In the end, both men had given in and helped us, but Bob Ross hadn’t been in the mood to go back to his house. No, he wanted to torment me in mine.
“Mom!” Cody yelled. “I can’t move.”
Any thoughts of what revenge I could get on the chicken left me as panic set in. I was reasonably certain men's nuts weren’t connected to the spine, but what if they’d left a scalpel in there that’d pierced it? What if there was an infection that’d compromised his spine? I didn’t even know what the thing they’d removed was.
What if it hadn’t been attached to his testicle and had been a vital piece of his nervous system?
My feet skidded slightly on the wood floor as I ran to his room, and I was so caught up in my panic that I didn’t even notice the tall man standing in his doorway until I ran straight into him.
Not expecting to come to a stop at that moment, my body teetered backward as I lost my balance, and if it hadn’t been for a strong pair of arms pulling me into a solid chest, I’d have landed on my ass.
“Easy, Evie. It’s just me.”
The relief at hearing his voice was insane. He’d saved my ass—literally—and surely he’d know what to do to get Cody to the hospital more quickly than if I—
Wait, what was Alex Bell doing in my house at six in the morning?
“I slept in the spare room, remember? I said I’d help out with Cody through the night in case he needed anything, seeing as how you hardly slept the night before because you were in the hospital.”
Rubbing my forehead, I tried to remember it, but I was kind of blindsided by the sight in front of me when I opened my eyes.
Lying on his side with two pillows between his legs to stop him from inadvertently squeezing the delicate and bruised area between his legs through the night was my son. That wasn’t what shocked me, though.
No, it was all of the animals around him.
Both of our Labradors were lying in front of him with their heads on his spare pillow—mental note to self: change the pillowcase—and weighing down the blanket covering him on one side.
Behind him was Bernice, who was in a similar position to Rocket and Razzle, except she had one of her front legs over his waist and her snout on his neck. On his feet were Bob Ross, Weird Al, and of course, El Chapo.
Scratch that, I’d be changing his whole bed, not just the pillowcase.
“How—” I choked on nothing but air and saliva. “How’d those three heathens get in here?”
“We were just discussing this when you got here. So far, our best guess is that they followed the dogs in through the doggy door,” Alex snickered.
The doggy door. That thing had cost me a freaking fortune. On the dog’s collars was a tiny device that unlocked the door to let them in and out, keeping the house as secure as possible. I even got an alert on my phone when it happened.
“I’ve got one of the cameras pointed on it. I’ll look at the footage on my phone later to see if you’re right,” I muttered. “For now, if I go after them, they’ll just run and shit all over my damn home, so it might be wiser if I open the window and let them out that way.”
If I hadn’t been so focused on the poultry home invaders, I might have seen the look exchanged between Alex and Cody. Unfortunately, I didn’t.
At least, not until it was too late.
“Hey, Mom,” Cody called out, just as I was stumbling back out of the door. “We named the other three chickens. We now have Bob Ross, Diana Ross, Cher, Dusty, Weird Al, Tina Turner, El Chapo, Terminator, and Avatar.”
It should have all been obvious from the last two names for me, but I’d blame my stupidity on stress and being sleep deprived.
4.30pm the same day…
Cody was sleeping on one of the couches while I watched Police Academy of all things with Alex, with both of us curled up on the other couch. In all fairness, we hadn’t chosen the movie. It’d come on, and Cody had the remote, but I’d forgotten how much I liked the movies until that moment.
“Is the academy really like that?”
Alex chuckled and passed me the bowl of popcorn. “I was there almost thirty years ago, so I can’t say I know what it’s like now. Back then, though, eh, it wasn’t that far from the one I went to.”
I was about to ask another question, but my phone started vibrating like crazy beside me. I’d put it on silent so it didn’t wake Cody up earlier, but the constant buzzing was driving me nuts.