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.Among the greeters was a youngwoman with long dark hair and the healthycomplexion of someone who might havespent just the right amount of time in thegarden on a daily basis.She eyed meinstantly with olive eyes that seemed tosparkle in the chaos. Oh, hi there! She came at me withopen arms that embraced, and a heavy butnot entirely unpleasant perfume. You must be Addie. She forced my hand inhers and vicariously shook for the both ofus. I m Elise I ve heard so much aboutyou.You poor thing, I bet you re justaching to get yourself cleaned up& I smiled and nodded, and although Ididn t want to be rude, my only real focuswas on Charlie and I didn t bother hidingit.From over her shoulder, I could seeYuri and Polo struggling to carry hisweight while Charlie stubbornly struggledagainst them; calling them names andswearing.I had become completely unaware shewas still talking. Excuse me.Um, justone second. I stepped away and used my hands tocall out to the awkward bunch, Charlie! He stopped his squirming and glancedback at me. Let them help you. His eyes darted from across theveranda.Before he could challenge themagain, Yuri tripped him across the knee,forcing him to fall forward.I called out,but they managed to catch him before hefell flat on his face and carried him therest of the way into the house. Wow. Elise came up from behindme. I ve never seen him listen toanyone. The interior of the house was all highceilings and pallid white walls.Crisp,blue marble countertops created an islandin the circular kitchen, which led directlyto a large open living area, where an arrayof large abstract paintings lined the walls. You have a lovely home. Icrossed my arms over myself, feelingimmediately out of place in suchglamorous surroundings. Oh, thank you. She put her armaround my shoulder in what I guessed wasan attempt to alleviate some of mydiscomfort. I can t believe you ve beenon that terrible ship with those boys allweek long! If that had been me, I would have lost my mind within hours. It wasn t so bad& I glanced over atCharlie, who was hobbling to a roomaround the staircase.Though he continuedto swear under his breath, he was nolonger putting up the same fight as before,now allowing Yuri to take most of hisweight on his injured side.Elise saw the direction of my glanceand laughed. Benjamin mentioned youwere a good sport.I m happy you decidedto come along.I ve been hearing nothingelse but about you all week long and I vejust been on edge to meet you. Oh umm& thank you? It was strange to be welcomed with such pleasantness.I suppose I hadexpected the same amount of bitterness Ihad received from Reid and Yuri.Andwhile I had never had many femalefriends, Elise seemed to be genuinelyfriendly.I followed them into another pallidwhite room that seemed to be fixed as asort of guest room.The chestnut fringeddresser matched the bed frame andsubsequent night stands, which had beendecorated with matching blue vases filledwith carnations of every color.In thedoorway, I bit my lip while I watched theportly man put an IV into Charlie s arm. I hate those things, he grumbled. I came up beside him and sat next tohim on the bed. Don t be such a baby.This is your fault, you know.You said Igot into trouble for not keeping my noseout of other people s business, and thenyou turned around and did the same thing. He leaned and kissed my forehead. That ain t the same. It s exactly the same! Nope. I broke first with a smile.I was toorelieved to argue and he knew it. Themain thing is that everybody s okay now. I looked up at the man who wasadministrating some kind of needle intothe IV. Everybody will be okay, right? The fear was creeping through my voiceand it made Charlie scoff. Hmm? Hmm? Yes? What, younglady? Yes, sorry about that. He tapped ata bag of saline solution impatiently. It sjust a flesh wound. Charlie found my expression evenmore amusing. Its all right, Jimmy knowswhat he s doing. Once the doctor had successfullymanaged to set up the IV, he gave Charliea mild anesthetic, and warned that itwould knock him out for a few hours.At the mention of unconsciousness,Charlie clasped at my hand and enclosedit within his own. You wanna hear something stupid? I rolled my eyes
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