Christmas sucks.
When Emily Shepherd's boss boyfriend cheats on her with her best friend, she loses everything in one night-love, friendships, job, and home. In a weird fit of desperation (or some deep-rooted need to punish herself even more) she m...
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Even though Leo arrived within ten minutes of hanging up, Emily was near frozen, sitting on the front porch step in the dark. According to her phone, it was 27 degrees and flurries were expected in a few hours. Not a very good night to lock herself outside on purpose.
Plus, the Ambien was kicking in and she was having a difficult time staying awake. That was bad. If she fell asleep in the cold, she might suffer hypothermia or frostbite. As far as plans went, it was not good. But it did get her away from the ghosts.
Leo was understandably upset when he arrived. She had clearly gotten him out of bed—he'd been tossing and turning like her, judging from the sweatpants tucked into his boots and the crazy bed head hair. But he lost most of that anger when he got close enough to see the slack expression on her face.
"What are you doing out here?" He reached out to help her up. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I locked myself out again." She could barely lift her eyelids, so she tilted her head backward to look at him. But the back of her head was so heavy she almost fell over backward. "Stupid door."
"Whoa, hey. Hey." He caught her before she could go over and examined her face. "How long have you been out here in the cold? You need to stay awake."
He thought she had hypothermia. How cute. She leaned forward and her forehead bonked him in the chest.
"Hey Emily, come on now." He wrapped his arms around her and stood her up. "Have you been drinking?"
She shook her head, grinding her nose into his coat. "Sleeping pill."
"Pills? How many?" His voice took on an urgency. "What kind? Stay with me, Emily."
"No, no." She smiled. "One. I took one. Ambien. To sleep."
He said nothing, just supported her in his arms as he unlocked the door. Then he tried helping her in, but her legs weren't working very well. Finally, he just picked her up and carried her in like a bag of groceries.
"Well, that's not very romantic," she thought. Or maybe she said it out loud. The Ambien was really kicking in now. "Supposed to carry me like in the movies."
"It was more of a practical solution," he grunted as he carried her to the bedroom and flopped her onto the bed.
"Oh." So she had said it out loud. That was unfortunate. She struggled to come up on her elbows. "I've got to watch what I'm thinking."
He gave her a pretty thorough visual inspection. She tried to smile for it. "You're sure you just took one?"
"Yeah. One." She licked her lips. They were so dry. Why was her mouth so dry? "They really work."
"What were you doing outside at one o'clock in the morning?" He leaned her forward, supporting her back with his left hand as he helped her out of her coat with his right.
