Miraculously the pounding stopped. He heard a key opening the door of the cabin and turned his head towards the sound, but the bright sunlight blinded him and he moaned in pain, turning his head quickly to face the wall.
“Yeah, I figured you’d be in this kind of shape,” Veronica said matter-of-factly as she strode in carrying a small cloth bag. She smelled of sunshine and the outdoors and Raul was dismayed to discover that even his nose hurt.
“Just kill me now,” he groaned, putting the back of one hand over his eyes.
“Sorry, dude. This time you have to face the havoc you wrought last night. Probably not the first or the last time, but this is gonna be a tough one.”
She put a plastic glass full of ice cubes on the side table next to the bed and he heard the impossibly loud noise of a can being opened, before she poured the liquid onto the ice. The popping sounds let him know it was soda of some kind. He agonized over how loud that was also.
“I’ve got some pain pills for you,” she sat on the side of the bed and pulled his hand back.
He had to fight the nausea that roiled through him at the slight movement of the mattress under her weight. He moaned again.
“Come on, take it like a man. Swallow the pills and drink the coke.”
“No! No coke! I don’t wanna do any coke!”
Veronica snickered, “Not that kind of coke. You need something on your stomach and cola is the best thing to settle it down.”
Reluctantly he raised his head and opened his lips to let her push the pills into his mouth. She held the glass and he took a quick sip, then another, before flopping back down onto the pillow, groaning in pain.
Veronica sniffed experimentally, “I guess you already puked up some of last night’s over-indulgence, huh? I’m going to open the window, so get your eyes ready for a little light.”
He put his hand over his eyes again and heard the squeal of the sash as she pushed the window open. There was a cool breeze and he inhaled deeply.
“See? You’ll be better in no time!”
“Just let me die in peace,” his tongue was uncomfortably large in his mouth but he tried to speak clearly. “Where did you put that soda?”
He heard the sound of a chair being pulled over to the side of the bed and was thankful that she must have realized it was better to sit beside him not on the mattress. He felt the glass being pressed to his lips again and raised his head again just long enough to take another sip.
“We need to talk, Raul. You got into some serious trouble last night and now Gram-Marie wants to throw you out on your ass. Do you remember anything that happened last night?”
He felt the room beginning to spin around and took some deep breaths.
“No,” he said, gritting his teeth from the effort to control the nausea that threatened to overtake him again.
Veronica sighed. “Okay, is there anything at all you do remember?”
Raul tried to force his thoughts to obey him, but the noisy blood pounding and the spinning made it difficult to think.
“Uh…I went to the bar…Crossroads, I think,” he forced the words out, took another deep breath, then tried again. “I needed to get drunk enough for the pain to go away so I could sleep.”
“Yeah, about that…” he felt her press something cool and wet onto his forehead.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a frozen washcloth. It will make your head hurt a little less until the pills kick in,” she said. “I’m sorry. I’ve been pushing you too hard. I think we need to take it a little slower on our runs until you feel up to challenging yourself again. You didn’t get out of shape in two days, so I should have known that you wouldn’t be able to get back into shape in two days.”
“But I told you I could do it. I’m the one who insisted that you take me on your normal runs…”
“Yes, but I’m the one who knows better. I used to do personal training when I was in college. I was on the track team and it was better money than I could have made as a waitress. I’ve helped lots of people get back into shape, but never by pushing them so hard at the beginning.”
She sighed softly as she reached over to turn the washcloth so the cooler side would be on his forehead again. He reached his hand up to cover hers for an instant.
“It’s my fault. I can be an arrogant prick sometimes. You’ve been so nice to me and I’ve never thanked you for it…”
Veronica looked into his eyes for a minute, surprised at the honesty she could see before another wave of pain washed over him and he closed his eyes in an effort to endure it.
She sat back and watched him, “You’re right. You can be a prick. But we promised Jared you could stay here until he had the film crew and the actors’ trailers up here. He’s putting a lot of his heart and soul into getting this movie made, and I don’t want to be responsible for jinxing things by going back on that promise. So we have to figure out how you can apologize to Gram-Marie in such a way that she will forgive you for endangering Jake, even though that wasn’t your doing and you don’t even remember it.”
“Wait…Jake is in danger? What kind? How? And I’m involved?” His brain was hurting with the stress of trying to remember.
Veronica shook her head, “No, he’s not in danger now. But last night a group of bikers rode their Harleys after you because their head bimbo wanted to fuck you and you turned her down. I wish I’d have been there to see her face when you said no! That was probably the first and only time you’ve ever turned down free pussy.”
Raul lay still for a moment before replying quietly, “I didn’t know you knew words like that. And considering they are coming from your lips they are even more insulting. Is that really what you think of me?”
“Oh come on, Raul! You as much as told me yourself that you work hard at keeping your name in the tabloids. And the whole reason Jared sent you up here was that you missed an important planning meeting with him because you were in a hotel room with two women, fucking, drinking and snorting coke. Then you crashed your car and tried to bribe the police officers, telling them you’d get them in your next big movie if they just took you to the meeting you had already blown. You called him instead of your lawyer because you figured he would get you out faster. Then you told him that you couldn’t find your watch and lost track of time, and the only reason you left the hotel room was that you ran out of condoms.”
Raul felt even more ill as he listened to her words. The pain seemed to be coming from his stomach, but he didn’t just feel nauseated anymore. He felt ashamed.
“Jared told you all of that?”
“Yeah. We’ve always been tight since we’re so close in age. When he’d come up here for the summer, I was the one he wanted to hang out with. I taught him how to paddle a canoe and a kayak. I taught him how to swim in a lake; and I taught him how to find the best places to set up your tent. He used to tell me that if we weren’t cousins, he’d want to marry me. He’s a sweetie.”
She leaned over and replaced the warm washcloth with another cold one.
“But don’t worry. No one else knows all of that except me. Gram-Marie would have a shit-fit and so would my parents. Jared said he had to let someone up here know what you were capable of, so I could do what I could to keep you out of trouble. So far I thought I was doing pretty good. I guess I should have thought of going with you to the bars, but I’ve never been a heavy drinker. Don’t get me wrong, I like wine with food, and a really cold beer on a hot day is excellent. But that’s about it for me. The few times I’ve ever been really drunk in my life aren’t happy memories. I usually woke up feeling like you do and embarrassed by the things that other people told me I said and did. So hanging around in bars for hours until closing time is not my idea of a good time. My bad.”
****
Have you ever had a night like that? Was anyone like Veronica there to help you recover?
Also, the second book in the Minnesota Romances involves the biker chick who caused Raul so much trouble. A biker chick? Yes, even biker chicks can fall in love…for the first time ever. Just her luck he’s ex-KGB. But she doesn’t want to give up her other men, and he doesn’t share. When some of her bikers turn up dead, guess who’s the main suspect?
I’m going to take a break now…but when I return, I’ll put up some excerpts from Only One Man Will Do.
Remember, leave a comment for a chance to win an eBook of For the Love of His Life. I’ll draw one winner at 10pm EST tonight. Good luck!
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