“Ouch!”
“Stop being such a baby!” Reese said as he helped Billy pull his shirt on over the bandaged shoulder.
“That’s exactly what I feel like.” He pouted then winced as his arm was slipped into the sling.
“Hey, you’re going home dude.” Ian verbally shot across the room. “I’m still on display here.” He tried to indicate his immobility but gave up because he was quite simply immobile.
Billy lightly swatted Reese’s hands away. “I can button it up myself.”
Reese raised both hands in the air and took a step back. “Okay. Okay. Backing off.”
Billy fumbled one handed with the buttons and asked Ian. “You gonna be alright here?”
“I’m kinda stuck, pinned up here on the bulletin board. Unless my constant nagging gets me thrown out, there’s not a whole lot I can do.”
After mumbling a few profanities, Billy finally looked up at Reese. “Uhm…”
“Now you need my help?” Reese teased him. “You look like Vonnie here, buttons all in the wrong holes.”
“Velcro…do they make clothes with Velcro?” Billy asked as he was unbuttoned and rebuttoned.
“I’ve got some.” Reese wriggled his eyebrows. “We’ll model them for each other later.”
“T.M.I.” Ian moaned.
Billy chuckled. “Vonnie and Sparky send their love by the way. Vonnie said if you don’t call her soon she’s going to write Santa and tell him not to bring you anything for Christmas.”
“I’ll call as soon as I can get a phone to my ear.” Ian snarked. “Did you tell her that if her Daddy had just landed a little to the left her Uncle Ian wouldn’t be a window pasty?”
“Oh, now it’s my fault you’re a klutz?” Billy teased.
“I’m a klutz?” Ian smiled. “Which one of us broke an arm sharpening a pencil?”
“T.M.I.” Billy bit his lip, and tried not to laugh.
“You broke your arm sharpening a pencil?” Reese popped the last button in place and smoothed Billy’s shirtfront.
“Sort of.”
“Sort of?” Ian laughed. “Hey Ian, I think I’ll sharpen your pencils for you. Snap. Ow! I broke my arm! I broke my arm!”
Billy looked up at Reese. “It’s not nearly as funny without the pantomime.”
Reese raised an eyebrow.
“Let’s just say there were some tequila shots and an open bottle of ketchup involved and leave it at that.” Billy admitted.
“We’ll talk later.” Reese directed at Ian, who nodded his head. “I’m going to go check and make sure all the paperwork is legal and I’ll be right back.”
Reese kissed Billy’s forehead and squeezed his cheeks together. “Don’t break anything.” He shot a look at Ian as he made his way out the door. “And you don’t encourage him to break anything.”
“Me?” Ian squawked. “I can’t scratch my own nose!”
“Remind me never to introduce anyone I’m dating to family.” Billy mumbled.
Ian smiled and laid his head back on the inclined hospital bed and sighed. “So I guess you’re just going to run off and leave me here…all alone…unable to move…dying for a cigarette…”
“Don’t hand me that.” Billy frowned.
“It’s okay.” Ian sighed. “I understand. I’m used to being left behind. Used like a trampoline and then just abandoned…”
“Stop you dork.” Billy pulled up the chair up close to Ian’s bedside. “I love ya, man, but I am outta here. If you’re a good boy, I’ll bring you a pitcher of tea.”
“Will you hide a file in it?” Ian perked up.
Billy chuckled a little. “It’s not like I won’t be back. It’ll be a couple of days before they’ll release me to fly home.”
“About that.” Ian said. “I want you to stay.”
“Ian, I have to…” Billy started to say.
“I know.” Ian cut him off. “I know, buddy. That’s not what I meant. I know you have to go back. There are things you need to do and face, but Billy…I need my family here…with me.”
“Don’t get all weepy on me, dude.” Billy tried to smile. “This is going to be hard enough.”
Ian nodded his head. “Billy, I want you to go home, but just for a little while. Go back, talk with your family then put the house on the market, pack up your adorable little monster of a daughter and come back to stay.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Regardless of what happens between you and Reese, I want you and Vonnie here with me. If nothing else, what has happened in just the last few days, well since Aunt Hil died, makes me want my family as close as possible. Like it or not, you be family, dude.”
If he’d been able, Ian would have sat up and moved closer to the edge of the bed. “Go back to Lost Mountain and study up on whatever you need to get your building license here in California. When you’ve got that done, pack up your daughter and get back here. I’m going to need work done on the house.”
“You mean that?”
“Of course, I mean that. I want you and Vonnie here, and Jude, if we can figure out a way, and Sparky…”
“You want my sister to move here, too?”
Ian nodded his head. “Eventually, I need Sparky to do something for me, if she will and then we’ll get her out here, too. Wouldn’t be a real family without a little sister for us to torture now would it?”
“Ian, I’d hug and kiss you but…”
“How ‘bout we just imagine we did that…touchy, squeezey stuff still kind of hurts.”
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