Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
“I smell trouble.” She smiles at him, leaning down to smell him. “Yup, big-time trouble.”
“Not me,” he says and scratches his head.
“Do you want to take off your hat?” I ask him, smiling, and he looks down at the floor and then up again.
“Mommy doesn’t like it when I take it off. She says it makes me look too sick,” he says quietly, and my heart fills with two different emotions at the same time. One to protect him and the other of hatred for a woman I’ve never met but who has given birth to this amazing kid. I look over at Mallory, who looks like she is going to “cut a bitch” as she puts it.
I squat down in front of him. “It’s okay, buddy,” I tell him. “You’re going to have to take it off anyway when you have your tests.”
He moves his little hand to the hat and slowly peels it off. “I think you look better without the hat, Jumping Jack,” Mallory says, smiling at him, and she gently rubs his head. “Don’t you guys think so?”
“I do,” Sarah answers right away. I look up and see tears in her eyes. “He looks handsome.”
“I do?” He looks at us as if we just told him that he’s having chocolate for dinner.
“You do.” I nod at him. “Now, how about you follow Mallory? She’ll put you in a bed, and we can start getting you better?” I say.
“Are you coming with me?” he asks me, and I nod.
“I’m just going to put my coat away, and then I’ll meet you there, Jumping Jack.”
“Okay,” he says, and Mallory holds out her hand to him. He takes it, and I watch him walk down the hallway.
“What a bitch,” Sarah says from next to me. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that, but I just can’t.”
“Yeah,” I agree with her. “I haven’t met her, nor do I want to.”
“He tried to wear it to bed last night,” she tells me. “The kid was sweaty, but he said in case Mommy came home.”
I shake my head. “I’ll meet you there,” I tell her and walk to the locker room. Taking off my stuff, I grab my white lab coat and put it on with my stethoscope around my neck. The door opens, and Steve walks in.
“What are you doing here?” he asks me, putting down files on the table.
“I got a new patient who I came to greet.”
“New patient?” he asks. “I thought you were at your max.”
“I’m never at my max.” I wink at him. “And what are you doing here?”
“I switched with Debbie so I can have tomorrow off,” he says.
He’s dating Olivier, who works with my brother. They aren’t an official item, but they’ve been together for the past six months. Ever since they met at one of the functions, they have only had eyes for each other. But neither of them wants to put a title on it, so they call each other “casual.” The last time I was at his apartment, though, half of Olivier’s suits were hanging in the closet.
“I want you to read the file,” I tell him, “to see if you think the same thing as me.”
“Send it over and I’ll look at it sometime today.” I nod at him and walk out, making my way to Jack.
“Now, this is going to hurt just a touch,” I hear Mallory say, “but because you’re big and strong, it probably won’t hurt you.”
“I have big muscles,” he says, and I lean against the doorjamb, looking at him show her his muscle. “When I get better, I’m going to be big and strong like Daddy and Grandpa.”
“Is that right?” Mallory says as she pricks him with the needle, and sure enough, he doesn’t even flinch. “Wow, you really do have big muscles,”
she says, taking off the blood collection tube when it’s full and putting another one in its place.
She repeats this for four tubes and then unsnaps the rubber band from his arm. Taking the needle out, she applies some pressure. “All done,” she says, rolling away from him on her chair to grab a Band-Aid from her cart. “So what type of Band-Aid do you want? I have blue, red, orange, and green.”
“Blue,” he says, and I look at him. “It’s my favorite.”
“You did good,” I tell him, and he looks over at me.
“I didn’t even cry,” he says happily. “I’m strong like Daddy.”
“No.” I shake my head, and his smile falls a bit. “You’re stronger than he is.”
He laughs now. “But he’s bigger.”
“Doesn’t matter,” I tell him. “Would you like to walk around and meet some of the other kids?” I ask him. Maybe if he sees kids like him, he won’t be so self-conscious of that fucking hat I want to burn. Sarah helps him off the bed, but he doesn’t move right away.