Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 60081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 300(@200wpm)___ 240(@250wpm)___ 200(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 300(@200wpm)___ 240(@250wpm)___ 200(@300wpm)
“Thank goodness,” Tatum says. “Then I’m in good hands. In fact, if you’d just drop me at my place with Ajax for the night, I’m sure I’ll be fine by tomorrow. Old antibiotics work, you know. They tell you they expire before they really do so you’ll buy more. It’s all a racket.”
I set Tatum down briefly by the door, bracing her against me as I reach into the closet for her coat. I brush her lower back as I shift my arm. She winces and sucks in a breath on a hiss. “Ouch. Jeez. How did that get so messed up so fast? I don’t know if I’m going to be able to sit down in the car. That’s why I laid down on the couch and accidentally fell asleep. It hurt to sit.”
“Sarah Beth, can you go grab the neck pillow from upstairs?” I ask. “One of the blue ones we used on the plane when we went to Disneyland last year?”
She sets the water bottle and stuffed dog on the floor and races for the stairs. “On it! Roger that!”
“I’m so sorry,” Tatum whispers as she dashes off. “I hate that she’s scared. I’m going to be fine, really.”
“Let’s let the doctor be the judge of that.”
“I can’t go to urgent care, Drew. Please, it’s so pricey,” she begs. “At least let me try to take care of it first. And if I’m not better by tomorrow, I’ll go to the doctor. I swear.”
I nod toward her lower half. “Show me.”
Her brows lift. “What?”
“Show me. Quick. Before Sarah Beth comes back downstairs.”
Tatum chews her bottom lip. “But it’s on my…backside.”
“I’ve seen your backside before, Tatum,” I say, doing my best to keep this professional. Or professional adjacent, anyway, considering I’ve already been balls deep in this woman and think about being balls deep in her again almost constantly. “Let me see how bad it is.” She hesitates and I push, “Or I’m taking you to the doctor tonight, even if I have to throw you over my shoulder and carry you there on foot.”
“That’s awfully caveman of you,” she says, a different kind of shine in her glassy eyes. “If I didn’t feel like garbage, I would have a hard time not making a flirty joke about that. Even though we’re not those kinds of friends anymore.”
“Bottom. Now,” I say, refusing to flirt with her when she’s burning up with fever. No matter how much I want to.
“Fine.” She huffs, swiping her hair from her forehead as she turns and tugs down her black leggings.
“Shit, Tatum,” I say, as I gently pull back the Band-Aids covering the swollen lump beneath her skin. “It’s infected. No doubt about that, and it looks…” I trail off, bending down low to get a better look at the center of the wound.
“It looks like what?” she asks, sounding worried for the first time. “Did Kyle give me rabies? Or gangrene? Am I going to lose my right butt cheek?”
“I don’t think you can get rabies from birds,” I say, pressing gently on one side of the wound.
“Ouch,” Tatum yips. “But gangrene is still on the table? I can’t lose my booty to gangrene. It’s one of my best body parts, and I need it for sitting and lifting heavy things. They say lift from your legs, not your back, but the butt is absolutely involved in that process, Drew. You can’t carry a four-year-old to the van because she’s exhausted after gymnastics without a butt. Dear God, what did you find in there? Tell me before I imagine something horrible like worms, horrible maggoty worms.”
“I…” I shake my head; pretty certain I’m going crazy. “It looks like a tooth.”
“A tooth?!” Tatum screeches, craning her head back, trying to get a look. “What the actual fudge? I’m no turkey expert, but I’m pretty sure they aren’t supposed to have teeth, Andrew.”
“Agreed,” I say, ignoring how much I like the sound of my full name on her lips. “Can we also agree we need to get this checked out ASAP? Before it gets any worse?”
“Or any weirder,” she agrees, tugging up her pants and lifting wide eyes to mine. “I knew Kyle wasn’t a normal turkey. He’s a beast from the depths of hell, Andrew. He has an unholy hunger for blood and human flesh.”
I smile. I can’t help it. She’s adorable. Even when she’s scared, feverish, and potentially has a mutant turkey tooth lodged in her right ass cheek.
“Why are you smiling?” she asks, her lips also starting to twitch. “This is awful.”
“It really is,” I agree, brushing her hair from her sticky forehead. “I guess I just like it when you say my full name. Most of the time, I’m not a fan, but there’s something about the way you say it.”