Page 104 of Perfect Chemistry

I started to grumble, but he passed me a bottle of my favorite raspberry sparkling water. Damn it! Why was he so fucking perfect?

“You done stalling?” He asked.

“No.”

He walked around the island and turned me to face him so that he could stand between my legs. He pecked my lips and pulled me off the stool toward the front door.

“It will be okay, Kitkat. Time to go,” he assured me as we walked to the car.

* * *

I had even more appointments after the day-long doctor-a-thon. I was so angry with Kai every time. I didn’t mind the dentist, but then there was a gastro, an optometrist, and a gyno before my claim was completed. When they said I would be checked “tooth to toe,” they weren’t exaggerating. I felt like such a broken freak with all of the appointments, health checks, labs, and questions. My god, the questions seemed never ending. It was exhausting.

Kai kept telling me they were just being thorough. Apparently, it was enough. It took a little under two months to get my rating back from the VA.

100%.

I received a 100 percent total and permanent disability rating. My occasional headaches were attributed to the IED. My breakdown at the end, attributed to my time in service. My difficulty conceiving due to loss of reproductive ability was included. Apparently losing an ovary was a bigger deal than I thought.

I was assigned a primary care physician in a women’s health clinic, and all of my physicians were other female veterans. It made it easier to share information about my health, and enabled them to adjust my medications and set up a solid treatment plan for everything that ailed me.

I hated it when he was right about everything.

Chapter 37

I received the call a week ago that the permits to begin work on the 4th Street house were finally approved. I was dressed in jeans, a loose sweatshirt from up north and my steel toe boots. I wouldn’t be able to start work for another few days, as another team would be responsible for stripping the floors and woodwork throughout the interior, but today was the walk through with the contractors to prioritize what needed to be done.

I was so freaking excited, I couldn’t sit still. I had packed, unpacked and repacked my tools three times already. Kai just sat back and laughed at me, obsessively adjusting everything in my tool belt.

“Is this a Katie quirk or a Marine thing?” He asked, watching me jump and shift with my tool belt on.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, adjusting the placement of my hammer so that it wouldn’t hit the front of my leg if I squatted.

“This,” he chuckled, waving his hand at me.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said, looking at him like he was nuts.

“Babe, you have adjusted the belt three times, and rearranged the tools at least four. I can understand that part. But why do you keep jumping around and squatting?”

I had to laugh a bit at myself. “I look crazy, don’t I?” I asked.

“Nooooo,” he responded sarcastically.

“Well, Mr. Smarty pants… If I have to wear this belt most of the day, I don’t want it to ride or sit funny on my hips. That causes blisters, and blisters on my hips or back would affect how I move. As for the jumping and squatting…” I exhaled, “I don’t want anything falling out, or smacking my legs while I work.”

Kai nodded, finally understanding the madness behind my methods. “What time do you have to be there? We could drive to work together,” he offered, wiggling his eyebrows at me.

I laughed and set my toolbelt with the rest of my tools near the front door. I wouldn’t know what I really needed until I got on site, so there was no sense in continuing to obsess over it. “The foreman said the walk through wouldn’t be until eleven, but I want to be there by nine to do a walk through before that. I want to have time to check out everything before I get asked questions.”

Kai stepped up and pulled me into a hug. I wrapped my arms around him and felt the tension leaving my body.

He kissed my hair and leaned back to look at me. “Let’s ride into work together and get a coffee before you head over. We can take yours so you don’t have to unload all of your tools, and I can just walk over to the house when I am done. That work?” He asked, kissing my forehead.

I nodded nuzzling back into his chest for more hugs. I was nervous. I wasn’t this nervous about joining the Marines. I wasn’t even this nervous when I first started working at 15. Yet, the thought of starting this new job and possibly a new career made me anxious.

“Come on. Eat some breakfast and then we can go,” Kai urged me.

The ride into town was quiet. I let Kai drive so that I could sit and destress a bit along the way. I hadn’t realized I was biting my nails until Kai reached over and took my hand in his. Interlocking our fingers, he pulled my hand up to his mouth and kissed my battered nails. “You’ll be fine,” he assured me.

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