Always With You (The Connor Family 6)

I loved her confidence, the way her love for life shone in every word. It made me want to change my ways for her, or at least try—it wasn’t in my nature to be flexible, to change. The way I led my life didn’t allow for much wiggle room. But fuck... it made me wonder if I could change for her. There probably wasn’t much I wouldn’t try for Hailey.

After we finished the cereal, she got up, collecting the bowls.

I was on my feet the next second, taking them away from her.

“No. I’ll clean up,” I assured her, shoving the bowls in the dishwasher and replenishing the glasses with orange juice. As she headed back to her seat, she swayed a little on her feet.

“Bed. Now,” I instructed.

“But I feel fine.”

“That didn’t look okay. Just sleep for a few hours.”

“I don’t want to waste an entire day off— What are you doing?”

I swept her up in my arms. “Making sure you get some rest.”

“Oh, I see.

Operation doting on Hailey is still in action.”

“The entire day will be like this.”

“There’s no point fighting it, huh?”

“None at all.”

“I see. Well, I’ll take this opportunity to show you around. This is the living room.”

It was small but welcoming, with large windows, a cozy couch, and a huge TV. The walls were an interesting mix of colors. Three of them were cream; the fourth one had messy orange stripes.

“Interesting choice of colors. Was the orange on purpose?”

“Do not mock my living room. And to answer your question... not really. My brothers did those three walls, but that’s the one wall I did with Val and Lori, and we... errr, were too busy gossiping to pay attention.”

“Why didn’t you correct it?”

“Turned out I actually liked it. To the right is the guest bedroom... and you’re already familiar with the master bedroom,” she finished as I laid her in bed.

“Normal colors, I see.”

“Yeah, at this point, my brothers basically told us to get on with gossiping and let them paint the bedrooms alone. And if they offered, who was I to say no? And speaking of my siblings....”

She reached for the phone on her nightstand, her expression lighting up. “Val says she’s okay. Whew. I was so worried about her.”

“You mentioned that last night.”

She looked away, nibbling at her lower lip. I sat on the edge of the bed, running my hands through her thick hair.

“Do you get sick a lot?”

“No, just when something really bad happens and I get anxious about it. It was why Lori asked me to stay with her last night; she knew something like this might happen. My parents took me to the ER a few times, because kids dehydrate real quick. I needed IVs for liquids. But all in all—no medicine needed. There’s nothing wrong physically, just... I don’t know. I guess I get too wrapped up in everything.”

She played with the edges of the pillow, picking some invisible lint off it.

“That is not something to be ashamed of. I think it’s incredible—the way you can feel so strongly. I just wish it didn’t make you sick.”

“You don’t think I’m crazy, do you?”