Page 97 of Ugly Duckling
“They were so cute, though,” I whined.
“I imagine that we can buy more,” he pointed out.
“Logic and I don’t work well together,” I teased.
After shaving had commenced and I was fresh as a daisy, Gunner carried me out of the shower and sat me on the counter with a towel wrapped around my body.
He bent down on one knee so he could get a better look at my ankle, which was already starting to turn black and blue.
“Gonna hurt like a bitch tomorrow,” he mused as he ran the pads of his thumbs up the length of my ankle. “Want to fix it faster?”
I hesitated. “I don’t like how you just asked me that.”
His lips curved up at one corner as he replied. “It’s going to hurt like a bitch. But I had this trainer teach me how to work on my own ankle. I was prone to turning them when I was playing ball. She taught me how to work on it because we shared a trainer with another school, and sometimes she couldn’t get to me super fast.”
“What does it entail?”
He spent the next five minutes explaining about accordions, tendons, and lengthening accordion tendons back out.
It made not a lick of sense because the pain pills I’d taken at the hospital just before he’d gotten there had finally kicked in, and they were knocking me on my ass.
I could barely keep my eyes open.
After promising that he could do whatever he wanted to do with me in the morning, he carried me to bed completely naked, and I only vaguely realized as my eyes were falling shut that we weren’t in my room. We were in his.
I woke up to a cute little girl poking at the bruise along my forehead.
“Suttie,” Lottie whispered.
It felt more like a yell thanks to my pounding head.
“Hey, Lots,” I whispered back, though in an actual whisper and not a toddler whisper. “When’d you get here?”
She gave me a toothy smile. “Now.”
I smiled and hugged her to me, twisting her so that she was tucked up with the blankets.
It was when I felt the cool air on my bare backside that I remembered that I was completely naked underneath the sheets.
I hastily tugged the sheets back over my bum, then looked over at the man at my side.
“Daddy’s not awake yet?” I asked her.
“He’s sweepy.” She shrugged. “Hurt?”
I nodded as she lightly touched the bruising again. “Is your Uncle Parker cooking us waffles?”
“Yep!”
That had the man at my side cracking an eye open.
He took one look at the two of us staring at him and a slow grin built on his lips.
“My girls.”
My girls.
So.
