Page 114 of Only With Me
“I know you are, sweetheart, but I just wanna make sure you’re safe.”
She hugs him in his recliner and he wraps an arm around her gently. “I’ll be fine, I promise. I’ll be home later, okay?”
“Drive safe.” He shifts his gaze to me.
“Yes, sir. I’ll bring her back in the same condition I took her.”
“Love you, Daddy.”
“Love you, too.”
I say a quick goodbye and then she leads me out to the kitchen where the dogs are waiting.
“This is Moose. He’s my little snuggle buddy at night.” She holds him up and I give him some pets.
“He’s a cutie.”
“My little protector.” She chuckles, then kisses him before setting him down. “Okay, we can go now.”
I hold open the door while she locks up and then we walk to my truck, except I go to the passenger side to help her in.
“Thanks,” she says with a little blush across her cheeks.
I smirk. “You’re welcome.”
Once we’re buckled up and driving on the road, I point to my radio and tell her she can pick the music.
“So, did my dad scare you away?” she asks, shuffling through the stations.
“Nah. I can tell he worries about you.”
“I worry about him, too. His mental health is not in a good place right now. It’s bad enough he’s stuck inside most of the day but the gloomy weather doesn’t help either.”
“Doesn’t he use his power wheelchair when he’s out?”
“Yeah, but it can be a hassle for mom to get it lifted onto the lift at the back of the truck. He suffers with so much social anxiety, he doesn’t like being around a lot of people out of the house.” She turns and looks at me. “There’s times he won’t leave the house for three months straight.”
“Damn, that’s tough. Do you think he’d feel more comfortable if someone stronger was there to bring his chair with him?”
“Stronger, like you?” she muses.
“Yeah. Give your mom a break from doing it. Even if it were to go to the store, he could do short trips to get used to being out, and then gradually do longer ones.”
“You’d do that?”
“Well, sure. I get one day off a week where I could come and help out with anything or anywhere he wanted to go. Maybe he feels like a burden because he knows how much work it is on your mom, but if it’s someone like me who could lift his chair with one arm, he wouldn’t feel so guilty about acceptin’ help.”
“With one arm, huh?” She laugh-snorts, and it’s fucking adorable. “You’re pretty sure of yourself.”
“I work on a ranch, Harlow…since I was like in middle school. I’ve had to carry bales of hay and straw up and down stairs for two hours straight. I’ve had to push thousand-pound horses to get into trailers while they try kickin’ me. Lifting a power chair onto a lift wouldn’t even register as heavy.”
“Okay, Mr. Big Shot. Return me back in one piece and he might trust ya.”
Amused, I chuckle. “As long as you don’t fall in poison ivy, I think you’ll be fine.”
“What?” she asks.
I realize my slip-up when she looks at me with furrowed brows. Fuck, this is where I should come clean, but it feels wrong to do it now when we have a full afternoon planned with Bentley.
