Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
“Shit,” he said. “I guess that would make you passionate.”
“My sister has a dog that’s not neutered,” I murmured. “It drives me insane that she does.”
“She’s being responsible with him, from what I understand,” he pointed out.
“I know, but this isn’t something I’ll ever be rational about,” I admitted. “It makes me come off as a real asshole. When I was in high school, I started volunteering at the animal shelter as part of my senior volunteer hours. We had to have like a hundred to graduate with this one certain honor. I chose the animal shelter. Which was where I learned the hard way that life sucked. Well, learned even more reasons as to why life sucked. I also really began to resent my stepfather and Mable even more because of the dog breeding thing they had going on. I freakin’ hated that they bred these dogs when there were a ton of dogs at the shelter that desperately needed a home.”
“Understandable,” he said. “Does Mable know this?”
I shrugged my good shoulder. “I don’t actually know. She has always thought the worst of me. I don’t know if she knows anything about me at all.”
Twenty
If anyone needs me, don’t.
—Creed to Boone
Creed
“Y’all seemed to get along for a short while there,” I pointed out. “Right after your mother died.”
She winced.
I’d seen them around each other a lot there for a while.
That was where my fascination with Birdee had begun—even if I hadn’t allowed myself to admit to that fascination.
Then one day, she’d just not been at any of the get-togethers at her house anymore.
Just…gone.
And that was when I started to get annoyed that I would always see Vito, Cody and Mable together but no Birdee.
She started, but a nurse flung the curtain aside and breezed inside. “Are you ready to rocket?”
“As long as we don’t actually rocket,” Birdee agreed with a small smile on her face.
“How about we turtle then?” the nurse suggested.
“Perfect. Right up my alley,” Birdee teased.
I stood up and gathered my jacket from the chair.
“You gonna use that?” Birdee asked curiously.
I frowned. “No. It’s too hot in here.”
“Then can I borrow it?”
I only then noticed her shivering slightly.
“Oh, I can get you a blanket,” the nurse offered.
But I’d already laid my jacket over her upper torso.
She sighed when it covered her shoulders and chest. “Thank you.”
“All right, I’ll get you a better blanket when we get to the med surg floor,” she said. “Sir, do you want to push her? I’d do it but you look more capable.”
So that was what I did. I pushed her through the halls of recovery, then into an elevator where we then spat out on the second floor.
I wheeled her down to a room that was at the end of the hall, and the nurse got her moved over to a much more comfortable-looking bed than the one she’d been in previously.
“Okay,” the nurse said as she hooked the urine bag onto the new bed. “How’re your legs feeling?”
“Um, okay?” Birdee sounded confused. “Should they be feeling anything?”
“I am more asking because of the catheter,” the nurse said. “Oh, by the way, I’m your nurse for the day. Medina, at your service.”
Birdee flushed bright red and glanced at me before looking at the nurse. “I think they’re fine to get me to and from the bathroom, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“It is.” Medina winked. “Let me take this bed back up to surgery and I’ll be back with some warm blankets and to get this catheter out.”
“Sounds good,” Birdee whispered.
The nurse left the room like the whirlwind she was, leaving the two of us in silence.
“Was she super bubbly or was that just me?” Birdee asked awkwardly.
“Very bubbly,” I admitted. “I’m going to step out in the hall and call Charleigh and Court back when she comes to remove your catheter. I’m also going to go find out where all of your things are.”
“Charleigh probably has them,” she admitted. “Or they’re still at work.”
“Well, that’ll be what I figure out,” I said. “I haven’t seen you without a book since I met you.”
She tilted her head. “You know I like to read?”
“Yeah,” I said. “You read all the time. I don’t think you even know what’s going on around you half the time because you’re so caught up in them.”
“It’s easier to escape than to think too hard about what’s going on in your life,” she admitted quietly.
“Back!”
The nurse popped back into the room like she was riding a pogo stick, bouncing all the way.
“I’ll be outside.” I squeezed Birdee’s toes. “Yell if you need me.”
She nodded, her cheeks heating, and I stepped out into the hall and called Court.
“What?” Court grumbled.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Court sighed. “Nothing, per se. She’s just fuckin’ nuts. You didn’t tell me she’d try to kill me.”