Letting Go (Mitchell Family #1)(10)
Author: Jennifer Foor

I heard the water immediately shut off. When the door knob moved, I took a step back. A cloud of steam came rushing out, revealing Colt’s chiseled wet body wrapped only in a small white towel. My mouth dropped open. I couldn’t help it. He was like an incarnation of some Greek God.

“Are you okay?” He said as he stood in front of me smiling.

I tried to keep my eyes focused on his face, but I had never noticed how well toned his body had gotten. Perhaps it happened in the years I hadn’t seen him, but damn he was gorgeous. Like the kind of gorgeous females talk about licking up and down gorgeous.

I had to snap out of it. What was wrong with me? I couldn’t be thinking the things I was thinking about Ty’s cousin. “Sorry, just not awake yet I guess.” I lied.

He gave me a weird look and walked past me. “All yours.”

I rushed into the bathroom and shut the door. After relieving my bladder, I wiped off the steam covered mirror and assessed the damage to my face. My right eye was black and purple colored but it wasn’t swollen shut anymore. On that same side, my cheek had two or three stitches at the top and a few scrapes were more prominent as they scabbed over night. My lips weren’t as big, but they were all busted still. I backed up away from the mirror and buried my hands into my demolished face. The tears came and soon turned into full blown sobs. After a few minutes I felt the door pushing open.

Colt came in and pulled me out of the bathroom. He sat me down on the couch without saying a single word to me. He left for only a moment and came back with a warm washcloth. I felt it rubbing across my face but refused to open my eyes.

“The stitches look good today. I was hoping they wouldn’t get infected.” At the sound of his voice, I opened my eyes. He held a bottle of water and cupped two pills in the palm of his hand. “Take these.”

I grabbed the tiny white pills and took them. “Thank you.”

“I want you to stay here for a couple days.” He said.

I looked at him confused, but he held his hands up for me to wait while he explained.

“Savanna, you look like Hell. After seeing exactly how cruel people are treating you, I don’t think it is a good idea for you to go back to the dorms. I also don’t want your parents to see you like this. Your daddy would beat me to a pulp if he knew I took you to that party and let this happen to you. Since it is the weekend my aunt and uncle will be at the hospital. Just please consider it.”

I looked down at the bottle of water. I hated being a burden, but he was right. I had no other place to go for the time being. Explaining myself to anyone would just be more painful. “Okay.” Was all that I said.

He stood up and started walking toward the door. “I need to go into town and grab some groceries since I didn’t do it yesterday. When I’m done, I will grab Sam and be back here to check on you. It’s probably best if you try to sleep.” He said.

“Will Sam care if I am here?” I asked.

He smiled. “Nah, she likes everybody.” He said as he walked out the door.

I wondered why Sam hadn’t come over to check on Colt today. She must not have known that he brought me home last night. There was no way I would let someone who looked liked him out of my site. Not that I felt like he was a cheater, in fact it was the opposite. He seemed like he was the kind of guy that didn’t do relationships at all.

When I could finally feel the pain medicine working, I went back into the bedroom and tried to go to sleep. It was going to be a long couple of days.

Colt

It only took me about an hour to run into town and grab some basic things I needed for the small carriage house. I still couldn’t believe I was in this situation. I was half tempted to tell my aunt and uncle what was going on, but they wouldn’t understand me helping Savanna. I hadn’t believed her yesterday when she told me about how mean people were, but I couldn’t make the same mistake with my family. If they really did blame her than she needed to stay away from them.

Her face was a mess and every time I looked at her, I felt guilty. I had let that little vixen friend of hers talk me into something that I should have known not to do. I owed it to Savanna to help her until she was better. For the next couple of days she was going to be in a shit load of pain.

When I pulled back up at the farm, I noticed that my aunt and uncle were gone. I walked into the main house and was greeted by Sam jumping into my arms. “Hey pretty girl. I have someone I want you to meet. Yeah, come on girl.” I said to my dog.

Sam followed me while I got the bags out of the truck and headed toward the carriage house. When I got the groceries in and had them put away, I made my way into the bedroom. She was sleeping, but stirred as I walked in. “Sorry I woke you.” I said while trying to leave the room.

“It’s okay. So is Sam here? I really want to meet her. I don’t want any weirdness if I am going to stay here.”

I looked at her like she was crazy. Sam was a dog. What was she talking about? I shook my head and faced the direction of the door. “Sam!” I yelled.

My giant yellow lab came running into the room and immediately jumped on the bed. Savanna looked up at me. “This is Sam?”

“Yeah, why are you asking me like that? I told you about her.” I said.

She started laughing. “I thought she was a girlfriend.”

I took off my hat and ran my hands through my hair while I laughed. “Seriously?”

Savanna nodded. “Sure did.” She said as she pet and let Sam lick her face.

I grabbed her by the collar. “Be gentle Sam. Savanna is already banged up. Get down girl.”

Sam jumped off the bed and sat like the good girl she was. “Well, obviously she is my dog. I don’t have a girlfriend.” I confessed.

“Wow that is surprising.” She said.

“How so?”

She looked down at her hands. “Someone like you always has a girlfriend.”

I smiled and shook my head. I sat down on the edge of the bed near her feet. “Someone like me? Well, I hate to break it to ya, but I aint nothing special. I put myself first and women don’t like that. My last girl walked out for that reason.”

She smiled at me. Her face was such a mess. “I happen to know firsthand that you don’t always put yourself first. I wouldn’t be here right now if you did.”

I shook my head again. “You are different. You’re…like family.” I admitted.

I knew I hit a nerve after the words left my mouth. Savanna put her head down and looked at her lap. “Right. Family.” She said in a depressed voice.