New Lease of Life by Lillian Francis Page A

Then he laid the stick carefully across the top, the handle near to his pillow for easy access.
    Once settled in bed, propped up on his pillows, Pip finally turned his attention back to his phone.
    The display confirmed the caller had been Colby, and he had left a message.
    “Hey, I missed your call. I was in the shower.” A strangled noise escaped from Pip’s lips, and he missed the next few words. “Look, I’m sorry for being a knob and turning my phone off. I just wanted to give you time to… I don’t know, just time. To get over that knee-jerk reaction thing you’ve got going on.
    “Hopefully, you’re not ringing to say you want your crutch back, but I suspect you are. And I’m sorry about that as well. It didn’t dawn on me that you would search the house for it without going into the dressing room first.” Message Colby sighed, and Pip felt a stab of regret that Colby was right, and he knew it already even without confirmation.
    “Anyway, I’m off to bed now. Just me and my teddy bear.”
    Liar. No way did Colby have a teddy bear. Unless that was a pet name for his boyfriend. No, Colby had said he would date Pip. If he smiled. Hadn’t said he wasn’t in a relationship already, though.
    “I’ll be at the shop early tomorrow, and I’m there all day. Ring me on either number.”
    About to place the phone on the farthest nightstand, Pip noticed the symbol that indicated he had a picture message. Curious, Pip clicked the link to open the message. A dark brown, shaggy teddy bear nestled against a pillowcase of solid block navy blue. The duvet tucked up around the stuffed bear’s waist was the same color, but the flipside of the cover could be seen on the edge of the photo. Fuchsia pink.
    The laugh that escaped from Pip surprised him, and he smiled as much at his own reaction as at Colby’s photo. He placed the phone with the message still open on the spare pillow, turned off his lamp, and snuggled into bed.
    If he’d had a boyfriend, someone like Colby, before the incident instead of the string of inconsequential and unimportant fuck buddies, then maybe he’d have made it through the hospital visits and treatments unscathed. Someone—Colby—would have bolstered his failing confidence, encouraged him to eat, forced him to physiotherapy. Hell, he’d done all but the last of those things in the two days Pip had known him. Colby wouldn’t have let Pip stop smiling or get rid of his precious clothes.
    The light on the screen blinked off, leaving the room in darkness. Blindly, Pip groped on the pillow until he found his phone and tapped the screen before it could lock up.
    How much sadder could he possibly get? Sleeping with somebody else’s teddy by proxy.
    Maybe it was time for him to get back out there. Or at least get laid. Soon, but not yet, when every man would likely be compared to a man he’d only known three days.
    No, when he was ready he’d dip his toes in the water again. Meet someone drab and gray, someone who might be impressed enough by Pip’s postcode to compensate for what he now lacked—a smile, friends, a purpose in life—and who didn’t mind shagging with the light off.
    He definitely wouldn’t fall for a rough-and-ready, handsome Disney princess with his own vintage clothes shop. Not to mention a sunny smile, a slightly broken nose, his own personal rainbow, hopefully a hairy chest, and a stable full of unicorns.

Chapter Eleven
     
     
    DRAGGED UNCEREMONIOUSLY from sleep, Pip rolled over and blinked. Sunlight streamed through the window, filtered by the stained-glass-style curtains to cast jeweled patches on his duvet. Daylight? What the hell? Normally he woke when it was still dark outside, nightmares and pain making a return to sleep hard to come by.
    He frowned when he noticed his phone cradled in a divot in the spare pillow. The darkened screen revealed no clues as to the time or why Pip had chosen his iPhone for company. Unless he’d fallen asleep playing Candy Crush