Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 37793 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 189(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 126(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37793 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 189(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 126(@300wpm)
“Yeah.”
“And not nice of him.”
Did I agree with that?
“Hey,” Javier said, leaning out onto the deck.
I turned to look at him. Kurt couldn’t be bothered, more interested in gently kissing along my jaw.
“Did that asshat hit on you while you were outside?”
Kurt was too busy slipping his hands up under my shirt to give his friend any attention.
“He’s talking to you,” I told Kurt.
Slowly, with a great deal of effort, he turned to look at Javier. “What?”
“I want to know if Baylor hit on you.”
Kurt grimaced. “Not really.”
Javier shook his head. “The answer can only be yes or no.”
“I second that.”
Kurt shushed me, and then looked back at Javier. “Fine. He did. Yes.”
“Then he’s banned from game night, because that’s a shitty thing to do, and especially not cool in the house you share with your fiancé.”
“I agree,” I muttered. “It’s very poor form.”
“It’s fucked up is what it is,” Javier growled.
Surprising to hear the normally mellow ENT with the kind eyes swear. The surprise must have shown on my face.
“What? It is,” he assured me.
“I’m not arguing with you.”
“No more game nights for him,” Kurt stated. “And he’s not invited to the wedding.”
“Good.” Javier took a breath. “So Claudia put ice on Baylor’s arm, and it’s a little red, but I think that’s gonna be about it. I mean, will it bruise? Possibly. Did I hurt myself more falling off the ladder while cleaning my rain gutters last week? Yes. Yes, I did.”
“You fell off a ladder?” Kurt asked, squinting at him.
“Don’t say it like that. It’s not my fault. We’re not all…” He gestured at me.
“What does George have to do with this?”
He scowled back. “Is there anything George can’t do?”
“I’m not a doctor like you, buddy,” I pointed out.
“Yes, but I’m sure you’ve saved more lives than I have.”
“That’s very nice of you to say.”
“Only stating the obvious. But tell me, have you ever fallen off anything?”
I had to think.
“See?”
“Aw, you sound so sad,” Kurt commiserated.
He got flipped off for that.
“So about Baylor’s arm, will he still have full use of it?” I tried to sound serious.
“Is that an honest-to-God real question?”
“He was pretty upset about getting hit with the ball,” I pointed out.
“If he wants to compare injuries, you’re the one with blood in your right eye and a bruise on your left cheek. I suspect there’s more damage than that, yes?”
I shrugged.
“I don’t suppose you’d let me take a look at you.”
“I thought you were an ear guy,” I teased him. “And I have to tell you, mine are fine.”
“That’s a specialty, you understand? I’m still a doctor.”
“Yes, I know. Kurt vouched for you earlier.”
“Thank you.”
“Of course.” Kurt chuckled.
“But so you know, I was cleared to come home by the US military.”
“That does in no way fill me with confidence.”
“I’m good,” I said as Kurt wrapped his arms around my neck. “He’s got me.”
“Yeah, well, that’s probably for the best. I don’t think any of us can get out there to you anyway.”
“Why not?” Kurt asked.
Javier pointed at Bubs, who was sitting on the deck, a foot from the entrance. He was puffed up and making that low warning noise cats made right before they ripped your face off. “He’s much scarier than the dogs.”
That was probably true.
“I hope Baylor doesn’t keep up the whining, because Claudia is this close to telling him what he can do with his whole I-can’t-move-my-arm bullshit. It’s really ridiculous.”
“Oh?” I asked.
“Yeah. Like Carson can throw a ball hard enough or fast enough to hurt anyone anymore,” he scoffed. “I mean, didn’t Baylor see what happened to him at the Fiesta Bowl all those years ago? No one gets better from something like that.”
“Absolutely not,” Kurt was in total agreement. “That’s crazy.”
It certainly was.
TWO
SUMMER SURPRISE
It was wildly unexpected. Kurt’s mother, originally Vanessa Schuler, then Vanessa Butler when she was married to his father, and now Vanessa Marcum, had resurfaced out of the blue, calling him on a warm July day. Kurt had answered his cell, and boom—there she was on the other end of the line, asking to see him.
Vanessa had left her kids back when Kurt was in second grade and Thomasin in kindergarten. From what I knew, the whole family had taken daily verbal and emotional abuse from his father, with the occasional physical outbursts when he was in an alcoholic rage. Any kind of abuse is horrible, but the older they got, the less backhands Thomasin endured, and the fewer punches and, once he was down, kicks Kurt received. What never relented was the daily bombardment of insults meant to degrade them and tear down their self-esteem. Fortunately, Kurt and his sister had each other, and forged a bedrock love for one another. Kurt often said that was sibling alliance at its finest.
They left home when Kurt was in high school and filed paperwork to become an emancipated minor. He had a job, a place to live, and with his boss at the supermarket where he worked vouching for him, he was given probational custody of his sister at seventeen, on the cusp of eighteen. They had family money from their late grandparents, and so went to school and got on with their lives.