Chapter Three
Greta
“IS THIS A NEW PRESCRIPTION?”
I blinked rapidly to clear my vision. “Yes. First time getting the shit kicked out of me by a psycho.” I leaned toward the pharmacist. “I think I should get a cookie or something, right?”
Bear grunted next to me, and I tipped my head to catch a glimpse of him roll his eyes. Damn, the man was a sight to look at.
The pharmacist cleared his throat and dropped the bottle of pills into the paper bag. “Uh, well, you should eat something with these, so I guess a cookie would be a good idea.”
I stood straight and smiled. “You’re buying me cookies, lumberjack.”
“Whatever you want, mama.”
Hmph. There was that mama word again. I wasn’t anywhere near to being a mama in the technical sense, but the word still sent a tingle up my spine. I would have to Google just what him calling me mama could mean. “Double Stuf Oreos. And we’ll also need milk, and like, food in general.”
The pharmacist rang up my pills. “Ninety-seven dollars and fifteen cents.”
“Sweet Jesus,” I gasped. “I guess it’s not cheap to numb the pain anymore these days.”
Bear stepped forward and put his credit card in the card machine.
“What are you doing?” I protested.
“Go find your cookies, Greta. I got this.”
I grabbed his arm and tried to pull his credit card out, but the man didn’t budge. It was like I hadn’t even tried. “Why are you paying for my pills? I can pay for them.” That would take me two months to pay off with my own credit card, but whatever.
The register spit out a receipt, and the pharmacist handed it to Bear along with the paper bag. “Cookies are over in aisle ten.”
Bear wrapped his hand around my arm and steered me away from the counter and over to aisle ten. “What other food do you want?”
“Are you going to pay for all of that, too?” I grumbled.
“Yeah, since I’m going to be the one eating most of it. And you also don’t have a way to pay for it, mama.”
I patted my back pocket where I normally kept my wallet and groaned. “Oh, my God.” Of course, I didn’t have my wallet. It was at work in my locker where I had left it before Dr. Lu tried to kill me. “Well, I’m paying you back once I get my wallet.
“Whatever you say, mama,” he chuckled.
I spotted the bag of Oreos and grabbed two. “We just need milk. I can order delivery on the rest of the groceries.” I held the cookies to my chest. “With my own credit card,” I insisted.
Bear grabbed the cookies from me and motioned for me to lead the way.
“I can carry those.”
He shook his head. “I got it.”
The bags of cookies looked tiny in his large hand. How on earth was this man so large? It made me wonder if my butt would look as big if his mammoth hand happened to grab it.
“Greta,” he called.
I blinked and looked up from the cookies in his hand. “Your hands are huge,” I blurted.
“And?” he drawled.
There wasn’t an and. Well, there was, but I knew to keep my mouth shut about wondering about his hands on my ass. “Just an observation. I like to make those.”
Bear shook his head and grabbed my arm again. He did that a lot, but it wasn’t in a mean and rough way. He did it with such gentleness; it amazed me that this giant man could not smash things with just his pinky. “Let’s get some milk,” he grunted.
We walked over to the aisle with coolers, and he opened the door. “What kind do you drink?” he asked.
“Whatever you do.” I liked milk, whether it was full fat or skim.
“I don’t drink milk.”
I stepped back and tipped my head back to look at him. “You’re a monster. Who doesn’t like milk?” That was crazy to me.
“Lots of people don’t like milk, Greta.”
“You drink that nut milk, don’t you?” I spat.
“Maybe,” Bear chuckled.
“Show me the tit on a nut, and then, I’ll drink its milk.” I reached into the cooler and grabbed a gallon of two-percent milk. “Until then, it’s Bessie and me.”
Bear dropped my hand and grabbed the milk from me. “Anything else?”
“Yeah, I’d like to carry at least something. You look like a pack mule while I’m just wild and free with nothing in my hands,” I insisted.
Bear shook his head. “Let’s go, mama.” He hitched his chin at me and headed toward the front of the store.
“Does that mean I'm supposed to follow you?”
“Since I am your ride, yeah,” he called.
I threw up my hands in the air and followed behind him. At least there was a nice view back here.
Bear was the perfect example of a well-built man. Though I had to wonder how he was so well built when he didn’t like milk.
Milk did a body good, right?
I guess nut milk was doing the same job for him.
“I am paying you back,” I insisted as he dropped everything on the conveyor belt.
“Sure you are.” He smiled at the cashier and pulled out his wallet.