Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 136048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Izzy’s eyes practically turn into pulsing love hearts as she looks up at Diesel, and I can’t help but laugh. While he technically did do all of those things, he’s talking it up just to get a reaction out of Ace. And not to mention that Izzy is eating this shit right up.
“Wow,” she says with a breathy sigh. “You sound like a big swooper.”
“You’re damn right I am.”
“The fuck?” Ace mutters, looking as though he’s been slapped right across the face. “I did all of that shit too. I’m a fucking swooper too.”
Harper grins at Ace. “Yeah, but your muscles weren’t muscling during her part of the story.”
Ace groans and rolls his eyes, more than ready to lose his fucking mind when a familiar face walks through the door. Amelia stops in her tracks, looking around the room before focusing a glare on Harper. “Again?”
Harper shrugs her shoulder and cringes. “I can’t help it. This place just loves me.”
Amelia sighs before making her way deeper into the room and looking over Izzy’s chart to ensure that everything looks good. She chats with Izzy about her injuries and what recovery is going to look like, while both Ace and Diesel listen closely as though they have every intention of being the ones who give her the help she needs. When in reality, we all know it’s going to be Harper. In which case, that technically means it’ll be me. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if she moves in with us until she’s back on her feet.
Once Amelia finishes with Izzy, she moves on to Harper, checking her blood pressure, her pupils, and all the other injuries. “You’re looking good,” she tells Harper. “How’s your pain?”
“What do you need me to tell you in order to get discharged?”
“Ha. Ha. Why don’t you just tell me the truth?” Amelia says.
“Oh, I can’t do that,” Harper says. “I’m getting really tired of being in hospital beds, and if I were to tell you the truth, you’d keep me here another night, and to be completely honest, I want to go home and fuck my boyfriend until all the memories of the last twenty-four hours don’t exist anymore.”
Amelia nods and hangs Harper’s chart on the end of her bed. “Okay, doctor hat coming off for a minute,” she says. “What the fuck happened?”
“Yeah,” Izzy says. “And start from the beginning this time, because I’m still trying to figure out how that ship exploded. Not to mention, you haven’t even told me what happened to Mae and Elias. They’re both rocking orange, right? Which is unfortunate, because orange really isn’t your mother’s color.”
I grin to myself, having had that same exact thought. Harper glances at her best friend, something dark flashing in her eyes. “Elias is currently reconsidering his investment in explosives. That deal kinda blew up in his face.”
“Huh?”
“Turned him into shark bait.”
“Ooh-ha-ha,” Ace chants under his breath, only to get a weird look from Diesel, who clearly has no idea who the fuck Nemo is.
“Okay,” Amelia says, trying to get everyone back on track. “I still have no idea how we got here. Start from the beginning, and this time, focus.”
“Alright,” Harper says, pointing toward the armchair beside her bed. “But you better make yourself comfortable, this could take a while.”
Just as requested, Harper starts right from the beginning, filling in Amelia with every fucked-up little detail along the way, not skipping a single moment, even the one I’m not so proud of. As she recaps, each of us throws in our two cents, giving details that we think are important for whatever reason.
She tells her everything about her mom, going into a brief rundown of their messed-up relationship, and telling her all about the way she allowed her husband to beat her in the hopes of drawing her out after she miscarried.
“Wait. Wait. Wait,” Amelia cuts in, shaking her head as her brows furrow. “What do you mean miscarry?”
“She lost the baby,” Harper explains. “When she arrived at our place, she was bleeding, and at that point, it was touch and go. But when I went back to visit her, she confirmed that the baby was gone.”
Amelia cringes, looking torn about something. “Look, I don’t want to be that asshole who breaks doctor/patient confidentiality and have my license stripped, but your mom didn’t lose the baby.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask, sitting up straighter as every eye in the room whips toward Amelia.
“She left the hospital against medical advice; however, I submitted her discharge papers myself. Mae was absolutely still pregnant when she left our care yesterday. The baby had a strong heartbeat. There was some uterine bleeding from the attack, but the pregnancy was viable. The baby was weak but stable. Mae just had to take a dose of medication for the bleeding,” Amelia explains. “Unless something has changed in the past twenty-four hours, then that baby is still cooking.”