself. He reached to pull the heart monitor off his finger.

I didn’t know what else to do. I said, “I’ll help you, but keep the monitor on just in case removing it alerts the nurses.” I stepped away to send out an SOS to my friends to speed them along. If I was going to get Simon out of there, I would need help.

I texted:
Need getaway driver. 911.

I knew my girls wouldn’t fail me. I walked to the cabinet to dig around, hoping it was where they kept his clothes.

I found a carry-on bag that must have belonged to Caroline, because there was mostly women’s clothes in her style packed inside, but there were also his clothes from the night of the accident. I pulled out the jeans that had been cut from his body by emergency room personnel. “Wow, these have seen better days,” I remarked. I held up his jeans over the foot of his bed to show him how they looked, and I also found his leather jacket. He had a pained expression at the sight of the tattered clothes. I hurriedly tossed them away.

Digging deeper, I came across a loose pair of jogging pants and a clean white t-shirt. The pants looked a little small, but that was all I could find that he might be able to fit. “Do you want to put these on?”

“Do I have a choice?” He made a face. I smiled at him. I couldn’t believe he was awake, alert, and well.

I tried to slip on his pants as carefully as I could, but there was some stiffness of his legs from disuse, and he groaned in pain. I pulled away, not wanting to hurt him, but he gritted his teeth and urged me to continue. Once that was done, he sat up slowly but still became a bit woozy. “Whoa!” He put his hand to his head. “I’ve never done drugs before, but if it feels anything like this, you can keep it.”

“Come on. Let’s get you out of bed before someone comes. They’re either extremely understaffed tonight, or we’re just lucky.”

I grabbed Simon’s ankles and helped him swing his legs out of bed. He stood up unsteadily with his arms around my shoulders. I dipped at the knees. “You’re heavy.” He was unable to support his weight and almost too much for me to handle.

“Never heard you complain when I was on top of you.”

“And impossible,” I added, chuckling. He winked. “Okay, so we have to be quick with this. You’re going to pull off the clip connected to the monitor, and we’re going to rush to the elevator.” I basically dragged him to the doorway. I looked left and looked right. There was one nurse I could see, but she was on the phone and not paying us any attention.

It was now or never. We made a break for it. “Okay, let’s go.” Simon hobbled and limped, but we made it to the elevator.

Like angels of mercy, Bobbi and Sonja met us just beyond the elevators when we got to the ground floor. “Girl, I broke all kinds of laws getting here. Jay would kill me if he saw how I was speeding.” They helped me get Simon out of the hospital and into Jay’s SUV. “Well, hello, Professor Foster. Good to see you again. I’m sorry it’s not under better circumstances.”

Simon smiled, but he knew Bobbi didn’t like him. “Thank you for this, Ms. Garner. I know I must’ve put you in an awkward predicament.”

“It’s Bobbi. Mrs. Garner is my mother. And it’s really no problem. I’d do anything for my girls.”

“Professor,” Sonja tersely said over her shoulder.

“Sonja,” Simon responded. “Nice to see you wearing more clothing.”

“I didn’t think I looked that bad.” She cocked a brow.

Simon looked at me. I shrugged. “Somehow I don’t really think you looking bad is a possibility, Sonja,” he said politely.

Sonja fought a grin, flattered. She turned her face as she blushed so that Simon wouldn’t see. I playfully shoved him with my elbow, because I was glad to see him making amends with my friends. He seemed pleased.

Simon gave us the directions to his house. As we pulled in through the guarded gate and rode down the narrow drive marked by tall oak trees and meticulously manicured bushes and plants, Bobbi, Sonja, and I all took turns looking at him in our own not-so-subtle ways. We were all thinking the same thing. Simon’s house was amazingly fucking beautiful.

It was brick-faced, which was odd for a California home, with lighting around the property accenting its many features. The front entryway was recessed. Near the entrance was a rectangular planter with a concrete base, and water trickled down from a fount to water the plants. Above that, there was a master bedroom balcony with, from what I could see, blue sweeping drapes.

“Well damn, professor,” Bobbi said, looking back. “You’re making me feel a little envious here. Your house makes my place look like the projects or something, and I’ve never lived in the projects in my life.”

“Pretty snazzy, professor.” Sonja reached for her door to open it. “Maybe I should stay with you instead of Bobbi. You have more room.”

“Hey!” Bobbi shoved her.

“I’m kidding.” Sonja giggled.

We all opened our car doors and got out of the car to help Simon get into his house. He didn’t have his keys, but he had a spare key in a container shaped like a rock, and we let ourselves in. The inside of his house was nice, masculine and modern. There was some art on the walls, but not much; the great room was sparsely furnished in ultra-minimalist style, almost the exact opposite of Bobbi’s place, where her décor was more focused on comfort.

“You can put me over there.” Simon was pointing to a tan leather couch that looked impossible to sleep comfortably upon—not like I was staying, I reminded myself. As we laid him down, he grunted in pain, and we all stood over him, watching him try to find some comfort. It was cold in his house and there wasn’t a blanket or throw in sight. “Do you need anything?”

“Yeah, you can turn on the heat. The thermostat is on the wall in the hall around the corner.”

“I’m on it.” Sonja raised her hand to volunteer. She shot down the hall before I could counter.

“I’ll look for a blanket,” Bobbi said. “It should help.”

Simon pointed. “Down the same hall, linen closet, two doors to your left, and thank you.”

I just smiled. I loved my girls. I loved how they helped. I didn’t have to ask them. They were on it in two seconds flat, busying to bring comfort to my man… I mean to Simon.

“And what can I do for you, Mr. Foster?” I folded my arms over my chest and rocked back and forth on my heels expectantly.

“Well, I’d ask you to lie here and snuggle with me if I didn’t think it would cause me pain. I miss your body next to mine.”

“You know I can’t do that. What would Katelyn think?”

“You mean what would Dane think? I’m pretty sure you couldn’t give a fuck about what Katelyn feels or thinks about anything.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re right. And I’m definitely sure you feel the same about Dane.”

“I opt to plead the fifth.”

“Yeah, I thought you might.”

I got Simon a pitcher of water from the kitchen, made sure it wasn’t too cold, and set it on the end table next to him. Bobbi and Sonja came back from their tasks with a blanket and the heater turned on.

“Anything else?” Bobbi asked, with her hands on her hips.

“I think that’s it, you two,” I responded. “Let me walk you both to the door.” My friends gave me knowing looks, which I studiously ignored.

Simon waved. “Thanks, you two.”

Bobbi called out, “You’re welcome, professor.”

“You can call me Simon from now on, Bobbi. We’re all adults here—friends, right? You’re no longer students.”

“Um, sure,” said Bobbi uncertainly. Bobbi and Sonja looked at each other.

“I guess that’s true,” Sonja acknowledged.

We hugged at the door. “I’ll talk to you two later, and thank you so much.”

“Anytime, girl,” Bobbi said. “I suggest you make him some eggs, something soft. He looks a little skinny, and he has to be hungry.”

I hugged them again before closing the door and turning around.

“Snuggle time?” he asked.

“You and your blanket can do what you want. But I’ll be in the room upstairs if you need me.”

The pain I felt lying there on my couch was like no pain I’d ever experienced before. There were so many things hurting from my head to my toes (including my cock—that God-awful catheter!) that I couldn’t have touched Lynn if I wanted to. I could hardly stand up on my own.

“You can sleep down here with me. I’m harmless, all but useless sexually, save for maybe my tongue.” Hell, who was I kidding? Even my tongue was incredibly dry, and kept sticking to the roof of my mouth when I talked. It didn’t seem to matter how much water I’d had to drink.

“Nope.” She crossed her arms to her chest. She was so beautiful to me that it was almost sickening.

I was helpless, watching Lynn walk past me. She had a cheeky grin on her face, like she knew it was torturing me to be incapacitated while she was so close. I twisted my neck to stare as much as I could just to prolong my view of the form I used to tightly hold in my arms.

When she vanished from my sight down the hall completely, I felt a deep loneliness, something I wasn’t used to. For me, being alone brought me comfort of a sort. I could do what I wanted, whenever I wanted and however I wanted to do it, but tonight being alone didn’t interest me in the slightest.

“What if something happens to me through the night? I just got out of the hospital, you know.” I crossed my arms and pouted, genuinely annoyed at being achy and unattended to.

Lynn padded back down the stairs, saying, “Hey, you insisted on leaving the hospital. I think I want your room. It’s perfect.”

“Sleep wherever you want.”

I didn’t mind Lynn sleeping in my bedroom, although I would’ve preferred she sleep next to me on the uncomfortable couch and somehow help me take away my pain. There was no way I could make it upstairs, feeling the way my body was feeling. My head was pounding and any sudden movement made lights flash. I fought a mild sense of vertigo.

I shifted my heavy legs over some so Lynn could sit near my feet, and she settled onto the couch with a wistful expression on her face that seemed to confess her busy thoughts. I wondered what her amazing mind was pondering, but I halfway knew. We were in an awkward situation. She belonged to my brother, whether he deserved her or not, and I had…Katelyn.

“Why did you get me to get you out of the hospital and not your Amazon girlfriend?” asked Lynn with a snort.

I closed my eyes and rested my head against the firm armrest of the couch. I put my arm across my forehead to block out some of the light, since it was making my head hurt even worse. “She wasn’t there.”

Lynn smacked my feet, eliciting a chuckle from me. She muttered, “Asshole.”

I smiled and shook my head, but the move caused my head to spin, and I held my breath, waiting for the swimming feeling to pass. “She’s not the caretaker type. For all her pluses, her big minus is selfishness. I don’t know how or why or by what chain of reasoning, but somehow I knew you’d be here for me.” I didn’t move my arm and my eyes were still closed, but I could feel her body relax against mine, and I knew the simple truth pleased her.

There was something about Lynn that I couldn’t shake, no matter how hard I tried to move on with someone else. Lynn had her own brand of selfishness, or rather she had the exuberance of youth that made her yearn to test options before making a decision, and I understood her nature.

Because, at the end of the day, it was Lynn who’d break a man out of the hospital and get him safely home. It was Lynn I had dreamed about over and over during the indeterminable amount of time I had been in a coma. “I dreamed of you.”

“You were asking for me…in your sleep.”

“I’m glad you came.” I peeked from the cover of my arm to watch her face. She had told me she loved me. I knew the confession only made our complex relationship even more tangled. I drifted off to sleep, the only escape from the aches and pains plaguing my battered body. With Lynn next to me, everything felt right, regardless of the pain. I needed her. I loved her.

The Aston Martin squealed in protest as I made a sharp turn and cruised into the hospital parking garage. Unlike before, when I hadn’t intended on being here long, today I had to make good on my promise to my father to go see Simon—if not just to smother him under a pillow.

I parked the car and sighed in frustration as I climbed out. My cell phone seemed heavy in my pocket, and I pulled it out to give it one last check, but there were still no missed calls from Lynn. Shoving the device back in my slacks, I loped across the concrete and found the entrance. I’d had to deal with her disappearing act later.

After coming back from my meetings, she hadn’t been in my hotel room or her parents’ room, and I had no way of getting in touch with Bobbi. Lynn had mentioned she’d be staying with her. I hoped that was where she had returned, but my gut instinct told me it was unlikely; otherwise, she wouldn’t be avoiding my calls.

She was definitely avoiding me. I tried to ignore the unsettled feeling that always accompanied thoughts of Lynn. Although she had finally succumbed and taken me up on my offer to move with me to New York, something told me that her yes had come too quickly, or she was unsure.

There was nothing I could do but do what I must, as I strolled the now familiar trail to the elevator bay and up to Simon’s floor. I hummed idly to myself. My intentions were to get in, get out, and report back to my father that I had done my brotherly duties.