The nurse’s gaze jumped back to my face, and her smile faded. “Oh, right. Oliver Masters?”
I raised my arms out at my sides. “In the flesh.”
“Are you going to give me trouble?”
“No, ma’am. Had more important things to take care of,” I explained. She raised a brow, and my eyes flitted to the badge hanging from her neck. Saunders. She uncrossed her legs, her skirt rising in the process, and sweat split at my hairline. “Let’s get on with it. I haven’t got all day.”
Nurse Saunders stood and walked to her medicine cart. Only a few cups sat over the top tier. “I’m sorry to hear about Rhonda. The lady you had yesterday was a fill-in, but I’ll be the permanent nurse.” She bent over, and I dropped my head back to face the ceiling. Saunders turned and took a step toward me. “You can call me Poppy.”
I dropped my chin, and our eyes met. “Thanks, Saunders.”
“Need water?”
“Nope.” I tipped the cup back and forced them down, squeezed the cup in my fist and threw it in the trash before leaving.
“See you tomorrow,” she called out before I slipped past the door and headed straight for the loo. I wasted no time to get this poison out of me before it entered my system.
mia.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, eyeing Ethan suspiciously from the corner of the room. My knees pressed harder against me inside Ollie’s white tee. The shirt still smelled like him. The smell of the ocean. The smell of freedom.
“Masters can be pretty convincing. Now let’s go,” Ethan mumbled and waved me out. I pushed up to my feet and took a step off the mattress. Lynch was letting me go? Just like that? I narrowed my eyes in Ethan’s direction, wondering what the catch was, and Ethan’s shoulders sank. “What is it?”
“Under what conditions?” I asked.
He raised a brow. “No conditions.”
“Nothing?” I let out a disbelieving laugh. “What’s changed?”
“Like I said … ” Ethan took a step forward and held out his hand, “Your bloke is convincing. Now let’s go.”
I relaxed my arms at my sides and followed him out. “I need to shower,” I stated in passing.
Ethan walked me back to my room to collect my things to shower before dinner started. We hadn’t talked about what happened between us, or what didn’t get to happen. Ethan was hurt; I saw it in his eyes. The rejection transmitted from him, a flashing yellow light.
The community bathroom was empty. Ethan stayed back against the door as I undressed, stepped under the water, and took my time.
The warm water felt incredible as I hadn’t showered in days.
“You want to talk about what happened?” Ethan asked, startling me. His voice came from right outside the curtain. “I don’t want things to be weird between us.”
“Things aren’t weird. You’re the one making them weird,” I pointed out.
“I see it now. I didn’t before, but I get it.”
I turned the water off and grabbed my towel. “Get what?”
“This thing between you and Masters. Hell, I haven’t even seen the two of you together, but I don’t have to. Every word Masters speaks, every look in his eyes, every time he takes a bloody breath … ”—Ethan exhaled— “It’s all you, Mia. All I hear, see, and feel is you. You’re mixed in him, and if you dropped dead, I wouldn’t be surprised if Master’s heart gave up along with yours. It’s fucking weird, Jett, and hard to explain.” He paused, and I’d been standing wrapped in the towel, dripping wet and stunned by his words. “Fuck, I sound like—
“He got to you,” I finally said.
“Huh?”
I opened the curtain, and Ethan dropped his head to the side to face me as he rolled his shoulder against the tile beside my stall. “Ollie has that effect on people. He makes you believe in the impossible.”
“I barely talked to him.”
“That’s the thing with Ollie … you don’t even have to speak to him. You just have to know him.”
“He pisses me off,” Ethan muttered, and we both shared a laugh. “You think I’ll ever find someone like that?”
I raised a brow. “Like Ollie?”
Ethan rolled his eyes and lifted off the tile, turning to face me fully. “No. Someone who makes me feel the same way Masters feels about you.”
My gaze drifted. Before, I didn’t believe in any of this at all, it was crazy to think how much had changed in the year and a half I’d been here. “Yeah, I do.”
“It’s a shame it couldn’t have been you.”
“Trust me. When you do find her, you’ll be thanking me.”
Out of solitary, freshly showered, and stomach rumbling, Ethan and I walked together to the mess hall. We stopped at the entryway, and I scanned over the crowd. Bria and Tyler sat on both sides of Jude at my old table with Jake kicked to the end. All eyes found me, and though Bria forced her gaze away, Jake held mine, and a small glimmer appeared in his eyes before it instantly dulled. My gaze made its journey, stopping at Maddie and Gwen, and Maddie held up her fist and flipped me off.
The old me would’ve returned the favor. Instead, I did nothing and my eyes carried on with their journey across the room.
I felt him before my eyes found him. He was somewhere in the room, and my entire body hummed to his wavelengths. I didn’t have butterflies in my stomach. No. This feeling was a couple dozen phoenix’s rising from their ashes.
And then my eyes found him. Ollie sat leaned over with his head in his hands, and his hood pulled over his head, facing an uneaten tray. My feet moved as my brain disciplined me—reminding me about the repercussions of getting hurt, and a million words ran through my head as I continued forward, finding words to say. Which Ollie did we have today?
I laid a hand over his shoulder, and the tension released from him in that single touch and his shoulders dropped.
“Mia,” Ollie uttered through a single breath. His right hand crossed over him and grabbed my wrist, pulling me over his lap to straddle him. Long arms wrapped around me while his head dug into the crevice of my neck, drawing and breathing me in.
We sat like that for I don’t know how long. I felt their stares on us, but Ollie didn’t move, and I didn’t pull away from him. The only movements were his hands slipping under my shirt, needing skin to skin contact.
Then he lifted his head, and his nose grazed along my jaw with eyes still closed and holding on to wherever he wanted to be in his beautiful head—a perfect paradise. His lips lingered over mine, releasing long breaths.
“Open your eyes,” I whispered.
Ollie shook his head. “Not yet.”
The dreamer grabbed my mouth with his and sank into it.
A damn perfect paradise.
And Ollie was back. My Ollie. Full-force, empowered and rejuvenated. He held our kiss, never took more than what he needed, and this simple connection was enough to relax him as he breathed out through his nose. His lips brushed against mine as he released our kiss, and his eyes opened, staring back at me.
Last night, all we’d talked about was me, and I had no idea how he’d been coping, what struggles he’d been facing. Suddenly, I wanted to know everything. “You have to tell me how to help you. I don’t know how to do this,” I whispered.