Chapter Seventeen
Ally
This was how life had always been for me. One mortifying moment after another. I no longer wondered if karma hated me, I knew for a fact that she did. After going over Sam’s homework, I thought back over karma’s latest humiliating moment thrown my way. Frannie had just finished washing my hair and was helping me dry off, when karma kicked me in the bladder. I couldn’t stand the pain of my bladder about to explode one second longer. It had become so painful that I bit the inside of my cheek as a distraction. A new aching part on my body was the last thing I needed.
“Frannie,” I whispered to her urgently. She gave me a confused look, until I said, “Oh my god, I have to pee and now! Scoot out of the way so I can get on the toilet. Hurry! My bladder is screaming at me like a cat hanging from its tail!”
She had stammered at my whispered exclamations. “Oh my. Do you really think you can scoot that far, Ally? There is at least a foot between the toilet and the edge of the tub. With your ankle and hand, I don’t know how you will accomplish that. Let me get Jonah to help. I will wrap you up in a towel. He will be quicker than you and I put together,” Frannie finished in a worried hush.
“No! For the love of books! No! Do not get Jonah. Do you really think I want him to see me like this and then pick me up and put me on the toilet so I can pee? Seriously.” I stared at her in shock. “If you think I do? You might as well pull out a gun and shoot me. Just do it. I can’t take much more humiliation, Frannie. I really can’t,” I was nearly begging her.
“Ally Black, you listen to me right now, this minute, missy. Grow up! You are hurt, can hardly even move yourself and you are worried about a friend helping you up so you can relieve yourself. We all pee and poo young lady, so stop acting like a three-year-old and let me go get Jonah before your bladder really does explode.” As Frannie finished the last word I couldn’t help but break out in tears. Why was I crying? Hell, if I knew. But when I felt her loving arms wrap around me, it comforted me enough to nod my head yes to what she had suggested.
And that was how it would go down in the record books, yet another one of Ally Black’s embarrassing moments. Having the man that I had been pining over for years, pick up my nearly naked body to only put me down again on top of the toilet. Yep. That was me alright. I had to give credit where credit was due. Jonah did come in, only said a few words and lifted me so that I could find my personal, humiliating relief with very few words and left as quickly as he could. Thank God, for small favors. It took me a minute to get things to work after being so upset, but then it was the best relief ever.
Then, when it was time for Frank to move me from the bathroom to the living room, where Mr. Back Breaker waited, I had become worried that I was too heavy for Frank to lift and that he would hurt himself. He just grinned at me and said one word, “Hush!” and that was it.
He swooped in, lifted me up and carried me right to the bed, then gently laid me down. I was totally impressed. I told him thank you. As he tucked the covers around me, I leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, which had made that big old coot blush. I loved every second of it, too.
I was so tired by that time, that I just wanted to close my eyes, but the smells coming from the kitchen reminded me that I had not eaten since lunch at the hospital. That thought had me sitting up a little straighter and trying to peek into the kitchen, hoping to spy what was for dinner. Frank caught me looking and just laughed.
“Hush mister! I am wasting away to nothing without your food in my tummy.” I looked at him and smiled.
“Oh, yeah Bright Eyes, is that so? Guess I will have to get a move on and finish up right quick for ya. You are looking a bit puny these days.” He laughed out loud as he turned back to the stove.
Frannie was busy putting in a load of laundry and then she called for Sam to come help fill plates for dinner. He came running from the bedroom bouncing up and down and said, “Awesome! I’m super starving, Grandma Frannie. What did Grandpa Frank make for dinner? It smells so good I could eat my own arm right now!” Frannie had laughed out loud at his exaggerations and reached over, ruffling the hair of the most magnificent human being, I had ever had the pleasure of knowing.
As plates were filled and passed around, Jonah had come back from the drugstore, carrying an extra bag with him. I was just about to ask him what was in it, when my heaping plate was set before me. Heaven on earth. That was the only way to describe Frank’s cooking. Heaven on earth. I had dug in with gusto and looked up as this enormous bear of a sound filled the room and found Jonah watching me eat. Blushing, I shrugged and kept plowing the food in. It was amazing. When everyone had finished, Sam sat on the bed with me so I could check over his homework and read a chapter of his book with him. I couldn’t tuck him in right now, but I could at least do that. As I worked with Sam, I had noticed the absence of Frank and Jonah and alarm bells went off. What in the world were those two up to? Sam said something that pulled me out of my musings, so I let it go. For now, anyway.
Frannie and Frank tucked Sam in while Jonah grabbed some clothes and took a shower. How in the world would he fit under the shower? He was so tall. I started imagining him trying to stoop down, twisting this way and that and I started giggling to myself.
“And what, pray tell, are you amusing yourself with, Freckles?” asked Jonah while using the towel to rub his hair dry. But it was not the hair that I noticed. Holy moly! He didn’t have a shirt on. I just stared, taking in every single inch of hard, lean muscle, and the delicious way his biceps moved as he rubbed at his hair. Licking my lips, I continued my path of visual exploration, drifting south. Mmmmhmm.
Noticing the twelve-inch scar on his chest, one that nearly matched the one on his face, only heated me more. Left me hungry, for more. My eyes went from the scar to his other peck. The sight had me nearly salivating at the mere thought of licking that beautiful nipple. Traveling down to the rock-hard abs with the dark hair that led from his chest to below his belly button had me mentally sighing in pleasure.
“You like what you see so much Freckles, that I have you sighing out loud, huh?” Jonah looked at me with a heated stare, licking his own lips.
No f’ing way! No, no, no. I am a nut case. I swear I am. Didn’t I just think about sighing?
I looked into his eyes and felt his burning gaze bore into mine. I sighed again without restraint this time. What the hell did I have to lose? Right? Realizing that I needed to stop this, I grabbed the pillow next to me and put it over my face and said, “If you are going to stay here, you cannot walk around half-naked. I just can’t take it. Hell, there isn’t a woman alive that could take it.”
He started laughing so hard but tried to muffle it for Sam’s sake causing him to snort. I peeked out from behind my pillow and dropped it. His laugh was so contagious that I couldn’t help but join in. When we finally pulled ourselves together, I felt so exhausted but so good at the same time. It felt right that he was here. I felt safe. So, I relaxed back on the pillows and watched as he pulled out the cot Frank had brought by. That set off another round of giggles from me. He just stood there looking at the cot, scratching his head, perplexed at what he was looking at. This time I snorted and put my hands over my face to try and calm down.
The cot Frank had so generously loaned Jonah couldn’t be any longer or wider than me! There was no way he could sleep on it. But I saw a determined look in his eye and stilled my laughter. Oh, this was going to be good. I just knew it. He messed around with that silly cot for like twenty minutes laying in every positon known to man. Some part of his body would always hang off at odd angles. I really thought I was going to die from laughter.
When he finally gave up, he proceeded to fold it back up all nice and neat. He walked to the front door, opened it ever so gently, took it onto the porch, lifted the cot over his head and heaved it with all of his might. It went soaring through the air and landed with a loud clang of metal. I was so surprised that I stopped laughing to concentrate on what he was doing.
He quietly came back in the door, grabbed one of my pillows and promptly lay down on the floor. All he said after that was, “Fucking Rangers.”
I couldn’t contain it anymore, I had never laughed that hard in my life. Tears ran freely down my face and I started to hiccup. I was jostled by something hitting me in the face. Stunned for just a second, I looked down. It was the pillow he had taken from my bed. Confused I looked to where he was and he just sat there as if he was Sam. Pouting. Arms crossed and sitting Indian-style. I couldn’t take it. I didn’t think I could laugh anymore and my side was hurting from it already. I picked up the pillow to muffle my hysteria at what he looked like.
“Really, Freckles? Seriously? You are having the time of your life laughing at my predicament huh? I tell you what, if you do not stop laughing, I am going to come up there and sleep right next to you on that itty-bitty couch and then you can see what it’s like to not have enough room to move,” he huffed at me.
That got me. In my bed. Well, now that I thought about it that could be awesome. No, no, Ally. No. Picturing us trying to sleep on this pull-out bed, without touching each other, set off a new round of giggles. I looked at him and he stared at me with his mouth hanging open.
“Come on, Jonah. You cannot sleep on the floor, for crying out loud. Promise to behave yourself and we will see if we’ll fit,” I offered quickly not thinking about how it sounded.
“Oh Freckles, I guarantee, we will fit perfectly. Trust me on that one,” he said with a Cheshire grin, while wagging his eyebrows up and down. Laughing again, I patted the bed next to me.