“Sorry to interrupt,” Alicia says with a tiny grin. She’s not sorry at all.
I glare at her while still holding Skye in my arms, not letting her go for anything.
Skye laughs when she sees my expression. “What’s up?”
“Jake is in surgery and could really use your help with a case. He’s tried realigning the bone with pins but he just can’t get it to work. Do you have a few minutes to help him?”
I roll my eyes. I’ve lived with Skye now for over eight months. I know that orthopedic cases like this take a lot longer than just a few minutes of her time. They take hours upon hours. If she steps in to help, she won’t be home until midnight or later.
“No,” I answer for her.
“Excuse me asshole? I can make my own decisions,” Skye says, pulling out of my arms.
“I know you can and your answer is no.”
Skye folds her arms across her chest and gives me that look like it’s going to be a long fight that I’m not going to win. I never win.
But tonight is the one night that I could really use a win. I’m not patient and I have big plans for this weekend.
Skye turns back to Alicia, a woman who I thought was my friend, but definitely isn’t. “Of course, I’ll help. I’ll be right there.”
I glare at Alicia, annoyed with her for not sticking with the plan.
Alicia starts bursting out into laughter.
“I’m sorry. Jake isn’t in surgery and he doesn’t need Skye’s help. But watching your head explode like that was worth the teasing,” Alicia says.
I frown. “Seriously? That was a joke?”
She nods.
I roll my eyes and grab Skye’s arm. “Can we go home now, before Alicia decides to pull any more pranks on me?”
“Fine, grump,” Skye says.
Grump’s ears immediately perk up.
She laughs. “Not you,” she says to the dog. “You,” she says pointing at me. “You are much more of a grump than the dog.”
I frown, not sure I like her new nickname for me. One, it’s not practical with the dog being named that. And two, I’d much rather her call me an ass or a prick. It’s much more dangerous sounding than ‘grump.’
“I thought I was an ass?”
She rolls her eyes. “You’re that too. But first and foremost, you’
re a grump.”
I chase after her and scoop her up in my arms, tickling her sides as I do to make her laugh, before setting her down slowly and kissing her softly on the lips.
“You’re also sweet, and romantic, and handsome, and intelligent. And mine,” she says, as she opens her eyes recovering from the kiss.
“Good, now can we go?”
“Yes,” she laughs.
I grab her hand and yank her hard, pulling her through the hallways and out of the building. I make sure to walk as fast as I can out of the building, so she doesn’t have time to talk to anyone.
She takes her time climbing into the front seat of the pickup truck, that I’m not allowed to drive for some reason, while Grump and I climb into the passenger seat in record time. I give her an annoyed look as she slowly starts up the engine. It doesn’t start at first. Instead, it makes a weird clicking sound. We live just down the road from here, but I’m afraid it’s going to take hours to get home at this rate.