Mrs. Nelson.
Mrs. Nelson gave her a playful swat on the arm as the women walked out.
“Hey, that’s elder abuse!” Mrs. Scoggs shouted.
“It can’t be elder abuse when I’m two years older than you, Edith.”
Mrs. Scoggs examined her arm and pointed to a small discolored mark. “It can if you leave a bruise.”
“You bruise faster than a peach in the dryer.” Mrs. Nelson dismissed her as they left through the doors.
I finished cleaning the room and checked my phone which had an app for my camera of the backyard. No Holden. Channing was sitting in the middle of the grass staring at Holden’s back door, which was what he’d been doing for the past week that he hadn’t been coming out.
It was one thing to ignore me. Or his parents. Or his brothers. But when you ignore Channing, we have a problem. It was time to use the emergency key.
Chapter 27
Holden
“It’s not about what’s behind ya or in front of ya, it’s about what’s within ya.”
~ Maggie Calhoun
A loud noise startled me awake. My eyes flew open but then immediately slammed shut again as bright light blinded me. I put my hand in front of my face as I turned my head.
“Wake up!” I heard Olivia shout.
My mind was still not fully alert. In my foggy state, I thought I must be dreaming, maybe having a nightmare. I was still trying to get my bearings when I felt the comforter getting pulled off of me.
“Get up!”
This wasn’t a dream. This was real. Olivia was in my room barking orders. I started to peek out from under my heavy lids, hoping that my eyes would have adjusted to the brightness. But the next thing I knew, the bed beside me dipped and I felt something wet on my cheek. I managed to open my eyes, squinting, and all I saw was a large tongue coming straight at me. I turned my head, but Channing still managed to land a big, slobbery kiss on my cheek.
During the month that Olivia and I were spending every night together, I’d witnessed Channing smother Olivia with tons of kisses nearly every day but I’d never experienced it, because I was always up before both of them. There was no real defense for his lick attack. The only option was to surrender and wake up.
“Okay, okay.” I tried to block his aggressive affection, but it was no use.
“Take a shower. Get dressed. Be downstairs in fifteen,” Olivia commanded sounding more like a drill sergeant than a yoga instructor. I wouldn’t be surprised if she told me to drop and give her fifty.
By the time I managed to sit up and actually open my eyes, all I saw was her backside as it walked out of my room. Not that I was complaining, it was a damn nice view.
“What’s going on?” I called out after her.
“Downstairs, fifteen!” she shouted back.
Channing gave me one more kiss for the road and happily bounded off my bed and down the hallway, easily catching up with Olivia.
Alone in my room once more, I stared at the wall in front of me. If it wasn’t for the saliva drying on my cheek, I’d be tempted to think that I was still asleep and everything I’d just experienced had been a bad dream. But since both of my cheeks had the faint smell of Channing’s dogfood, I knew that it was real.
With more effort than I cared to admit, I shifted my legs and sat on the side of the bed. Resting my forearms on my thighs I raked my fingers through my hair. I would toy with the idea of skipping the shower, because that seemed like a whole lot of work, but since it felt like I’d been using Canola Oil as a styling product I figured a shower was past its due date.
Taking a deep breath, I braced one hand on my nightstand for support and stood to my feet. When I was fully upright, which took at least thirty seconds to achieve, I slowly let out a breath. It was a technique that was used in childbirth. I’d gone down a very deep rabbit hole researching back pain and stumbled across a page that was dedicated to helping women who experienced back contractions. I hadn’t even known back contractions was a thing. But I figured any technique that helped a woman cope with a bowling ball coming out through their vagina was at least worth a try.
The idea was, when