Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 49669 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 248(@200wpm)___ 199(@250wpm)___ 166(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49669 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 248(@200wpm)___ 199(@250wpm)___ 166(@300wpm)
Christopher shook his head. “It’s fine. Can I… Can I finish…?” He motioned to my head.
“Yeah, sure,” I responded, though the last thing I was worried about was my head. I followed Christopher back to the living room. He made sure to steer clear of the soiled part of the carpet and motioned for me to sit. Pip had curled himself up into a tiny ball at the end of the couch, so I took the other end. This time, Christopher sat next to me on the couch, but he was all business. Within two minutes, my wound was cleaned and covered with butterfly bandages.
Christopher climbed to his feet and quickly grabbed all the debris from the supplies before hurrying to the kitchen. I followed but didn’t say anything. He was once again the Christopher he’d been when King and I had arrived, and I knew in my gut that nothing I said would get through to the old Christopher.
“I’ll pay to have your boots professionally cleaned, or if you prefer, I can buy you new ones,” the young man said as he began wiping down the already spotless countertop. It was likely just an excuse to keep his back to me.
“No worries, they’ve seen worse,” I said softly. “Christopher?”
“Make sure to put an ice pack on the back of your shoulder. And leave the butterflies on for a few days. Take some ibuprofen when you get home. That will help with your head and your shoulder. If you feel any kind of nausea or anything, go to the ER just to be on the safe side. There was no LOC, but cerebral edema is always possible with head injuries.”
“Christopher…”
Although Christopher hadn’t stopped moving throughout his speech, as soon as I said his name again, he did. But he wouldn’t look at me. It made me feel empty.
Lost.
“Thanks for patching me up. Next time, I’ll try not to do a half gainer on any of your furniture or your cat.”
I’d hoped the comment would make him turn around, but there was no change in his frame. His back was ramrod straight, and his shoulders were locked tight. He didn’t even look at me.
“You take care, Christopher,” I murmured before turning my back on him and heading to the front door. I heard the kitchen faucet turn on, so I knew there wasn’t a possibility that he was following me to see me out.
I made quick work of leaving the small house and then headed east. As I’d suspected, King was waiting for me at the end of the block. I’d been pretty sure my friend hadn’t completely ditched me like he’d pretended. As I took in the sight of King leaning with his back against the front of the vehicle, I couldn’t really be angry with him.
King barely reacted as I walked around the front of the truck and leaned against it. I almost smiled when I saw him toying with his handgun. He was ejecting the clip and reloading it over and over. It was a nervous habit he’d engaged in from the time I’d met him, but I hadn’t seen him doing it for a while now.
Not since he and Gio had gotten together.
“You need a new nervous habit, buddy. That one’s going to land you in jail,” I said.
King sighed and put the gun away. “Did he tell you anything?” the man asked as he glanced at me.
“Was he supposed to?”
King pushed away from the car and began pacing in front of it. “When I saw him jump into action after you fell… I don’t know, I just thought…” King fell silent and shook his head.
I straightened and then went to grab my friend’s arm to stop his forward movement. I opened my hand. “Keys,” I said. “You owe me a drink.”
King didn’t argue with me. He handed the keys over, and within ten minutes, we were sitting in a dive bar in a part of Seattle I wasn’t familiar with but that certainly didn’t cater to the tourist business. I ordered us a couple of beers and joined King in one of the few booths available in the place.
When King didn’t say anything, I said, “So you left me in there to do some kind of recon on your nephew?”
“Yeah, I suppose I did.” King took a long pull on his beer and then added, “He’s not Christopher anymore. Hasn’t been in a long time.”
“You said he went to nursing school, right?”
King nodded. “One of the best. Duke. It had an accelerated BSN program. He stayed here for his undergrad, then went to Duke and got his BSN in just sixteen months. The plan was for him to do the nurse practitioner program through Duke via distance learning, which meant he’d only have to spend a week in North Carolina every semester, and the rest he’d do from home.”