Page 48 of Whiskey Shivers

I was tired and didn’t know what I was about to do for dinner for the both of us. When I went on in through the back door, it was to discover that she’d already had dinner handled. She looked up from the stove all unsure, covered up awkwardly by one of my tees stretched over her arm which was still braced underneath it and I chuckled.

“You been naked up in here all day? Because I really like the thought of that.”

She blushed hard and said, “Um, yeah. I could take it off, but I’d never be able to get it back on right by myself so…”

I went over to her and leaned down to kiss her, and she kissed me back.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured against her mouth. “You were sleeping so good, I didn’t want to wake you.”

She smiled and said, “It was okay for today, but if it’s alright with you, I would like to get up and get dressed tomorrow.”

“Absolutely,” I told her and her whole being just sort of lit up.

“What you got going on in here?” I asked, peeking into the pot.

“Spaghetti… nothing fancy, you just had the supplies. I figured you might be hungry, and it might be nice to come home to some dinner.”

I gave a low whistle. “Look at you go,” I said.

“You’re just in time,” she said. “Can you get the jar of sauce open so I can add it in here?”

I opened the jar for her, and she added it to the meat and awkwardly chopped onions and garlic frying in the pan.

“I’m gonna go rinse off,” I said, smacking a kiss to her temple.

“Okay,” she said, but she was concentrating on things going on in front of her.

I went in and took a hot shower but made myself quick about it in case she needed help.

It was nice having dinner with her that night. It was nice coming home to her drowsing on the recliner end of my living room couch on Tuesday night, although it wasn’t nice discovering she’d gone all of Monday and most of Tuesday with no pain meds aside from some fucking Tylenol. The reason I’d found her like I did on Tuesday night was she’d finally knuckled under and had taken one of her opioids, and it’d made her sleepy. So, Tuesday I showered with my lady, tucked her into our bed, and I’d ordered out so neither one of us would have to cook.

Wednesday, I came home, and she was in tears, and that freaked me the hell out. Apparently, it was a combination of a missed doctor appointment neither one of us even knew that she had, and the detective on her case, calling numerous times, trying to badger her into remembering things that she just couldn’t. Pressing for details that she had no way of recalling and wanting to come over and meet her in person.

She’d gotten herself all worked up about it, worried that I would be upset if she knuckled under and let the pigs come to my door.

I’d consoled her, told her they could come around all they’d like, but only if she was comfortable meeting with them.

She said she felt like she had to, and that the detective had been agitated with her and had called her uncooperative. I was pissed, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it yet.

What I did do was call her doctor as soon as they opened the next day to get her straight with that. They had an opening, so on Thursday I took off work early with Curtis’s blessing to take my girl to the doctor, where we got the good news that everything seemed to be healing up nicely and received the referrals she’d needed for physical therapy and all that crap to get started on the next phase of her healing.

We went to the club that night for dinner and to see if we could connect with Alina to make sure she could get Fable to her appointments since my girl wasn’t comfortable driving yet. Her car was also still at the school. While she was comfortable and entertained by Alina and the rest of the guys, I took Louie with me to go grab it and bring it back to my place.

“You ready for Friday night?” Louie asked me on the drive over to the school.

I grunted an affirmative and he nodded. It was going to be a long fuckin’ weekend, but the week wasn’t done yet.

“You think Cy’s kin is gonna pull through?” he asked me. I could tell he was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full o’ rockin’ chairs.

“If Cypress says his kin can get us in with that rat fuck motherfucker, then I believe it’ll happen. You ain’t doubtin’ Cy now, are yah?”

“Not Cy,” Louie said shaking his head. “Never Cy.”

“Have a little faith, brother,” I said.

He nodded as I pulled up behind Corliss’s old Toyota and jumped out with her keys in one hand and his cut in the other. I kept him blocked with the truck from the school and the old surveillance cameras that I knew were trained on the parking lot. They weren’t the greatest quality, but still. I wasn’t worried about them seeing me or even Louie, just anyone having any questions should they be able to pick out what was in his hand as he got in.

He started the little car no trouble. I pulled out and away, and he fell in behind me. I went home, he pulled into the drive, and I picked him up and ran him the few blocks back to the club, slipping back in and leaning down to kiss Cor.

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