Great Sass (Providence Family Ties) - Mary B. Moore Page 0,8
the thingy,” she pointed at my nose, specifically the tampon. “But it doesn’t even look like you. What happened?”
Taking my phone back, I wiggled my hand at her to get her to go back to what she’d been doing. If her eyes weren’t on me, it was easier to tell the story. Adolescent pain lasts, and the embarrassment was still there all these years later.
“When I was thirteen, I had my last baby teeth removed by the dentist. They’d caused major overcrowding, so he put braces on a week later, and I spent eighteen months getting teased about them until the summer break that I turned sixteen.”
Picking up a bottle of Betadine, she put some on a cotton ball and dabbed the cuts. “What happened that summer?”
Blushing, I tried to think of a nice way to phrase it. “I got the braces off at the start of it, had a growth spurt, and uh met some girls.”
One side of her mouth tilted up, giving me a half-smile as she finished putting the iodine on the wounds. “Basically, you shagged around that summer.”
Clearing my throat, I raised my hand to inspect the cuts, making sure I didn’t need any stitches. One of them could probably do with some adhesive strips, but I’d recheck it in the morning and see Parker if I needed to.
“When I went back to school, I was the tallest in my class, and I’d started working out because I’d visited my cousins and saw how to do it. The chicks dug it, so the teasing ended,” I shrugged.
“Which cousins?”
That was a fair question seeing as how I had a lot of them. One part of my family lived in a place called Piersville, about two hours away from where we were in Gonzales County. The others lived here and worked for Townsend Oil. It was only me and my brothers who were spread out over the country instead of all living in the same place. I missed the closeness with my brothers, but at the same time, I preferred having my own space.
“Ren, Brett, and Cole.”
They were the ones who lived in Piersville, and I think she’d only met Cole when he’d come to see Ariana, our cousin who lived here and was kidnapped by her boyfriend’s crazy ex-stepmother and her boyfriend a few months ago.
Sadie had ended up getting kidnapped with her and shot through her calf. Lucky for the man, he was in jail with his court date pending, or I’d shoot him through the ball for what he’d done to her. I’d been there when we found them, and I’ll never be able to get how pale she was and the amount of blood she’d lost from her leg.
Grabbing my hand back, she leaned in to inspect it more closely. “That one’s going to be a pain in your bum. You might want to see Parker in the morning about it. The rest look like they’ll be okay, so long as they don’t get infected.”
Then, she brought out a dressing and ripped the packaging open. Only, when she was holding it over my hand, she realized it was going to cover the whole thing. I would’ve warned her if I hadn’t been watching her as closely as I was, but everything she did intrigued me, so probably not.
Chuckling at her expression, I thrust my hand at her. “Just do it. So it’s a little big…” or a lot. Tomato-tomahto.
She’d just finishing taping me up when her ugly hell-feline came waddling in. I wasn’t a cat person, and I was definitely not a fan of this one. It was hairless, had a lot of excess skin, and it just looked fucking evil.
“Stop glaring at my baby,” she mumbled, gathering up the garbage then tilting my head back to inspect my nose.
Somehow, I’d forgotten I had half a tampon up there while she’d been fixing up my hand. “Has it stopped?”
Frowning, she gestured at me to stand up. “I don’t have a clue. All I can see is the blood that’s been soaked up, not what’s going on above it. I’m wondering, though, if maybe I should’ve given you one for a heavier flow?”
She’d been lifting my t-shirt to inspect the bruises underneath while she was talking, running her soft hands over me, so it took me a moment to realize what she’d said. “I’m not sticking a supersized tampon up there. I’ll be deformed for life.”
“At least you won’t ever snore with one gigantic nostril,”