Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 67000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
“All. The. Time,” she grumbled. “It’s gotten so freakin’ bad here, Quaid. That’s originally why I started looking into something else. The ER just isn’t it for me anymore.”
“What was the deal with the gang banger accusing you of stealing?” I asked, a suspicion starting to form in my brain.
This girl.
She was up to something…
“I might, or might not, have had something to do with his missing money,” she admitted quietly, looking sheepish.
“What?” I asked.
She looked away and down, her face flushed. “Well…”
“Tell me,” I ordered.
“So it went like this…”
Then she went on and explained how the last few months had been going at the hospital, and how horrible it’d gotten. To the point where she was determined to hire her own security.
On one hand, I was mad that she was stealing from people. On the other, she was stealing from the people who were causing her to need security in the first place. So, could I really blame her?
“Don’t do it anymore,” I ordered.
She sighed. “I haven’t done it since the day you came into the ER looking for me.”
I blew out a breath.
I remembered that day.
I remembered seeing her talking to the woman with the baby, too.
Had seen her give her something.
“Shit,” I said softly. “You could’ve really gotten hurt.”
“I didn’t,” she said. “And that kid never knew. I also, um, flushed his drugs down the toilet.”
I shook my head, unable to comprehend how this brave, crazy woman had crawled so deep into my heart.
But every time I woke up in the morning, there she was, taking up more and more of it until there wasn’t a single piece she didn’t have control of.
“I love you.”
Three words, just blurted right out of my mouth.
Her eyes widened, and then they started to tear up and she said, “I thought I was crazy for already loving you only a few days after meeting you. But every morning I get up and the words are on the tip of my tongue. I just got scared that you wouldn’t feel the same way.”
I curled a piece of her hair behind her ear before saying, “I’ve felt like this for a long…”
“Hey, peeps!” Hollis slid into place beside Ellodie, completely ignoring the deepness of our conversation. “What are y’all getting to eat? Quincy was supposed to be bringing me lunch, but some shit was going down in the ER. So now I’m here.”
“That was our shit,” Ellodie sighed and explained.
Together, the three of us went through the line. Hollis got a burger and potato salad. Ellodie got a chicken sandwich and fries. And I got all four.
I cracked open a Dr. Pepper once we took our seat, and I sighed at the first hit. “This. This is what I needed.”
Dr. Pepper had always been my drug of choice. I didn’t care how bad it was for me. As long as I died with a Dr. Pepper in my hand, I’d be happy.
Ellodie’s eyes were shining as she said, “Your daily hit of DP?”
“Yep.” I groaned and reached for my burger. “These better be good for how much I just paid for them.”
“They’re decent,” Quincy took the seat beside me, stealing a fry off of Ellodie’s plate. “Family lunch?”
“Hey, no touching!” Ellodie growled, protecting her tray with her body. “Go get your own!”
Hollis caught his ear and tugged, then pressed her lips to his when he turned toward her.
Ellodie grinned as she watched the couple interact with each other.
Meanwhile, I watched her.
“Was a great couple of lunch companions until you sat down,” I chuckled, dipping my fries into the ketchup in a little paper cup on my plate.
I’d need about three more, but sometimes it was easier to just not argue with the ketchup distributors until absolutely necessary.
“That’s not nice, baby brother,” Quincy drawled as he got up to head to the line for his own food. But not before he stole yet another French fry off of Ellodie’s plate again.
Ellodie growled in frustration. “Bring extra fries.”
“And ketchup. Two of them at least,” I ordered.
Quincy gave me the finger and stepped into line.
Meanwhile, Hollis turned to Ellodie and asked, “Not a fan of people eating your food?”
“Not a fan of people eating my food when there’s not much to be eaten,” she said. “I can eat like a man, Hollis. This is going to hold me over until like two o’clock at best. And since I wasn’t at home today, I didn’t have the time to grab any of my regular snacks.”
I scrunched up my nose at that.
Pulling out my phone, I texted my mom and asked her if she could pick up some snacks at the store today and deliver them to my place.
It wouldn’t be a hardship or anything. Mom went to the store every day after work for dinner for her and whomever said they were going to be attending at their house that day.