Count On Me

Part Thirty Three

Chapter Thirty Three

Headache and exhaustion. That is what Thursday morning seemed to bring. And a four year old climbing under the duvet to cuddle, and talk incessantly. Lizzie kept her eyes closed as she wrapped her arms around him, agreeing with his mutterings, knowing that might come back to haunt her later.

But he was happy, she managed to open an eye to see it was just after seven, so she knew she had time before she had to get up and get him to school. Thanks God, because she didn't think she could get up now.

As Nate talked about his forthcoming in day in school, she could hear movement outside the room. A few minutes later, the bedroom door opened. Lizzie craned to open her eyes, then groaned, Oscar was crossing the room with a large glass of water, dressed in just a pair of football shorts, his chest bare, his face smiling and fresh looking. A complete opposite of how she knew she looked.

"Thought you may need a drink and a few pills?"

Her moan then was with relief as she took them from him. Then he turned to Nate, "breakfast mate?"

Nate squealed then slid out of bed, Oscar took his hand, but when they got to the bedroom door, to leave the room, he turned and winked at her. Then the door closed.

Despite her turmoil at that, she took the drink and the pills, then flopped back down, relieved that Oscar was there, and obviously hangover free. She closed her eyes, until two months ago she couldn't remember the last time she'd had a hangover...she'd had three in the last week. Was that how much her life had changed?

She groaned, her life was unrecognisable to what it had been eight weeks earlier, and not just through losing Janis and becoming the guardian for Nate. Her whole life, it was as though someone had thrown all aspects of her life into the air, and she was struggling to catch anything.

The bathroom mirror revealed she looked ten times worse than she feared, hair matted and a mess, her eyes bloodshot, panda smudges from her makeup.

Diving under the shower, she let the water pelt against her head, hoping that she'd start to feel more human.

It was becoming his favourite part of the day, eating breakfast with Nate. Not that he was eating, but coffee and watching Nate devour a bowl of cereal whilst planning what he wanted to do that day. Usually it involved trips to the park, swimming pool or something equally as separate from the plans of school. But he had such enthusiasm for life that it was contagious, and Oscar knew that he'd always struggle to say no to him. They'd missed out on so much time, so much that they could have done together, that Oscar didn't want to spend time away from him.

Another benefit of sitting with Nate, was that he didn't dwell on the previous night, or let his body react to the memory of Lizzie, curled up in bed, Nate wrapped around her, all sleepy, face creased from her pillow, hair tousled. She was sexier than anyone he'd ever known, he could spend all night watching her sleep.

His body stirred at the memory, a chattering four year old not enough to tame his libido that morning, especially when he thought about the kiss, that kiss in the club where they almost devoured each other, where he'd almost stripped her and taken her on the table. What a kiss.

He almost swooned as he digested that, he knew he'd never felt like that before, never lost it like he had with her, every time. Just as he was starting to think sobering thoughts, she appeared at the doorway. Clean, damp hair pulled back into a ponytail, face free of makeup, and she looked back to normal. Almost.