Buzz Off - By Hannah Reed Page 0,89
been so worried about someone taking the journal that he had to get it off his property? Or had he been hiding it from Grace? Were the answers to my questions inside the journal? I sure hoped so.
Before I could explore the pages, I had to scrape out several remaining stingers that I’d missed the first time around, and I lay down on the couch with ice bags on my ankles and hands, not an easy balancing act. During my home-style stinger treatment, I heard a knock at the door and Hunter’s voice calling out.
“I’m in here,” I said, removing an ice pack long enough to tuck the journal under a pillow. “In the living room.”
Hunter and his giant dog Ben appeared in the doorway.
“What happened to you?” Hunter wanted to know.
“Nothing,” I said.
“Holly called me and said you’d had a fight with your mother.”
“Just the usual. Nothing special.”
Hunter lifted an ice bag and studied my ankle. “Bee stings,” he announced.
“No way,” I said, observing the beekeeper’s secret oath. Never let anyone know you’ve ever been stung. “I’ve never been stung,” I bragged.
Hunter made some kind of throat noise, a sure sign he didn’t believe a word of it. “How many times?”
“Six or seven. Or ten.”
“Weren’t you wearing protective gear?”
“Partly. My head is okay.”
Hunter sat down next to me. Ben stuck his nose on my shoulder and sniffed my hair.
“Hey, Ben,” I said, and the dog actually wagged his tail.
“How long do you have to keep the ice on?” Hunter put my feet on his lap, readjusting the ice packs.
“As long as I can stand it.”
“Need anything?”
I wanted to say I needed him. That I wanted him to lie down next to me, wrap me in his strong arms, and cuddle me. But I doubted he’d stop at cuddling and I was in severe pain, or had been until I’d applied ice. Instead, I said, “I’m fine.”
“You got that right.” Hunter smiled.
I loved his smile. “You came over because my sister called you? Because you were worried about me?”
“In case you needed comforting.”
“Nice.”
“And to ask you a favor.”
“Ask me anything.”
“Anything?” Hunter was running a finger up and down my leg, sending shivers that felt like tiny electric shocks. “Anything?” he asked again.
“Almost anything,” I clarified.
“You look pretty helpless at the moment. I’m not sure you’re up to doing me a favor.”
“I’m almost as good as new.” Or would be soon. A few bee stings weren’t going to keep me down for long.
“You’re always great,” he said.
One thing I’d really missed was sweet talk, not that I’d heard it often from Clay. Everybody needs to know they are appreciated, including me. I could almost feel my self-worth ratcheting up a notch or two.
“What’s the favor?” I asked.
“I have a training session tomorrow. It starts early and finishes late. I hate to leave Ben alone for that long.”
Oh no. I could see where this was going. “You’re cancelling on me? Our first official date as adults and you’re ditching me?”
“The training doesn’t go that late. I’ll be done by six o’clock. But six in the morning until six at night is twelve hours that Ben will be alone.”
“Can’t he go along with you? Isn’t he part of the program?”
“These are C.I.T. drills. Hostage negotiations, weapons practice, the latest techniques and technology, that sort of thing. He can’t come for this one.”
“Then the answer has to be no.”
“What happened to ‘ask me anything’?”
“I said you could ask. I didn’t say I’d agree. You know how I am about dogs.”
“Ben likes you.”
The dog stuck his nose on me again and sniffed. Then he licked the side of my face, one long-tongued slurpy lick.
Hunter and I laughed together. Then he became serious. “I’ll feel better if you’re with Ben. No one will bother you.”
“Will he attack if someone totally drives me crazy?” Like Patti or Lori or my mother, I was thinking.
“No, but his presence will deter trouble.”
“Deterring trouble is good.”
“I also brought offerings of food,” Hunter said.
“You did?”
“Pizza. I left it in the truck.”
“From Stu’s?”
“You bet. Holly said you fled the family scene without eating.”
What a sister, setting me up like this!
“You better go get it,” I said.
We stayed on the couch, eating pizza and talking while Ben made himself comfortable on the floor. It’s amazing how fast pain can recede when you’re in a good place with the right person.
And no, nothing extremely intimate happened. Not that that’s anybody’s business.
But when Hunter left, I had a canine roommate. How could I say no