How About No (Bear Bottom Guardians MC 3)

“Wow,” I finally settled on. “That’s unfortunate.”

Hoax snorted. “Unfortunate.”

I wrinkled my nose at him. “You have a crush on the pretty nurse.”

Said pretty nurse snorted. “He can’t decide whether he wants to strangle me or kiss me. There’s a line there between the two that he hasn’t crossed over. My guess is at this point he wants to strangle me.”

Yeah, right.

They looked like they wanted to tear each other’s clothes off.

Especially with the way they were both glaring at each other. It was almost as if it’d been happening for a while now.

“Y’all are so going to have sex,” I croaked.

Wade dropped his head to my arm and started to laugh.

Or cry.

With his face covered, I really couldn’t tell mostly because both reactions caused his back to move in very similar ways.

Or at least, the way a person’s back moved. I’d never actually seen Wade cry, so I really couldn’t compare it to him crying because I’d never witnessed it before.

Both Hoax and Pru, the cute nurse, looked at me over Wade’s shaking back.

They looked like I’d thrust my fist into their stomachs.

“What?” I said a little louder this time.

I honestly hadn’t meant for them to hear me.

Or maybe I had. I wasn’t too sure at this point.

My head was getting fuzzy again and I was finding it hard to keep my eyes open.

“Landry,” someone said from beside me. “Look over here, sweetheart.”

I frowned and did, finding Castiel standing there.

“You look like an angel of death,” I informed him, biting my lip after I said it because I didn’t want him to be mad at me. “I’m really sorry I hurt Wade. I didn’t mean to. I only meant to make him realize that I was more importanter than my sister.”

“Importanter’s not a word, and I honestly understand now,” he promised. “Do you remember what happened to you?”

I frowned. “I remember it felt like my soul had left my body when Wade went out there and hugged my sister. And when she started to cry as she tried to get her point across that I needed to donate, I broke a little bit inside when he gave her that really understanding look. That’s my understanding look, not hers. Mine.”

Castiel frowned. “No, not then, honey. I mean now. Today. Do you remember being shot today?”

I pursed my lips and tried to make my mind switch gears. “Yes. Kind of. Linc and Conleigh were standing in front of me while we walked to the car. I was standing behind because I was texting Wade to let him know we were on the way home and Conleigh had to poop. Did you know Conleigh won’t poop anywhere but her house? Apparently, it really is a phobia that she’s just recently acquired. A reporter followed her into the bathroom without her knowing it and she pooped, and it was all on that news channel, AMZ, CMT…something like that.”

“Honey,” Castiel said, a smile on his face. “The shooting. Do you remember who shot you?”

I glared at him. “I was getting there, Reaper!”

Castiel held up his hands in surrender. “Sorry, sorry. I’ll try not to interrupt.”

I glared. “You just do that.”

I felt the bed shaking, but since I was a focused individual, I chose not to acknowledge it and instead continued my narrative.

“Anyway, we stopped for a snack. I’m always hungry. We had some Subway, and Conleigh got a cookie. Linc told her not to get it because that particular kind always made her stomach hurt. But she got it anyway. And what do you know? She had to poop like fifteen minutes later, so we were going to go ahead and go. I was texting Wade about leaving when I must’ve gotten separated from Linc and Conleigh. I looked up and all of a sudden, I’m staring at a woman—the grandmother of one of my kiddos from the daycare—and she was pointing a gun at me. She was actually wearing a black ski mask kind of pulled up, but I could tell who it was from her body, her hands. She has this weird mole on the back of her left hand that looks like a pile of dog poop. Plus, she was with her daughter, Debbie Schultz, who I could see was in the car waiting for her—though she wasn’t wearing a mask.”

I paused, thinking about it. “I dropped my cookie in the parking lot. Man, I really wanted that cookie.” I turned to see Wade staring at me with a thunderous expression on his face. “Will you go get me a cookie?”

He blinked, and the thunderous expression was gone. “Yes, baby. What kind was it?”

“It was a double-stacked piece of cookie cake from the Cookie Factory. The top part had white icing on it, and the middle part had pink icing in it. That’s important. They have to be the same kind, and look the same, too. Conleigh!” I cried out.