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I shoved out of the seat and snatched a box, nearly tripping as I tossed it in the cart and got back on my scooter. Except, when I sat down, an old man stopped beside me, glaring at me from his own scooter.
“Those weren’t made for you, sonny.”
“I happen to have a gunshot wound,” I replied, gritting my teeth.
“You don’t have what it takes to ride one of those.”
“Wanna bet?”
He scoffed at me, tugging his veteran’s hat down a little. “If you think you can hack it, let’s go.”
He eyed me skeptically, then gave a tight nod as he adjusted his dentures. I cracked my knuckles and nodded in return.
“On the count of three.”
I waited, but he took off without counting down. I drove after him, the scooter struggling to keep up as we sped at a low speed down the aisle. He glanced over his shoulder, cackling at me as he took the lead. I pushed harder, hoping to catch up, but at this point, there was no way I’d win. In a desperate attempt, I grabbed a bag of pretzels and tossed it under his wheels. The scooter came to a halt, his tires spinning as the scooter refused to move forward.
Laughing, I passed him by, giving a small wave as I successfully beat him to the end of the aisle. “Eat my dust!” I called over my shoulder, but the laughter died on my lips when I saw Laura standing in front of me, arms crossed over her chest and lips pursed.
I cleared my throat, killing the electric. “It was a friendly race.”
“You tossed a bag of pretzels under his wheels.”
“Yeah, but he cheated. He took off before…before the countdown,” I finished quietly. “We should probably go.”
“Yeah, I think that would be best. And you can apologize to that old man before we do.”
My jaw dropped in astonishment, but it was clear she wasn’t moving until I did. I slowly turned the scooter and made my way back to the old man. I was about to tell him to fuck off when I saw Laura just over my shoulder, waiting on this damn apology.
“Sorry I cheated,” I said glumly.
The old man nodded solemnly as Laura bent down and tugged at the bag still under the wheel. As she was bent over, the man shoved up both of his middle fingers, grinning at me. He quickly went back to his solemn state when she stood. That little fucking bastard.
“I’m so sorry about my friend. You know how men can be so childish.”
“He’ll grow up eventually,” the old man sighed.
As soon as her back was turned, he shot me a yellow-toothed grin and sped off down the aisle.
“I still won!” I shouted, only to be slapped upside the head by Laura. I rubbed the back of my head as she marched ahead of me, muttering something about men being childish.
She tuckedthe covers in around me, taking the time to make sure my pillows were fluffed and my leg was propped up just the right way. I almost snapped at her and told her to leave me alone. I couldn’t take one more second of it. And just when I was about to say something, Brock walked into the room with a shit-eating grin on his face.
“Hey, how about some popcorn?”
Laura’s head popped up and she nodded. “Right. I almost forgot about our movie night.” Then she frowned. “Except…you don’t have a TV up here. I guess I didn’t think this through.”
Thank God. She couldn’t snuggle with me if we were downstairs.
“Actually, I already thought of that,” Brock said, giving me a knowing look. “I knew you’d be down for a while, and navigating the stairs can be such a bitch, so I took it upon myself to get you a TV.”
I could have slapped the smile off his face as he walked into the hall and returned with a TV that fit perfectly on top of my dresser. That bastard was just trying to rile me up now.
“And the internet is having some issues?—”
“What issues?” I cut in, knowing exactly what he was doing.
“You know, it’s strange,” he chuckled. “It was working fine yesterday. The company called and said there were some outages in the area.” He scratched his jaw in thought. “Strange, isn’t it?”