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)
I opened my mouth to immediately deny it, but the denial stuck in my throat.
“She says she’ll even take her to your house.”
Then the words that he’d said before pierced through my freak-out fog. “What is Drake doing in town?”
Travis grunted. “I don’t know. Reed called me to tell me that he needed assistance. Since I’m a nice big brother, I said I’d do this one favor for him.”
Thoughts started to flit around in my brain, and I cleared my throat. “I have to talk to you about something later. Can you come over when you’re done?”
“Yeah,” Travis said hesitantly. “What do you want me to tell Mom?”
“Tell Mom to take Mary to her house,” I answered. “And I’ll come get her later. I still have some work to do, but I’m going to help Cobie get cleaned up and then hand her back over to Hannah.”
Travis grunted something. “You want me to meet you at the office or at your place?”
“Office,” I answered.
I needed to talk to Rafe, and I needed to talk to Reed to figure out why Drake was here. It didn’t seem like a coincidence that I took Cobie out of her home, away from him, and now he was here. Coincidences were never really coincidences when they came to men like Drake.
I just needed to know how he’d figured out that she was gone and how he knew that she’d gone with me.
But I didn’t want to alarm Cobie while I did that.
“10-4,” he grunted. “I’ll tell Mom. I think you might’ve just made her day.”
Then he hung up, leaving me with a sick feeling in the bottom of my stomach. One that was a combination of worry, anger, and sorrow.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah,” I grunted, then opened the door.
When I did, I found Hannah on her butt across the hallway as she played on her phone. Upon me opening the door, she stood up and smiled hesitantly. “Everything okay?”
I nodded. “Can you go grab her pills for me?”
Hannah rushed off to do that, and I made a mental note to thank her later. She didn’t know me all that well, but she hadn’t hesitated at all when I asked her to come up here and take care of Cobie.
I appreciated that greatly.
I turned around and gestured to the shower. “There’s a seat in there you can use. Just sit down on it, and I’ll get Hannah to help you wash. Is that okay?”
Cobie nodded her head hesitantly.
“Are you okay with me leaving to go back to work again?”
She nodded again.
“Hannah’s getting your pain pill. It was due about twenty minutes ago, so I have a feeling that you’re going to start hurting any minute now. While you still can, I’d suggest getting in there and doing your thing. Do you like tacos?”
Cobie flicked her head and then nodded once.
“Good,” I started to laugh. “Because other than gas station chicken, that’s all there is here. I’ll pick up some tacos on the way home. If you can think of anything else you need, let me know, okay?”
She swallowed.
“You’ll be here when I get back?”
“Yes.”
There was no hesitation in her voice, and something inside my chest that I hadn’t realized was tight loosened. “Good.”
Then I was gone, passing Hannah in the hallway. “Get her cleaned up if you can. She said she can’t get the incision wet, but she’d enjoy a bath if you can figure out a way to do that without her getting those wet.”
Hannah smiled. “I think we can manage.”
Then she was gone, leaving me in my hallway, staring at two women interact in my bathroom. In Lily’s favorite room of the house.
“I miss you, Lil,” I said to the open air.
Nothing happened. Nobody responded.
And that pit at the bottom of my belly grew another inch.
Chapter 14
You’re going to basic bitch hell.
-Cobie to Dante when he proclaims he doesn’t like pumpkin spice
Dante
Three days later
I was going to let her do this without me, mostly because she’d specifically requested that I stay away. But the fear that was in her eyes as she made her way up the steps of the hospital had me parking the truck and following her inside.
I honestly didn’t think she’d intended for me to see that change in her demeanor. But the moment she’d thought I was out of sight, I’d seen that fear take over her entire being. She was deathly afraid of what she was going to hear when she went into that office.
She hadn’t wanted me to see the fear. In fact, she’d almost been a robot this past week.
It was as if she was trying really, really hard not to appear needy.
And I respected that, but it was also quite frustrating.
All I wanted to do was make sure that she was okay. Offer her a friendship.
Sure, at first, it’d been about the promise that Marianne had requested of me.