The Wedding Party (The Wedding Date, #3)(72)

“I can’t believe I fucked up the rally. Did Alexa say anything else about the press? I’m sure they barely mentioned universal pre-K at all, and the whole story was the protests.”

She reached down to stroke his head, then remembered she shouldn’t, so she dropped her hand to his shoulder.

“Don’t worry about that right now. There’s nothing you can do about it. Just let yourself rest.”

They sat like that for a while, until his regular breathing made her think he’d fallen asleep. So she almost jumped when he said her name.

“Maddie?”

She turned toward him, and he kissed her on the cheek.

“I’m here.”

He kissed her on the lips softly.

“Thank you for being here. Thank you for everything you did for me today.”

Something inside of her melted.

“You’re welcome. I’m here as long as you need me.” She rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand. “You’ll probably get sick of me before these next forty-eight hours are up. They told me to watch you, so get ready for me to be following you around this apartment, staring at you the entire time.”

He stroked her hair.

“I look forward to it. Now: can we please order some pizza or something? I’m starving, and I bet you are, too.”

Maddie tried to remember when she’d last eaten. She’d had a chocolate chip cookie at eleven a.m. Was that it? Yes, because she’d planned on grabbing food after the rally from that bakery that she liked near the school. She pulled her phone out of her pocket.

“I am starving, but I don’t think pizza is a good idea. You were pretty sick in the hospital. I don’t think you’ll be able to keep pizza down. How about soup instead?”

Theo made a face.

“You know how I feel about soup. I like food I can chew. I don’t like drinking my food. I have teeth for a reason!”

She patted his knee.

“I know, you’ve said this numerous times. But let’s try you on some easy soup before you graduate to more substantial food.”

Maddie’s phone buzzed just as there was a knock at the door.

I’m outside, I picked up a few things



Maddie looked up from her phone at Theo.

“It’s your brother at the door.”

What the “few things” Ben would have picked up for Theo might be, she had no idea, but she hoped at least one of them was useful.

She opened the door to Ben holding two stuffed grocery bags.

“Hi,” he said. “I drove by the grocery store, and I didn’t know what kinds of supplies he had here, and since it seems like he’ll be stuck here for a while, I figured I’d get him some stuff.”

Ben walked through the open door and past Maddie before she could say anything.

“Hey, man,” he said to Theo as he walked past the living room doorway. “You’re already looking better outside that hospital room.”

Theo and Maddie shrugged at each other and followed Ben to the kitchen.

“I know you hate soup,” Ben said as Theo walked into the kitchen, “but Mom told me to get you soup, so I got you lots of it.” Maddie shot a triumphant glance at Theo. He shook his head as Ben pulled a dozen cans of soup out of the bags.

“Please tell me you got me something edible in there, too.”

Ben nodded.

“I also got you four different kinds of crackers.”

Theo leaned against the wall and put his head in his hands.

“You’re all conspiring against me! Do you really have nothing but soup and crackers in those bags?”

“I got you good stuff, too, but number one, this is only for when you’ve stopped throwing up, okay? For, like, a whole day.” Ben paused with his hand in the grocery bag until Theo nodded. “And number two, do not tell Mom I got this. She’ll kill me.”

Ben pulled a stack of frozen pizzas out of the bag and held them in the air.

“But you have to eat all the soup first.”

Theo folded his arms over his chest.

“I only threw up once, okay?”

Maddie grimaced.

“They told us you’d still forget things. No, you threw up at least three times.”

Theo looked hard at her.

“Really? Are you sure? I don’t . . .”

Ben held his finger up.

“Oh, that reminds me.” He pulled eight bottles of ginger beer out of the bag. “I know there are people who like this stuff. I think it’s disgusting, but I keep it around for hangovers, so I assume it’s good for other kinds of nausea, too.” He looked at Maddie. “Make him drink it.”

She picked up a bottle and twisted off the top.

“Drink this.” She handed it to Theo.

“If I’d known that getting hit over the head would make me end up being bossed around by the two of you, I would have reconsidered that choice.” He took a sip of the ginger beer and shrugged. “It’s not bad.”

“Okay.” Ben dropped the bags on the floor and turned to walk out of the kitchen. “Maddie will kill me if I stay too long, and I know you need your rest, but . . .” He shrugged. “I figured maybe at least some of this would be useful.”

Despite how bro-y and careless he seemed, Ben clearly loved his older brother a lot.