Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
I whipped my arm forward, my hand in a fist, and aimed it right for the man that was standing behind me.
It was headed for his jaw when he caught it in mid-air, stopping me before I could make contact.
Our eyes met, and I gasped.
“Shit,” I said, trying to pull away. “You scared me.”
“Your reaction is to swing before you know who it is?” he questioned, not letting go of my hand.
I nodded. “Better that way. Strike first, apologize later. Might keep my head from being broken.”
His eyes held understanding as he let go of me.
“What are you doing here, Parker?” Baylor asked, pulling me into his side.
It made me feel warm all over.
Parker gestured to the woman. “Giving them a ride.”
Baylor shrugged. “Okay then.”
“Why are you here?” Adrienna’s asked.
“Andie,” Andie said. “Don’t ask that.”
“He asked us,” Adrienna countered. “You don’t look so good.”
That last part was aimed at Baylor.
“That’s because he should be sitting down,” a doctor snapped from behind us. “I’m going to sign you out AMA if you don’t come in here and sit down.”
“What’s AMA?” Adrienna whispered.
“Against medical advice,” both Parker and Baylor answered at the same time.
I pushed Baylor forward. “Go. Or they might not give you the good meds.”
Baylor rolled his eyes and waved as he allowed me to push him down the hallway toward his room.
Soon we were back in his room, with a cross man looking at us like we were naughty students and not adults there of our own free will.
“Sorry,” Baylor muttered to the disapproving doctor. “I saw her leaving, and I didn’t want her to go.”
The doctor threw me a pitying glance. “Believe it or not, you’re not the first one to do this, and won’t be the last. Though it’s definitely an unusual condition, it wasn’t the most interesting case that I’ve seen all day.”
“What was the most interesting?” I asked, unable to help myself.
This medical shit really did interest me.
Tomorrow was supposed to be my first day at the vet’s office. I’d taken a part-time position on the weekends as an assistant. Although it interested me, and I was doing it because of Pongo, it didn’t draw my avid attention anywhere near as much as human medicine did.
“A fidget spinner on a penis,” he said. “An unknown object up an anus. Which, might I add, wasn’t unknown. The man knew what he was shoving up there before he ‘fell’ on it. It was a gourd, by the way.”
My mouth fell open.
Baylor laughed and then groaned as he sat.
“I guess I should be happy I didn’t accidentally fall on something,” he teased, a little grayer than before. “Fuck, that hurts.”
“It’s going to hurt for a few days,” he said. “I have a prescription for you for Vicodin. It’s possible that it’ll cause constipation, though, and you don’t want that to happen. Having to strain will also put strain on your penis. Which will hurt. So, make sure you eat a lot of food high in fiber and stay hydrated to counteract that.”
I took copious notes in my mind, and an hour later when we stopped by the pharmacy to pick up his prescriptions, I also made sure to get the things he would need to tide him over the next few days.
All the while, I kept looking over my shoulder to make sure I wasn’t being followed by any unwanted men—like Sal.
I never saw him, but then again, I never did… at least not until I felt that first strike.
Chapter 19
I’m old school. When I wake up, my eyebrows are already on my face.
-things you shouldn’t say to your girlfriend
Baylor
10 days later
They don't see what I see.
Them? They look at her and see the curvy body, the full head of beautiful hair. The ass. The tits.
Me? I see everything—including that. Tits and ass for sure. But even deeper than that, I see the caring heart. The need to be needed. The love she had for life. The worry that she wasn’t good enough for me.
I watched her the other day when we went to the dog show.
It’d been a spur of the moment thing, and since I was still on light duty, I was willing to do just about anything to get me out of the house and moving—even go to the grocery store.
When she’d suggested the dog show that was in town over the last weekend, I’d literally begged to go.
She’d looked at each and every dog like it was the finest canine specimen she’d ever seen in her life. Then she went home and curled around Pongo and had a conversation with him about how she felt he could win at that dog show. She didn’t see the scars on his nose or his one ear that was almost always crooked. Nor did she notice the patches of hair missing on his right and left paws where they consistently took blood from him.