Her Marine Next Door - Aliyah Burke Page 0,65
had butterfly bandages on his head and some others on his arms.
“How are you feeling?”
He cocked an eyebrow. “How does it look like I feel right now? I’ve got cuts, bruises, and fucking fractures. This is going to set me back.”
“I’m guessing no concussion? And that’s a good thing, right?”
He narrowed those sexy eyes. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
The nurse flickered her gaze between them before getting back to the task at hand.
Okay, maybe a teensy bit. “I would never enjoy you being injured like this.”
He didn’t even seem concerned about the woman putting a needle in his skin, while her own stomach rebelled with each poke.
Cullen shifted and made small mewls. She rubbed his back beneath the blanket and pressed a kiss to his temple, the soft chocolate hair that smelled of green apple tickling her skin.
“And when it sets me back?”
“I don’t know. You go back to physical therapy and keep working hard. I don’t know what you’re looking for me to say here, Parker. I didn’t leave toys all over your floor. Nor is it my job to make sure your house is cleaned up.”
“So this is my fault because I wasn’t teaching him to put away his toys?”
“Maybe you should instead of allowing him to push through a fence and go to someone else’s yard. He knows to put things away when he works with me in my garage. He’s very smart.”
The blonde’s lips twitched, but she didn’t look away from her work.
He glared at her. “This isn’t my fault.”
She shook her head and readjusted her hold on the boy who’d woken up with their arguing. “It sure isn’t mine. Like I said before, you should learn to pick up your house.”
“They weren’t there when I went to bed.”
Anger rose. “I sure as hell didn’t creep over there after you went to bed to mess around in your house.”
Heat flared in his gaze. “Trust me, if you were in my house as you should have been, or I was in yours, you would have been in bed with me and I guarantee you would sure as fuck have been too tired to pull out toys and leave them on the floor.” He struggled to sit up, and the nurse finishing up his arm let go until he got situated.
“I didn’t realize you had such a hard-on for the placeholder,” Skylar sneered.
“Sir, I need you to hold still.” The nurse’s tone was sharp and unyielding, despite the sparkle in her eyes.
“Finish already,” he bit off before slashing his focus back to Skylar. “You know damn well you’re not the placeholder.”
“Really? Because that’s what it seems like to me. Perhaps ‘babysitter’ is a better word? I’m supposed to watch him at all times, because the woman you knocked up has run off to do whomever, or excuse me, whatever she is supposed to be doing. Didn’t we already have this discussion numerous times before? Of course we have, you are just choosing to ignore them. Which got us to where we are now. No longer a fake couple!”
He lunged forward, and the nurse glared at the two of them. “Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to leave until I finish.”
“Fine,” Skylar ground out. “Happy to.” She got to the door, only to spin back and march to his side, where she laid a quiet and withdrawn Cullen beside his father, then marched out. Ignoring 100 percent his growled, “Skylar, get back here.”
She didn’t stop until the night air smacked her in the face, an abrupt change from the air in the hospital. Rain still fell, and she kept herself under the awning.
Withdrawing her phone, she scrolled through for his parents’ number, which she had in case of an emergency, and called his mom. After making sure she knew Parker and Cullen both were fine, just that they’d need a ride back from the hospital, she hurried to her truck and drove off like the hounds of hell were on her heels.
After she parked in her garage, she went to his house and dropped off the car seat and toys she’d found in her vehicle. Her heart was ripped asunder as she made one final trip across the yards and let herself back in her place.
She accepted she was spiraling down and didn’t know if she’d be able to pull herself up this time. The first time had been hard enough.
Chapter Thirteen
Skylar furiously scrubbed the kitchen floor, doing her damnedest to eradicate every remaining trace of Parker