Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 72856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
I ditched my clothes in the bathroom and walked out naked, only to come to a sudden bone jarring halt as I realized that Tai was leaning against the wall directly across from where I’d just exited.
A wave of what I’d left in the bathroom followed me out, and I saw the moment the smell hit him.
His eyes started to water, and it took all his strength not to lift his hand up and cover his face.
My mouth dropped open in horror.
“What are you doing here?” I cried, covering my own mouth as the smell filled the hallway around us.
He couldn’t talk, only kept swallowing convulsively.
He didn’t even look at me in all my naked glory, and I realized just what I’d done.
Mortification filled my face as I ran to the bedroom I’d taken over and slammed the door.
I dropped onto the bed with a strangled cry and buried my face into the pillow.
“Oh God,” I breathed. “God.”
Had he heard me?
Smelling it was bad enough, …but hearing it was completely different.
There were things I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy and having the stomach problem I had was one of them.
I should’ve known not to have that drink at the movies.
Mother of pearl!
A knock sounded at my door, and I shouted into my pillow.
“Go away!”
My mother ignored me and walked into the bedroom.
It never occurred to me, though, that it wasn’t my mom at all, but Tai.
Then hands that definitely didn’t belong to my mother smoothed up the bareness of my thigh, up further over my ass, to settle on my lower back before he took a seat on the bed beside me.
Then he leaned over until he could see the side of my face.
“You know I’m a paramedic, right?” He asked.
I squeezed my eyes tightly shut.
“Yes,” I muttered into the pillow.
“And there are things that I’ve seen that would make a grown man cry,” he said. “So, certain bodily functions don’t bother me like they would a normal human being.”
I wanted to cry.
“You’re saying that would’ve bothered anybody else, but you?” I clarified.
He chuckled.
“Yeah. That’s what I’m saying.”
I laughed.
There was nothing else that I could do.
“Shit,” I said.
He started laughing, too.
And just like that, Tai had learned my most embarrassing secret …and he was still standing here after the dust settled…or in this case, the smell.
Chapter 15
Standing within a foot of an exceptionally well bearded man greatly increases the likelihood that a baby will fall out of your vagina nine months later.
-Proven Fact
Tai
I just need you to love me. Make me forget,” she pleaded.
Those words haunted me during my sleep.
My mind was a tangle of emotions. And they all centered on Mia, in my nightmares, and for once, not Cati, my sister.
Mia was rocking back and forth, holding her dead son in her arms, as she cried.
“Please don’t leave me. I need you. I need you,” she keened.
My heart started to pound, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get to her.
My fingers turned bloody as I clawed at my invisible cage.
Then I froze when my sister, with her long, beautiful black hair and long legs walked out from the clearing beyond Mia.
She walked slowly, keeping her eyes on me as she moved.
My breathing started to come in pants, and I tried harder to get out, knowing that this wouldn’t end well.
Nothing ever ended well when Cati was involved.
Cati didn’t have the best taste in men. She trusted too easily. She cared too much.
She was the one thing in my world that I tried to take care of, even when I tried my hardest not to care.
Cati reached Mia and carefully disentangled Colt’s lifeless body from her arms.
Mia cried out in alarm, trying to get up, but couldn’t.
The same invisible cage held her down, keeping her immobile.
Cati looked once more at me, then she took Colt and walked back towards the direction she came, not looking back once.
Mia’s head turned in my direction.
“This is all your fault. If you’d have just given me another baby, I would’ve never tried to get a bone marrow transplant,” she hissed.
She looked like she hated me, and I shrank back in surprise at the venom in her tone.
“I didn’t mean to…I’m sorry.”
I woke up to my body covered in sweat.
Nothing new.
It wasn’t the first time…and it wouldn’t be the last.
I got out of bed and squinted at the closed bedroom door when I heard the pots and pans going in my kitchen again.
This time, however, I knew it wasn’t Mia.
She had to work this morning, so it could only be one other person.
My brother.
I scrubbed my face and teeth clean, then pulled on a pair of jeans that were at the bottom of the bed before walking out the bedroom door.
I found my brother at the stove, cooking what I assumed were eggs.