Page 23 of Finding Alfred
“All right. All done here.” He turned to walk out.
“Wait. Can Brock come back? Or Eddy?”
“Sure. How about the other guy with them?”
“Other guy?”
“Yes, tall, skinny, dark hair up in a bun. Dressed real smart. Drinking the biggest cup of coffee I’ve ever seen.”
“Al? Wow. He totally can come back.”
“I see. Well, I’ll let them know.” He raised his eyebrows and smirked. I was obviously not hiding anything where my feelings for Alfred were concerned.
I sank back into the mattress, oddly comfortable for a hospital, and waited. There wasn’t anything else to do. But it wasn’t long before all three of my friends, if Alfred was actually a friend, barged into the room.
“You crazy nut. What the fuck were you thinking?” Eddy asked, grabbing my ankle under the sheet.
“I was checking out the progress.”
Brock snorted. “More like closely inspecting the bottom of the pool. With your face.”
I flipped him off with the arm that wasn’t broken. “Not my face.”
“No, the back of your head. And seriously, this could have been a lot worse, Jackie.” I didn’t like the way Alfred’s eyebrows dipped in above his nose or the wrinkles on his forehead from doing that.
“Shh…I’m fine.” I waved away his concern. Mistake.
“Look at me.” He squeezed in between Brock and Eddy and gripped my leg until I looked him in the eye. “You worried me. Not cool. Got it?”
“Y-Yes…” Was that a question? I didn’t even know. A mad Alfred was kind of scary. “Sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“I know. But it shouldn’t have happened.” Alfred turned his fury toward Brock, and that was really something to see. “You. Make sure a fence is put up around that thing like yesterday. What if someone else fell in? No. Nope. Get it done.”
Brock shrank a little and Eddy opened his mouth, but didn’t say anything before closing it again. Brock cleared his throat. “You’re right. I’m going to go call uh…Cameron and have them get that fence up today.” He slowly backed out of the room. “Like now.”
Eddy laughed at him. “The wrath of Alfred has begun. Dun-dun-da-dun…”
“Shut up.” Alfred blushed. Damn, he was so cute. I loved him shy and embarrassed, but I loved him fierce and pissed off too. He was totally the man for me. I swear he made those hearts pop out of my eyes.
Shortly after that, the tech team came in to cast my arm, running everyone off. But that was the last thing to do before checking out and Brock wheeling me down to my car.
I fell asleep on the way home but woke up to Alfred helping me out of the vehicle and into the house. “I’ll take it from here, guys. Thanks again.”
“Call us if you need anything.” Eddy gave him a side hug and drove off in his truck with Brock following on his hog. “Now, let’s get you into bed.”
Alfred put his arm around me, helping me toward the house, which was cute because I could walk. I wasn’t dizzy at all. In fact, the pain had even eased off. “I can walk, you know. Arm broke, not legs.”
“Shush. What if you get dizzy or something? You can’t fall again.” He shoved the door open. Of course it wasn’t locked. “You really should lock your doors. You know security is what I do and you, my friend, are a hot mess.”
“I thought you did computer security.”
“I do all security. Why the hell didn’t you have that hell hole fenced already?” Not like he’d ever mentioned it—at least not as far as I remembered.
“Hell hole? It’s a pool. Go look.” I waved toward the back porch.
Alfred’s gaze jumped out to the back but then he grumbled, “No thanks. Bed.” He shoved me a little. I wasn’t sure I liked this Alfred—pushy and obviously mad at me. Maybe Brock and Eddy shouldn’t have left so soon.
Chapter eighteen
