Free Protecting Summer by Susan Stoker

kneeled down in front of the chair and put one hand on her knee, still covered by his shirt, and the other on the arm of the chair. He rubbed her knee softly, trying to bring her out of sleep slowly so she wouldn’t be scared.
    “Summer? Wake up, Sunshine.” Mozart grinned as she grunted in her sleep, and turned her face deeper into the side of the chair. “Come on, wake up.”
    Summer squinted at Mozart, then closed her eyes again. “Do I have to?” she sighed, sounding much whinier than she wanted to.
    Mozart grinned. God, she was cute. “No, not really, but I did go and find a twenty four hour grocery store, and I brought back food.”
    Summer’s eyes popped open comically. “Food? What kind of food?”
    Mozart ran his hand down the side of her cheek. He wanted to find her actions funny, but he couldn’t. Most women he knew would’ve been perfectly happy to fall back asleep, but he knew first-hand when your body was craving calories, food always came before sleep.
    “Sit up and see for yourself, Sunshine.”
    Summer shifted upward and straightened her knees. The shirt rose up and off her knees, but luckily still covered her adequately. Mozart hadn’t moved from her side and his hand was now resting on her bare knee. They stared at each other for a moment.
    “Your scar looks better,” she said quietly as she brought her hand up and fingered the worst of the scars on his face.
    Mozart grunted. “Yeah, Ice insisted on me rubbing some crappy cream on it every night. I keep telling her it doesn’t matter, but she won’t give it up. I do it just to shut her up.”
    “Well, it seems like she knows what she’s talking about. It really does look better, Mozart.” Suddenly thinking he might think it mattered to her, Summer quickly backpedaled. “Not that it looked bad…”
    “Shhhh, it’s fine.” Mozart put his fingers across her lips stopping her from saying anything else that might make her feel she was digging herself into a hole. “I know what you meant. I give Ice crap, but the cream does actually make it feel better.” At the look of relief on Summer’s face Mozart continued, “Now, come on, get up and see what I got for us. I didn’t stop on my way up here, so I got a bit of everything.” Summer would never know he was lying about not stopping to eat, but he didn’t want her to feel bad about all the stuff he’d bought.
    Summer stood up and would have fallen over if Mozart hadn’t been there to steady her. “Whoa, take your time. I’m sure the heat of the shower made you woozy. Let me help.”
    Summer was too embarrassed to say anything else, and if she was honest with herself, she was just too damn hungry to care too much. She let Mozart lead her over to the bed.
    “Here, sit, while I go through the bags.”
    Summer sat and watched Mozart bend over and grab the bags with one hand. He sat sideways next to her on the bed with one knee bent and the other foot propping himself up on the floor. He reached into the bags and pulled out a loaf of bread, a small jar of peanut butter, a six pack of V8 juice, a jar of dill pickles, two cans of corn, green beans, and carrots, two boxes of granola bars, a package of provolone cheese, sliced turkey, a salad in a bag, a small bottle of ranch dressing, and a bag of green apples and oranges.
    Mozart looked up sheepishly at all the food scattered around them on the bed. Summer threw back her head and laughed. “Jesus, Mozart, I thought you just went out to get a snack?”
    Summer wasn’t ready for Mozart to lean over and put his hands next to her hips. He kept coming forward until Summer had no choice but to lean back and put her weight on her hands behind her, or let him run right into her. Mozart had a serious look on his face. She thought he’d laugh with her about the food, but apparently she’d read him wrong.
    “You aren’t eating enough. You’re even thinner than you were when I held you in my arms a couple of months ago. I don’t like it. I