Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 158848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 794(@200wpm)___ 635(@250wpm)___ 529(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 158848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 794(@200wpm)___ 635(@250wpm)___ 529(@300wpm)
“Good God, Griff, come here.” Ella ducks under my arm and wraps her arm around my waist.
I lean on her a little more than I want to in front of everyone. Juliet takes my keys and marches ahead. The guys grab my stuff and coax me into the building.
Inside, I stop and give the staircase a long look. It looms like a mountain. Why the fuck do I have to live upstairs?
“Can you do it, Griff?” Eraser asks, all hint of joking gone. “Otherwise, you can come stay at our place. We only have the two steps on the front porch.”
“Nah, I got it. Just give me a minute.”
“Take your time,” Ella says.
“Guys, I’m fine. Really.” I release Ella’s shoulders and test putting more weight on my knee. “Go on ahead.”
“Like fuck,” Vapor says, dropping my bags at the base of the stairs. “Come on.”
Juliet returns, standing at the top of the stairs. “How are we doing this, guys?” she calls down.
“Slowly,” I answer, gripping the handrail. It’s like my knee’s on vacation and doesn’t want to function.
Eraser murmurs something to Ella I don’t bother listening in on and she grabs two of the bags and heads upstairs ahead of us.
Vapor grabs the rest of my stuff and watches me with concern.
I don’t have the energy to tell him I’m fine.
Eraser stands behind me while I grip the handrail and drag myself up one step at a time.
“They should’ve given you crutches or something,” he murmurs.
“Nah, I’m fine,” I grit through clenched teeth.
“Yeah, real fuckin’ fine,” Vapor grumbles.
Juliet’s waiting in the hallway outside my open door when I finally make it to the top of the steps, wheezing like an eighty-year-old man who spent his whole life smoking three packs a day.
Almost there.
If my friends weren’t hovering over me like I’m about to die, I’d crawl the last few feet to my apartment. Nah, that’d probably hurt even more.
I finally step over the threshold and practically cry with relief when I sink into my nubby, old couch.
“It was kind of stuffy in here, so I opened some windows,” Juliet says.
“Thanks.”
Vapor closes the door behind him and drops my bags on the floor with a thud.
Eraser perches on the couch next to me. Ella squeezes in by his side. Vapor takes the chair to my left and cranes his neck to watch Juliet in my kitchen.
Everyone’s just…staring at me. Too stunned to speak? Waiting for me to entertain them? I don’t know.
“So, what happened here?” With monumental effort, I rub my hand over the top of Eraser’s unusually short hair. “Give yourself a haircut with a butter knife while I was away?”
He ducks away from my touch. “You keep touchin’ me, you’re gonna need more stitches.”
Ella laughs and curls her arm around her husband’s waist, then reaches up to smooth his short, chopped hair. “His favorite barber shop closed and he doesn’t want to find a new one, so he’s been doing it himself.”
“Bro, I’ll do a better job than that.” I scissor my fingers together. “Soon as I can move my arms.”
“You really think you’re one to give out hairstylin’ advice?” He flicks his fingers near my ear. “You came home lookin’ like a mangled sheepdog.”
I snort and lift my arm to run my hand over my hair. Pain sizzles from my shoulder to my elbow. I stop midway and rest my arm on the couch cushion instead. “Venom told me I needed to stand out more in the house. Naptime and I looked too much alike. So one night when all the dumb fucks got drunk, I shaved his head—”
“We saw,” Ella says. “It was one of the show’s highlights.”
“Shit, I keep forgetting…” I shift my gaze to the wall. I’ve never felt so awkward around these guys.
Juliet returns to the living room and holds out an ice pack to me. “I don’t even know where to put this first.”
I take it from her and rest it over my knee. “I’ve got more.” I tilt my head toward the bags Vapor dropped by the door. “They’re in the black bag but need to go in the freezer.”
“I’ll do it,” Eraser volunteers.
The couch shifts as he stands. He grabs the bag and heads into the kitchen without a word.
I glance at Ella. “Your husband still mad at me?”
She shrugs.
“Are you mad at me?”
She stares at me for a few uncomfortable seconds. “No.”
“Let’s not.” Juliet, the peacemaker of our group, holds her hands in the air. “We have Griff back in one piece. That’s all that matters right now.”
It hurts too much to smile, so I dip my chin. “Thanks.”
Eraser returns and plops down on my coffee table, gently shifts my foot a few inches to the right, then rests an icepack over my ankle.
“Besides the thing we’re not going to talk about right now,” he shoots a pointed look at me, “you did us proud.”