Free Being With You (The Redemption Series) by Hazel St. James Page B

asleep when he got back. “Hey, you know I don’t sleep well at night, Susy. I don’t want to keep you up with my…shit.” He didn’t know if just saying nightmares was enough to explain what he went through every night.
    “It’s okay, big guy. Maybe if I hold you when they start, they won’t be so bad. Besides, I don’t have my new bed yet and this one is technically still mine. So get cleaned up and get your ass in here, or you get the lumpy couch,” she giggled and burrowed right back into the bed.
    Tristan couldn’t help but feel relieved with her nonchalant attitude about his issues. He didn’t want things to be a big deal, and was considering his options for getting a second opinion like she had mentioned. Because he was getting nowhere in a hurry as his anxiety got worse at night, his nightmares stronger and his moods fluctuated wildly some days.
    After he was cleaned up again, he grabbed a glass of water and dressed in some briefs before crawling back into bed. Naked would have been preferable, but he didn’t want Susy to think he was just ready to fuck her again the minute she opened her eyes. The girl was way more to him than that, and he was the same to her. Almost like kindred spirits that had their own shitload of baggage to deal with and couldn’t figure out how to do that, except to run away from it.
    Tristan put all that aside for right now as he pulled an already sleeping Susy against him and sighed contentedly as he drifted off into sleep.

Chapter Ten

    T he next evening was a typical Friday night at the restaurant, except Tristan was having problems staying behind the bar. If he wasn’t in the bathroom trying to pee, he was using a medical symptom app on his smartphone trying to find information on his sporadic back ache. He would continually stand in front of the urinal only to feel like someone had stabbed him in the belly when he did finally pee a drop or two. He’d been like this all day, and thought it was maybe an after effect of his recent sexcapades with his roommate.
    This last time he came back from the bathroom, Susy was standing behind the bar mixing her own drinks and was helping some of the others with their orders. When he opened the port door and joined her, she looked back at him with concern etched all over her face, but just smiled instead of interrogating him.
    “I don’t know how to make a vodka gimlet and Jenn needs one. Otherwise, I got ‘em all.”
    Tristan set right to making the last drink, and felt Susy standing next to him again at the pour station. She filled a glass with ice then grabbed a can of juice from the shelf and poured it in. After he finished making Jenn’s last drink, Susy smiled up at him as she held the glass out to him.
    “Cranberry juice…it’s an easy way to fight a bladder infection.”
    Tristan couldn’t help the sharpness in his voice as he asked, “Are you a fucking doctor now, too?”
    Susy tipped her head to the side and gave him her best are you kiddin’ me face. “No, asshole, but since you seem to be terrified of them, I thought I’d offer you a solution that could make you feel better without a trip to the ER.”
    Turning on her heel, she went to stomp away, but Tristan stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Sus. That was mean.” He lowered his head and sighed. “Why do you think I have a bladder infection?”
    Susy turned back around to pin him with a face that was meant to be fierce, but with her cute little button nose, it only made her look child-like. She ticked off the list with her fingers as she spoke. “You recently slept for almost twenty-four hours straight with a shitload of booze in your system, your back hurts all the time, you’ve spent most of today in the bathroom, and your pee stinks to high heaven. I get bladder infections all the time and feel that exact same way, except for the back aches.”
    Tristan held up his hands in mock-defeat and smiled. “All right, all right, my little