Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
What are you doing?
I stared at that and reread it three times before replying.
Eating pad thai and watching iZombie.
My thumb hesitated over the phone before I gave in and pressed Send then slipped the phone into my pocket.
“They had the fried sweet potatoes you love,” Wilder told me, putting the bag on the coffee table.
“Thank you!”
I reached for the bag and pulled out the boxes of food. When my phone dinged again, I didn’t get it out of my pocket. I finished setting up our places, then sat back with the fried sweet potatoes in my lap. My phone felt like it was a magnet, pulling me to it.
Unable to keep this up, I took my phone and opened it up.
That sounds fucking awful.
A laugh escaped me, and I covered my mouth, then put my phone down.
“You never text. Who is that?” Wilder asked, sounding curious.
I glanced over at him as he sat down beside me, opening a bottle of water. We were friends, but I had to be careful what I said about Gage or my job. I’d read the NDA, but it made me nervous that I would mess up.
“The patient I’m taking care of,” I said.
He frowned. “The guy you said despises you? He texted you?”
I shrugged. It had surprised me too.
“Guess he doesn’t hate you if he’s making you laugh. Today must have gone better. Although I wish you had told him no and not returned,” Wilder replied.
“It’s a job, and he’s still not fond of me.” I said before putting a fork full of pad thai in my mouth.
“He wanted you to come back, and now, he’s texting you,” Wilder pointed out. “He doesn’t hate you.”
I finished chewing my food and started to respond when my phone dinged again. My eyes swung over to Wilder’s, and he was giving me an I told you so look.
Opening my phone again, I bit my bottom lip to keep from smiling. Why was this making me want to smile?
She eats fucking brains from a morgue?
I had to bite down harder to keep the grin that wanted to break out on my face.
Are you watching it?
I stared down at my phone in disbelief. The thought of Gage Presley lying up in his bed, watching iZombie, was funny. If I laughed, Wilder would hear me.
Yes, unfortunately.
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. I could feel Wilder’s eyes on me, and I knew he was going to ask questions, but I was as confused by this as he was.
Give it a few episodes and see if you don’t get hooked.
This was when I needed to put my phone down and eat my food. Instead, I stared at the phone screen while my stomach did strange things. The little dots appeared, showing that he was texting me back.
I can promise you, I won’t be getting hooked on this shit.
I should leave it at that. Not say anything more. I placed my phone down on the coffee table and picked up my pad thai. Wilder was still watching me, so I looked over at him.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I tell him.
He raised his eyebrows. “What do you know about this man?”
Not a lot.
“NDA,” I replied.
He frowned. “Just be careful.”
“Trust me, I am. What just happened was weird, but he’s probably had his pain meds for the night, and they’re making him loopy.”
Wilder didn’t seem convinced. I picked up the remote and turned the show back on. Talking about this with him was not a good idea.
Twelve
Gage
Texting her last night had been fucking stupid. I’d ended up dreaming about her, and that shit had to stop. I should have let her go and kept Carmichael here and forgotten she’d ever shown up. My head was fucked.
The more awkward she acted today, the more I got off on it. She hadn’t brought up the texting, and I wasn’t about to.
I was curious about this version of Shiloh. The more I lay around here, unable to fucking do anything, the more time I had to think about it. She wasn’t the same. Sure, she was still the hottest woman I’d ever laid eyes on, but the other things were gone. The way she’d used her beauty to control and manipulate. How she had loved to fucking flirt—and not just with me. The rush she had gotten from getting close to danger. I hadn’t seen a glimpse of any of those things in the woman currently getting shit ready to change my bandages.
“I need to piss.”
Her cheeks turned pink, and damn if that wasn’t funny.
“I’ll go get someone,” she replied.
“They’re gone,” I lied. Why the fuck was I lying? I didn’t know where the hell they were.
“Oh, well …” She looked unsure of what to do now.
“You’re the nurse, Shiloh,” I said harshly. I didn’t need her thinking this was something I wanted her to do.