Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Was I thankful for his help yesterday? Hell yeah. Was I going to allow it for any longer? Hell no.
I’d screwed up by not staying ahead of my pain yesterday. But you could bet your ass I wouldn’t be making that same mistake again.
Why, you ask, was I so stubborn?
Because nobody does anything out of the goodness of their heart. Nobody.
Everyone has a price. Everyone has a reason for doing what they do. And I had a feeling that Dante's reason was because he felt guilty and sorry for me.
I was nobody's problem but my own.
Hannah pushed open the door to the bathroom, then gestured me inside.
“Do I happen to have any clothes?”
Hannah nodded her head. “Your bag is downstairs. Do you want it?”
I refrained from saying something smart like, I wouldn’t have asked if I hadn’t wanted it.
Instead, I tilted my head once. “Yes, please.”
She was gone a few moments later, and I waited for her to come back up with my clothes before I started anything.
She was back within moments, setting the bag on the counter. “I can help you get ready when you get done using the bathroom.”
Yeah, right.
I smiled, but didn't disagree nor agree with her. I didn't lie. Lies had a way of getting you caught up in stuff you wouldn't normally have been involved in. So, I tried not to go that route if possible. It was just as easy to smile and stay silent as it was to say a lie anyway.
She was gone before I could say anything more, and I was grateful that she didn’t try to linger. The urge to pee was almost unbearable now that I was within seeing distance of the toilet.
Heading to the commode using small, shuffling steps, I did my business. Long minutes later—because nothing was easy, even using the bathroom—I was back up, this time standing in front of the mirror.
Time to face the music.
Letting Dante's shirt fall from my body, which took a hell of a lot longer than I would’ve wanted, I stared at the gauze.
It was innocent, really. Until you thought about what it was concealing. Only then did my heart start to slam. To literally pound in my chest.
I swallowed and started to unravel it.
The minute I saw what remained of my chest, a little squeak of air left me.
I closed my eyes and started to cry.
***
Dante
“Ummm, Dante?”
“Yeah?”
“Is there a way into the bathroom that doesn’t involve me breaking the door down?”
I paused with my sandwich halfway to my mouth, and said, “Why?”
“Because your friend went in there over an hour ago and hasn’t come back out. When I call her name, she doesn’t say a thing except for ‘be out in a minute. She’s said ‘be out in a minute’ at least fifteen times to me. It’s time for her pain meds, but I can’t get her to open the door.”
I looked over at Mary, who was asleep in the playpen that was set up in the corner of the room, and then down at my sandwich.
Figuring I could finish it on my way, I said, “I’ll be there in a minute.”
Then I hung up before she could say anything else.
After taking one more look at Mary, I walked out of my office, and into my brother’s. “Will you watch Mary for a half hour? I have a problem at my house.”
Travis held up his thumb but didn’t verbally answer. “No, our company doesn’t like doing those kinds of pickups because they’re dangerous.”
I rolled my eyes.
I was glad that I’d been on the phone, otherwise Travis would’ve let me answer it, like he’d been doing lately.
Apparently, he was ‘all answered out’ as he liked to say. Though, I didn’t blame him. It’d been entirely way too long since I’d answered a single phone call. I could see why he would want a break.
Which was also why I didn’t complain. Not one single bit.
I owed him quite a lot, and an apology was definitely among the things I owed him. Yet I couldn’t seem to get the words out.
Like this morning, when I’d called to ask him if Hannah would be willing to spend the day at my place helping Cobie, I could’ve offered him that apology then, but I didn’t.
Couldn’t, really.
I was a coward.
“Thanks.”
Then I walked out the office door, down into the forecourt of Hail Auto Recovery, waved at my brother, Baylor, who was pulling up with his own truck, and kept right on going.
Baylor hollered my name, but I waved at him and said, “I’ll be right back.”
Baylor nodded and shut the truck off, his eyes watchful.
He didn’t believe me.
Hell, all of them watched me with a look of uncertainty, as if they didn’t know if I was going to be there from one minute to the next. Then again, I couldn’t say that I blamed them. I spent two fuckin’ years in my own head, and for one of those years, I hadn’t spoken to them at all.