Page 88 of Things I Read About

I reach the iPad, hearing something crash in the next room and a few choice expletives from Nate. I turn back, extending the device out so Nate can tap whatever combination he needs in order to fix it.

The iPad set up isn’t the same as my phone because Shep’s system is stupid.So stupid!

I charge up to Nate to shove the thing in his huge, sweaty chest, but I charge too fast, upsetting Katniss.

Nate is in front of me in a flash, taking a fierce headbutt, directly to his crotch. I scream and he grunts out a quiet, “Oh, God.”

“He’s clearly abandoned us.”

“Stay back,” he grits out. He holds out his hand for the iPad, but Katniss is coming again and, the way he’s crouching, she’s going to get him in the knee.

A goat her size could fracture his kneecap.

I jump in the way this time, getting hit square in the stomach so hard I fall down and throw up all the strawberries I had for breakfast. I reach out as I tumble, grabbing the blanket as I go.

“Dammit,” Nate groans, still hunched over in pain. Then his voice is clear and loud over the music. “Do not move, Sally. Do you hear me? Do not.”

“Okay, okay.” I hear him grouse as he shifts to pull the iPad from the debris. Thankfully, the music stops.

Nate steps past me to face off with the goat. Katniss charges again, but he lets her come at him and once she’s within arm’s reach, he takes her down like it’s nothing. Then, as if he does it all the time, he hoists her up over his shoulders, wearing her like a scarf. Her legs dancing on either side of his head.

If I had to guess, she hates this new position, because she’s yelling her little goat head off.

Nate looks at me, furious. “You. Stay still. I mean it.”

I nod and watch him take huge fast steps, grunting as he goes. Katniss continues to bleat as loud as she can, and I let out a nervous chuckle when I hear him talk back to her. “Feeling is mutual, asshole!”

I hear doors slam and animal sounds.

It’s mayhem all around me. Glass pieces, porcelain from a shattered lamp, paper scraps are everywhere—from my paperback I left on the coffee table. Dirt mixed with blood from my knees. And then there’s the regurgitated strawberries.Gross!I have to clean it, that section at the very least. I stand, hissing as I do.

“What part of don’t move do you not understand?” Nate demands.

Of course.Of course,he’s back just in time to see me moving.

“Sally, you’re bleeding.”

“It looks worse than it—”

Once again, I’m airborne. In his arms, but only for a second, before I’m placed on the kitchen counter.

His taut arms are on either side of me, angry eyes scanning my bloody knees. “If I tell you to sit and stay, are you capable?”

I roll my eyes and start to gripe back but Nate disappears into the bunker. It takes him no time at all to find and retrieve the excessively large first aid kit.

“Look, you stayed,” he says, snarkily. “Good girl, Sally.” He’s making fun of me, talking to me like I’m one of the dogs, but it’s… not having its intended effect.

I press my thighs together, waiting for him to come closer.

He sets the kit down beside me and opens it, but when he brings the alcohol pad to my legs, his hand trembles.

“Are you squeamish about blood?” I ask, surprised.

“It’s not that.” He straightens, hands on hips. “Don’t you ever,everget in the line of fire like that again.”

“Line of fire?” I almost smile. “It was a goat.”

“I don’t care, Sally.” His voice is tight. “Goat, bullet, asshole boyfriend, stranger on the street, you get behind me and stay behind me. Understood?”