With precise, careful movements, Holly gingerly got out of Liz’s car. After hours of being poked, prodded, x-rayed, and MRI’d, all she wanted to do was crawl into her own bed and sleep for a week or so.

One broken arm, three cracked ribs, and a deeply bruised hip and shoulder hurt like hell. The pain meds they had given her at the hospital, only after they had determined she did not have a serious concussion, did help somewhat, but not nearly enough. The ER doctor had taken pity on her and written a prescription that should help with that. Holly wasted no time in downing two of the pills within seconds of picking them up at the drive-thru pharmacy on the way home. Already, a very welcome, pleasant numbness was beginning to seep into her limbs, muting her pounding headache from a ten down to a seven on the tolerance scale.

“You should have stayed overnight,” Liz chastised, grabbing her overnight bag from the backseat and helping Holly into the house.

“I hate hospitals,” Holly groused.

“Everybody hates hospitals, Holly.”

“I want my own bed. I want Max.” I want Adam, she added silently.

“I know,” Liz exhaled, “but you’re stuck with me tonight. Brandon texted about two hours ago. He said he’ll bring Max over in the morning.”

“Did he say anything else?” Holly asked, hoping she didn’t sound as pathetic out loud as she did in her own head.

Given Brandon’s involvement, she had half-expected Adam to show up at the hospital, or to find him waiting for her when Liz had brought her home. He hadn’t shown. Granted, he hadn’t said he would, but after last night, she had assumed they would be getting together, maybe picking up where they had left off this morning.

“No,” Liz said quietly.

After seeing the look of sympathy in her eyes, Holly resolved not to ask again. I am not going to be that girl, she reminded herself.

It was just as well. She and Vicodin were going to be pretty tight for the next couple of hours, anyway.

Still, it would have been nice. Assuming he knew, that was. And why wouldn’t he know? Brandon had been there on the scene and was watching Max, presumably at Adam’s house.

“Okay then. Thanks for hanging out tonight, Liz. Sucks for you, though, huh?”

“Like I had anything better to do,” Liz said, pulling off Holly’s socks and shoes. Liz was trying to keep things light, but Holly could see the worry in her eyes.

Everyone should have a bestie like Liz, she decided. Someone to have her back. To be there when she found herself in the hospital and needed a ride home.

“And no offense,” Liz continued, “but I’d rather be me than you right now.”

“Yeah, me, too,” Holly sighed, sinking into the pillow that still smelled like Adam. “Goodnight, Liz.”

“Goodnight, Holly.”

* * *

SUNLIGHT STREAMED THROUGH the windows, searing his eyes. Adam rubbed at them, feeling as if he had been on one hell of a bender. It took him a couple minutes to get his bearings. He was in his bed, in his room, in his house, with absolutely no idea how he got there.

Adam dragged himself into the bathroom and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. He looked like shit. What the hell happened last night?

He gripped the edge of the sink, gritting his teeth while willing the room to stop spinning. Adam didn’t do shitfaced. Yeah, he tossed back a few with the guys sometimes, but he certainly hadn’t been this out of it since he was a stupid kid. Like so many others, he had learned the hard way, but he had learned. He knew his limits, and he made sure he stayed well within them, especially with Brandon around.

He leaned over and splashed cold water on his face. Fuck! Why couldn’t he remember anything? Most of his mind was focused on trying to stay upright and conscious, but to be this hung over, he should be able to recall something. Where had he been? Who had he been with? What had he done?

It was all a blur. There were vague, fleeting glimpses, but they couldn’t possibly be right. They had to be nightmares because Adam wouldn’t have willingly done any of those things.

He needed answers, and he wasn’t going to find them in the porcelain a couple of inches from his nose. When he was relatively sure he could do so without face-planting on the floor, he pushed himself upright and took a deep breath. What he needed was caffeine and acetaminophen, preferably huge quantities of both. Then maybe he could get his shit together enough to figure this out.

It took one hand against the wall and all of his concentration to put one foot in front of the other, but he finally made it to the kitchen. Brandon was already there, sitting at the table. God bless the kid, he had made coffee.

Adam fixed himself a cup, sloshing more on the counter than he managed to get into his mug, then collapsed heavily into a chair. Even that brief foray from his bedroom to the kitchen had left him feeling drained and weak. His hand shook so badly he had trouble getting the mug to his mouth, which was probably just as well because the smell of the coffee brought the nausea back with a vengeance.

He closed his eyes, summoning every bit of self-control he had. He was not going to blow chunks like some teenager after his first bender.

Brandon looked up slowly and met his eyes. “Why did you do it, Uncle Adam?”

The look on the kid’s face sent a wave of dread through Adam’s unsettled stomach, but he steeled his emotions, needing information. His nephew obviously knew more than he did about what had gone down.

“Do what, exactly?”

Was that his voice? Either he was slurring his words or his brain wasn’t translating the signals properly.

Brandon’s next words had bile rising in the back of his throat.

“I thought you really liked Holly.”

Holly! She couldn’t have anything to do with this, could she? He was supposed to go over to her place last night. He had been looking forward to it all day. Shit! If he felt like this, what kind of shape was she in this morning?

But wait ... That didn’t make any sense. If he had made it over to her place, he wouldn’t be here, and he wouldn’t have woken up alone. Though, given the way his day had started, that was probably a good thing.

He clamped his eyes shut and scrubbed his face with his hands. Remember! he commanded himself. It was as though his brain was a blackboard and someone had just wiped it clean. All that remained were a few blurry white patches where the chalk had been.

While he couldn’t recall any specifics, he knew in his gut that wherever he had been, whatever he had done, it hadn’t been with Holly.

But why hadn’t he been with Holly?

“I do care about Holly,” Adam said, trying to remember where he had left his phone. He had to call her and ... say what exactly? Hi, Holly, it’s Adam. Do you have any idea what I did last night? Why I’m here at my place, feeling like roadkill, instead of waking up in bliss beside you?

He had finally found someone he wanted to be with, someone who had seemed just as happy to be with him. The last thing he needed was her questioning her choice to spend time with his sorry ass. Maybe his phone held some clue. He could at least look at the text and call log. Maybe that would trigger something to help him make some sense of this.

“You sure have a funny way of showing it.”

The hair on the back of his neck rose and prickled, another wave of dread and cold sweat washing over him. Adam didn’t know if it was purely physical, or a reaction to Brandon’s words and the tone he had used. Despite their closeness, Brandon had never addressed him with such disrespect.

“Excuse me?”

“It just doesn’t seem right. While Holly’s laying in a hospital, you’re out with your ex? Not cool, Uncle Adam.”

Several things happened in quick succession. Adam’s heart stopped beating for a couple seconds, then restarted by pounding painfully hard and fast against the walls of his chest. Then the contents of his stomach decided they didn’t want to remain where they were, after all.

Adam barely made it to the bathroom in time. Then, after retching violently, his legs betrayed him and he ended up hanging on to the toilet to keep himself from face-planting into the tiled floor.

The next thing he knew, Brandon was leaning over him, pressing a cold, wet towel to a really sore spot on his temple. The disappointment on the kid’s face was now mixed with genuine concern.

“Hang on, Uncle Adam. I’m going to call for an ambulance.”

Adam grabbed Brandon’s arm with surprising strength. “No ambulance,” Adam said through clenched teeth as his body started to shake uncontrollably. “Tell me what happened.”

Brandon blinked and studied his face. “You mean, you really don’t remember?”

“Can’t remember shit,” Adam said, forcing himself to take deep breaths, knowing whatever it was, it was bad. “Just tell me what happened to Holly. Why is she in the hospital? Is she all right?”

For the first time, Brandon seemed uncertain. “Okay, but let’s get you to the couch first.”

Moving in any fashion was not in the least bit appealing, but Adam used every last ounce of willpower he had. With Brandon’s help and a steel will not to vomit all over his favorite nephew, Adam managed to make it to the couch. By the time he got there, he was covered in sweat and feeling as weak as a pup. He sank down into the cushions and wiped his face with the cool cloth.

“Okay. Start talking.”

“There was a fire at Holly’s yesterday,” Brandon began, taking the chair adjacent to the couch to remain close. “I was doing my volunteer shift down at the fire company when the call came in around three or so. Someone reported hearing an explosion and seeing smoke.”

“Christ,” Adam swore. “An explosion? You mean, like a gas leak or something?”

“Or something,” Brandon said grimly. “It happened in one of the smaller outbuildings. A tool shed or something. The fire chief is working with the police. Nothing official yet, but the chief said it looked like a clear case of arson. He found evidence of an accelerant at the scene.”

Adam knew just the building he was talking about; Holly had shown it to him when she had given him a tour of her place. It was situated to the left of the cottage, an old wooden structure in remarkably good condition, where Holly kept her gardening tools.

“The building was destroyed, but we got there in time to keep it from spreading to anything else.”

“What about Holly? You said she was hurt. How bad? Did you see her?”

“Yeah, I saw her,” Brandon said, his tone grave. “I’ve definitely seen her look better, but all in all, she was very lucky. She got banged up pretty good. Ended up with a couple of broken bones, cracked ribs, and a possible concussion, but it could have been a lot worse. A fire extinguisher was found not too far away from where she landed. She must have smelled the smoke and gone out to investigate. The chief thinks she was near the door when the place blew. The blast knocked her across the yard, but that was probably a good thing. It kept her away from the fire till we could get there.”

“Jesus.” Adam closed his eyes and tried not to picture it in his mind as his stomach twisted. “But she’s okay?” He needed to hear it one more time. If anything happened to Holly ...

“She’ll live. The hospital wanted to keep her overnight, but she signed herself out. Liz tried to talk her out of it, but Holly threatened to call a cab if Liz didn’t give her a ride home.”

Yeah, that sounds like Holly, Adam thought. “Liz is staying with her, I hope?”

Brandon nodded. “She was, until Holly’s family started arriving this morning.”

Adam frowned, remembering the little bit Holly had revealed about her family. She would probably appreciate Liz’s company more.

“What about Max?” The dog was Holly’s shadow, and if she had been affected, then he probably had been, too.

“Some singed fur, but none the worse for wear. Holly was really worried about him, though, so I told her I’d look out for him until she got back home. It was the only way she’d get in the ambulance.”

“Max is here?”

“He was. I took him back first thing this morning. He was lost without Holly, and Liz said she needed him, too.”

Adam sipped the cold water Brandon handed him. “And where was I during all this?” Adam finally asked, his voice quiet.

Brandon inhaled and exhaled deeply before replying. There was such pain on the kid’s face that Adam knew he wasn’t going to like the answer.

“I tried calling you to tell you what happened, but it went right to voicemail. When I got back from the firehouse, there was a message on the house machine from Paul up at the Lakeside Pub. He said he had to take your keys and that your truck was in the lot.

“Something didn’t seem right,” Brandon said, looking at his hands, “so I drove up there myself. Paul said you were in bad shape and that some chick gave you a ride home. After he described what she looked like, I knew who it was. What were you thinking, meeting up with Eve like that?”

Adam sighed and took a drink, his hand shaking enough that he had a hard time keeping it from sloshing over the sides. Some of the fog seemed to be receding and things were coming back to him little by little.

“I wasn’t. Eve said she needed to talk to me. I said no, but she was persistent. She said, if I met her for one drink and heard her out, she’d leave me alone for good.”

Brandon’s eyes widened in disbelief. “And you believed her?”

“Not really. But she knew about Holly. I was afraid she’d start stalking Holly like she did the last woman I took out to dinner, and I didn’t want to take the chance that it would have the same consequences.”

“Holly wouldn’t have given up so easily, Uncle Adam.”

“I know. At least, I hoped I did. But I still didn’t want Eve anywhere near her.” He scrubbed his face with his hands. “I thought maybe I could prevent that from happening. I should have known better.”

Brandon appeared to think about that, then nodded. “Okay. So, what happened then? After you got there, I mean.”

“I don’t know,” Adam said, frustration heavy in the words. “I agreed to one drink, and that was all I had. Eve was spouting all kinds of crazy shit. I got up to leave, not feeling so good. Next thing I know, I’m waking up in my own bed, feeling like this. How did that happen, by the way?”

“After I talked to Paul, I called your phone again, hoping it wasn’t too late to stop you from making a big mistake. Eve answered. She said you and her were back together. I demanded to talk to you, but she said you were in the shower and couldn’t come to the phone.”

Adam closed his eyes, coming to the sickening realization that those images he had thought were nightmares probably weren’t.

“Then what?” he whispered with resignation.

Brandon looked down at his hands, unable to meet his uncle’s gaze. “I didn’t believe her. You seemed so happy lately, all because of Holly. After hearing you talk about Eve and how obsessive she was, I just couldn’t see you leaving Holly and going back to her like that.”

“I wouldn’t,” Adam agreed, glad that despite how things looked, the kid still had some faith in him.

“And with Holly in the hospital ... well, I thought you should know about that, regardless. So, I drove over to Eve’s place and pounded on the door until she finally opened it. She was in this skimpy robe thing, and you were as far gone as I’d ever seen you, practically passed out on her couch. You didn’t even know who I was at first ...”

Brandon closed his eyes and shook his head as if to dispel the image. “Anyway, I finally convinced you to come back with me. I got you to bed, and you went out like a light.”

“Fuck,” Adam breathed. How did things go from great to shit so quickly?

“Uncle Adam,” Brandon said quietly after several long minutes. “Did you really only have one drink?”

“Yes!” Adam said, rubbing his face. “A boilermaker. One shot in a glass of beer. That’s it.”

“Did you order it yourself?”

“No, Eve had it waiting ... for me ...” His voice trailed off as the implication became clear. “She must have put something in it before I drank it.”

Brandon nodded. “That’s the only thing that makes sense at this point. Come on; we have to get you down to the clinic.”

“What the hell for?”

“To have them draw your blood and do a tox screening.”

“Later. I need to call Holly first.”

Brandon’s face took on that pained expression again. “Yeah, about that. Probably not a good idea right now.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I’m pretty sure she hates you.”