His eyebrows raised. “Wow, never thought I’d see the day. You’re mighty young to be so focused, aren’t you?”
“Just turned twenty, but I come from a large family where you had to have your own inner strength mentally and physically to survive.”
“They beat you?” he bit out.
“Hell no.” I burst out laughing. Even the thought that my family would be like that was hilarious.
“They’re all fucking nuts, that’s why. I swear, if you look up the Townsend name, you’ll see what I mean. If you don’t have your own personality and strength, they’ll swallow you whole.”
A huge smile took over Ted’s face at hearing this. “Thank fuck. I was ready to go and beat them over the head with a walker or something. Sounds like I’d like your family. Mine aren’t exactly normal, so I get what you mean.”
Then, pointing at the stuff in the truck, he asked, “So, this girl. Why were you driving near her in the dark if she’s just the kid of a family friend?”
I felt the blush on my cheeks at the same time the sun hit the back of my neck, making me feel even hotter.
“I hadn’t seen her for about six years until a couple of days ago, and the first time I saw her, she punched me in the balls.”
The bellow of laughter that came out of him didn’t surprise me, but I waited until it left him before I continued. “The conversation wasn’t exactly great, so I was going back to make sure she knew she wasn’t alone.”
“Sounds like she’s a missing member of your family, Jackson.”
Yeah, she’d fit in perfectly with us, but I wasn’t going to admit that. It sounded too much like a relationship.
“Anyway, I was crawling along, looking for a parking space outside her apartment, when she crossed the road in front of the car. She was dressed in black with her hood up over her head—”
“Why?”
Rubbing my face with both hands, I groaned. “Sasha wasn’t feeling well, so she was headed to get Tylenol and ibuprofen.”
“Lemme guess, you’re going to be nursing her back to health?”
Dropping my hands, I grimaced. “Yeah. She doesn’t want her dads to know for some reason, and I’m the one who hit her.”
“Most guys would buy her flowers and call her dads anyway,” he pointed out, his grin only this side of being smug.
“They also wouldn’t put up with her boss-eyed cat,” I mumbled on just loud enough for him to hear me.
“Her what?”
Pulling out my phone, I brought up a photo of Milkshake that I’d taken this morning. “This.”
Taking my phone, he angled it out of the sun so he could see the screen. “Fuck me. What happened to it?”
Leaning in, I swiped across the screen so he could see the video I’d taken while I moved my finger in front of the cat’s face. “Sasha said he was born like that.”
“It’s like they’re stuck in place,” he noted, pressing play to watch it from the beginning again.
“Like the landing gear on a plane, right?”
Snapping his fingers, he started laughing. “At first I thought it was a joke, but now I see they’re stuck, and I want to laugh my ass off like a heartless asshole.”
I got what he meant because I felt like that every time I saw it.
Finally, handing it back to me, he stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out a business card. “If you need anything else, just shout. Doesn’t matter if we don’t have it, I’ll always be able to find what you’re looking for.”
“Thanks, Ted.” I pocketed the card and held my hand out to him. “I appreciate all of your help, and I’ll probably be back in touch with you once we figure out what’s causing her issues.”
Raising his hand, he walked back to the store, and I got into the truck. Bypassing the charging pad, I plugged my phone in via a USB cable and pulled the hospital’s details up again.
The call connected immediately to the switchboard, leaving me with a new problem. I wasn’t Sasha’s next of kin, and I wasn’t any relation to her, so they likely wouldn’t tell me anything.
So, I winged it.
“Yeah, my— fiancée,” I almost choked on the word, “is a patient in your hospital. I’m on my way to see her, and I just thought I’d check in first, in case she’s being released today.”
“Aw,” the woman sighed. “That’s really sweet. What’s her name?”
“Sasha Adams-DeWitt.”
“That’s a pretty name. And who’s calling?”
“Jackson Townsend-Rossi.”
“Oh lord,” the operator chuckled. “If she keeps her maiden name and adds your last name behind it, she’ll run out of space to sign her credit card.”
I stared blindly at where a bird was pecking around on the ground in front of me as this comment sank in.
“Are you still there, Mr. Townsend-Rossi?”