Page 85 of Trucker
“Hi.” I smiled.
“You’re standing.” Trucker’s voice was small. “On your own.”
I nodded while extending a hand to him.
Slowly, he walked over and accepted the hand to tug me in for a kiss.
It was chaste, and soft and I wanted more but I settled for it. Trucker picked up my bag and hefted it over one shoulder.
Taking one last look around, I reached for the teddy bear sitting on my pillows, took Trucker’s hand and allowed him to take me out of there.
As we drove through town, a few people flagged Trucker down to see how I was doing. They may not be my friends, but they were humans and were worried.
Eventually, he got me home and after convincing him I was strong enough to shower alone, I stripped in the bathroom to look at myself in the mirror. Though the cuts and scrapes had pretty much healed, and my bruises were going away, I still looked pretty bad.
As time went by, Trucker still tried helping me with everything.
My chest still hurt from where the airbag crashed into me, but other than that and the broken finger, I was fine.
None of that stopped me from working.
It only slowed me down.
I couldn’t type as fast, but I could still get some things done.
Since I’d been in the hospital for a while, I had to quickly email my clients and explain to them why I’d been ghosting them.
Thankfully, most of them were understanding.
One client called meunprofessionalas if I woke up one morning and decided to drive myself into a forest gully for shits and giggles.
Under Trucker’s care, I wasn’t allowed to work a full day and at about lunchtime, Andi brought me lunch and companionship.
To my surprise, his cadets had saved my new laptop and camera from the car wreck. They weren’t damaged as the back seat of the vehicle had been saved from the fall. Sitting between the boxes was the gold and black bag with the lingerie I’d purchased.
I quickly picked it up and hid it under my pillow in the bedroom. There was a strong possibility he’d seen what was in it.
Sighing, I stretched out on my bed for a few minutes then went to find him.
“Okay.” He was on the phone. “Send Kaos. Once he gets there, I’ll have backup waiting for him—no, I can’t leave Taji. She has enough on her plate trying to heal and I don’t want to do anything to get in the way of that.”
There was a pause.
“I know and I will tell her once she’s gotten some rest.” Trucker continued. “No—I can sleep when this is all over.”
Pause again.
“I can’t do that. And maybe it’s just me but you have to understand. I don’t trust anyone else with her right now.”
He stopped, lifted his face to the dying sun as his shoulders fell, heavily.
“I know,” he said. “Thanks for doing this, Zulu. I owe you.”
Trucker laughed.
“Yeah, yeah.” He grunted, dragging his free hand over his head. “The doctors gave her a once over before we left the hospital. They aren’t worried and that helps. But I can’t get myself—I can’t go very far from her side. I’ll make sure she’s okay.”
He listened again.
