Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 72669 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72669 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
I shook my head. “No. Thank you.”
He handed me the prescriptions that were for Booth to take to prevent an infection, and I tucked it into my back pocket.
Mia showed on my left, and Tai on my right.
“Can you give us a ride home, too?” She asked hopefully.
I looked at my best friend.
“How’d you get here?” I asked in confusion.
“I drove, but it just started pouring and my windshield wipers stopped working on the way over here,” she explained.
I shrugged. “Sure.”
Booth finally swung his legs over the side of the bed, not even wincing as he did.
He’d always been good at that, hiding his pain.
And he had to be in pain.
Even a high like he was on couldn’t hide the pain that bruised ribs would cause.
I remembered the first summer we were together; we’d been exploring the woods outside his place. We’d been walking along a trail of some sort, which I’d later learned was called a deer trail, when we’d startled a wild boar. A mother boar.
She’d charged, and those wickedly sharp tusks had pierced Booth’s calf as he’d pushed me out of the way.
I’d fallen to my hands and knees and turned to see Booth gored two more times before he was able to dispatch it with his hand gun.
The baby piglets had been running around us in a panic, and I’d been dazed and confused as he’d calmly gotten up, hauled me to my feet, and proceeded to walk back the half mile to his house.
There he’d promptly passed out from the pain, and I’d called an ambulance.
He’d had to have over two hundred stitches in his calf, and lower thigh.
But did he ever complain of pain? Hell no.
“You need help?” I asked as he stood.
He shook his head.
“Does he ever talk?” Tai muttered under his breath.
I blinked.
“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.
“He never talks. I don’t think I’ve gotten more than four words out of him since he started working with us,” Tai expounded.
“Hmm,” I said. “Maybe he just doesn’t like y’all.”
I heard Booth’s quiet chuckle at my back, and I checked the urge to smile at him over my shoulder.
None of that now.
The ride home was awkward.
Booth took the front seat, making Tai and Mia take the back.
And I hated to say it, but I wished anyone would’ve taken the front over him.
But I couldn’t very well say that, so I sucked it up and sat next to him, my every cell wanting to touch him.
Feel his rough palm against mine.
I drove to the house that Mia and Tai shared together, and put it into park.
“Call me in the morning, and I’ll take you to your car,” I told them as Tai got out.
Mia leaned between the two back seats and pressed a kiss to my cheek.
“You’re the best friend in the whole wide world, and I love you like crazy,” she said softly.
She didn’t say a word to Booth as she got out and slammed the door shut.
I watched them until both entered into the house, my heart happy for my best friend.
She deserved the world after what she’d been through.
“I thought Mia had a kid,” Booth rumbled softly. “Mom said she did.”
I put the Jeep in reverse and backed out, getting myself turned around before I replied.
“Mia’s son, Colt, died a few months ago from a complication during a routine procedure to prepare for his stem cell transplant. He had leukemia,” I explained softly, the pain still just as fresh now as it had been a few months ago.
I ached for my best friend, and I would never fully understand all that she’d gone through.
Was still going through.
The pain of losing a child didn’t just go away no matter how much time had passed. The pain was always there, and it would always be there until the end of time.
And it broke my heart every single day to see my best friend, the person who’d nursed me through my own heartbreaking pain, hurting.
She didn’t deserve that. Hell, nobody deserved that.
“That’s not good,” Booth rumbled grimly.
No, it wasn’t.
The ride to Booth’s parents’ place was quiet.
Booth never needed to fill the air around us with endless chatter, and I was content in not saying anything at all. I didn’t want to say anything I’d regret.
The ride to his parents’ house started to bring back some good memories, and I was feeling almost nostalgic when I pulled into their driveway.
“Key’s under the…” Booth started as we both got out.
“I know where the key is,” I muttered darkly.
I got him inside within moments, and he sat down on the huge brown couch with a groan of pain.
I walked into the kitchen, knowing the way by heart, and went straight to the cabinet with cups.
Except they weren’t there.
Now the plates were there.
Frowning, I started to look through the kitchen, finding the cups where the spices used to be.