TEASE ( A Stepbrother Romance ) By Caitlin Daire

23

Chapter Twenty-Three

Charlotte

“Just take two of these after meals for the next three days, and you’ll be fine. They’ll dull most of the pain in your head.”

I looked at the doctor as she explained my new painkiller medication to me, and then nodded. “Okay. Thanks, Dr. Prior.”

“No problem. We’re still waiting on your parents to arrive, but they should be here any minute now.”

With that, she briskly swept off, and I yawned and rubbed my eyes. My head was still pounding, but the doctors at the hospital the ambulance had brought me to hadn’t found any serious injuries other than the bump on my head, which could barely be classified as serious. As long as I was careful to take it easy for the next few days, I was going to be fine. I shuddered to think what might have happened if Cade hadn’t shown up and pulled me out of my wrecked car, though.

He was sitting with me now, and he’d also stayed by my side throughout the examination. I turned to him. “Cade,” I said softly. “I really am sorry for all the things I said earlier. I was being crazy.”

He shook his head. “You’re not crazy. Maybe you didn’t bring it up in the most tactful way, but I think you actually had a good point.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I don’t think my father would do anything like that, but that political consultant of his has a bit of a reputation, and like you said, there’s a few seemingly weird coincidences surrounding the wedding incident. I wouldn’t put it past him to pull an awful stunt like that just to draw attention to Dad’s campaign.”

I nodded slowly. “True. I always got a bad feeling about Greg. He just seems so….”

“So much like a rat?”

“A big blond rat, yeah,” I said. “So what do you think we should do? Do you think we should tell someone?”

Cade shrugged. “I don’t know yet. I mean, surely other people have noticed the same stuff that we have.”

“Maybe, but it sounds totally and utterly insane. No one would think it could’ve actually happened, even if they think it’s all a bit weird and suspicious. It’s like, TV drama level stuff.”

“Yeah, I guess. Let’s sleep on it before we tell anyone. If that Greg prick actually had anything to do with hurting my brother, I want to figure out a way to fuck him over in the best way possible.”

I wanted so badly to reach over and touch Cade as he spoke, but there were nurses around, and the last thing we needed was to get caught out now. Besides, I wasn’t even sure if there was anything left to be caught out in. I loved Cade, and he’d kissed me back an hour ago after I’d been pulled from my car wreckage, but we hadn’t spoken about our relationship at all, and I still wasn’t sure where I stood with him after the blowout this morning.

As if he could read my mind, Cade’s face softened. “Charlotte, I’m so sorry about what I said this morning…when I ended it. I don’t want that; not at all. But I understand if you need some time to think about us after I reacted like that.”

It was cute that he actually looked a little anxious, and I smiled. “Cade, I accused your father of having your brother shot for political points and media attention. You didn’t overreact. I probably would’ve done the same thing.”

He smiled back at me. “So…what do you want to do?” he asked.

“You,” I replied with a cheesy grin.