Free The Theron Residency (Brides of Theron Book 4) by Rebecca Anthony Lorino, Rebecca Lorino Pond Page B

small sink with a tiny bit of counter space was in the corner just adjacent to the bathroom. A curtain could be drawn to give the patient privacy when the door to the room was open. Near the window was an overstuffed chair that could become a bed if required for a family member to stay with their sick loved one. A wadded up blanket lay across it. Zeb must have been sleeping in here.
    Arden focused his attention on the bed. This man looked terrible. It was apparent he had been working in the sun doing hard manual labor. His skin was thick and the color of tanned leather. He reached out to touch the arm of his friend and could feel the absence of the healthy layer of fat beneath his skin. This man was essentially a bag of bones. How he had survived this long, Arden did not know. He reached to touch the warrior’s face and gently spread one of his eyelids open with his thumb and index finger noticing the purple color and muted gold flecks. He let the warrior’s eyelid go and dropped to his knees beside the bed as he reached for the warrior’s hand. “What have they done to you my friend? How did you survive like this Zirlo?” he said with difficulty as the lump in his throat made it difficult to breathe or swallow. The tears were freely flowing now and he started to sob.
    As Arden cried, something unexpected happened. A single shaking hand freed itself from Arden’s grasp and came to rest on top of Arden’s head. Arden looked up blinded by the tears that cascaded from his eyes. Using the fabric of his long sleeves, he wiped at his eyes and blinked a couple of times to clear his vision. He looked at the face of his best friend and smiled, “I tried to go. I was going to get you when you didn’t return to the ship that day. I promised that one day I would bring you home to Yasa. It seems that as usual, you have beaten me to it. Yasa and I both knew that you were still alive, you know. We never gave up on you Zirlo. You see, Yasa and I knew it all this time.” He got to his feet taking Zirlo’s hand in his and asked, “Where the hell have you been?”
    Zirlo lifted his head off the pillow a bit and surveyed the room around him. He tried to speak but his mouth was dry and the only noise that passed his lips was a muffled croak. Arden, without asking, quickly walked over to the table at the end of the bed. He filled a glass of water from the pitcher on the table and took the cup to his friend. After adjusting the bed to help Zirlo sit up, Arden helped him to hold the glass of water to his lips. Zirlo gulped the contents of the glass down rapidly. Arden refilled the glass and brought him some more. He drank it down just as fast as the last one. “More water,” Zirlo said.
    Arden slowly shook his head and said, “No more my friend. You need to pace yourself. If I give you too much, too soon, you could be sick?” To eliminate the look of disappointment from his friend’s eyes, he started to speak of a time that they both knew well to distract them both from the present. It was the only way he knew to bring Zirlo comfort and reaffirm to himself that the man that sat before him was really Zirlo. “Remember the time that I first set eyes on Claya and you were crazy about her best friend, Yasa. You were secretly hoping that Claya and I would hit it off so that you might have a chance with Yasa. You weren’t as good with the girls as I was. I could sweep the ladies off their feet with just a few words and you would stumble on yours. It’s funny though, you never had a problem putting your words down on paper. You would write in your little book all the time and share it with nobody, except me at times. I told you something that day.”
    “I remember that day.” He swallowed hard and cleared his throat. “You told me to get my head out of my ass. You said that I should go make my move. I should open my heart to her and recite some of the poetry that I had written for her. You told me that I had been admiring her for far