Chapter Eight
FOR SOME REASON, WE’RE THE last ones to show up at the emergency room door. Ian, Mack, and Mack’s mother are all standing outside in the slowly falling snowflakes that started ten minutes into my drive. It must have been the traffic that made it take so long. I still don’t know the shortcuts around town. Thank goodness the baby didn’t decide to come out while we were driving around. My jacket has already seen enough punishment.
“Oh, thank God,” Andie says. And then she moans and bends over her stomach, holding it with both arms.
The first one to her door is Mack. He’s usually a pretty cool guy, but today I can tell he is stressed to the max. His face is all lines and hard angles. He pulls the door open and lifts his wife out like a baby. It makes my heart go all mushy just watching it. He’s super strong. She’s almost the size of a small elephant with her coat on.
“I can walk,” Andie says, holding an arm out to the side like a canoe out-rigger. She’s struggling to get down.
“The hell you can,” he responds.
A nurse arrives with a wheelchair and he puts her in it like she’s made of glass.
“You can’t park here,” says Ian, his face in my window. “You want me to bring it around?”
I chew my lip. Part of me hates letting him do anything nice for me, but the desire to see my friend into her room wins out. “Yes. Do that.” I make sure the truck is in Park before I get out.
After I’ve opened the door, Ian stands in the way, holding out his hand to help me down. We both look at it at the same time. He seems bewildered that he’s even offered, and I feel kind of shocked myself. Before I can take him up on his manners, though, he pulls his hand back and stuffs it in his back pocket.
“Wouldn’t want your women’s lib card to get pulled or anything,” he says.
I grab my purse and make sure to land on his toe when I slide down out of the high seat and onto the ground.
His eyes go wide and he grunts.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I landed on your ugly poo-covered cowboy boot. Did that hurt?”
“How much do you weigh, anyway?” He tries to back up far enough to escape my revenge, but the door stops him.
I have no idea what makes me do it, but I tweak his nipple right through his jacket, giving it a good twist. “Don’t call me fat, you uncivilized bumpkin.”
His jaw drops open and he barks out a single laugh, before rubbing his chest with the palm of his hand. “Owww… son of a … you just gave me a purple nurple.” It’s clear he can’t quite wrap his head around that one.
Good. I find I like keeping him on his toes.
“Where I come from they’re called titty twisters. Remember that next time you feel like commenting on my weight.”
I walk around the front of the truck with my head held high, making my way into the hospital. I’m at the entrance to the emergency room when his voice comes sailing out of the passenger window. “Revenge is a real bitch, you know that?!”
I don’t even look back. “Bring it, Country!”
“Oh, you know I will, City!”
My whole body heats up just imagining what he could possibly mean by that.