AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t leave,” I growl, standing to retrieve the paper. I angrily flick it back on the bed and scrub both hands through my hair, then pace back and forth, feeling her questioning gaze on me. There’s a lot to say but nowhere to start, so Billi waits, silently watching my private meltdown unfold. Feeling a decade older and a whole lot more clueless than I did this morning, I sit back down and sigh. Dejected. Confused. Lost. I look up at her. “Sorry. I wasn’t aiming for your head.”
She offers me an apologetic shrug. “Well, that’s a load off my mind. It isn’t every day that a guy pelts me with a spit wad on accident.”
Billi makes me smile in spite of myself. “I didn’t spit on it.”
She purposely bumps my thigh as she sits down and reaches for the balled-up paper, working to smooth it across her lap. “Thank goodness. I was worried you had the secret maturity of a twelve-year-old. What’s this paper, and why are you mad at it?”
I don’t respond right away, enough anger resurging that I don’t trust my voice to work. I lay back on the bed on top of all my mother’s papers, not even caring if I wrinkle them. They’re nothing but lies. Completely undeserving of respect, much like my parents must have considered me. What was I to them? Just their kid.
“I got it from the hospital today.”
Even with both arms folded over my head, I feel her turn on the bed to look at me. “Yeah, I gathered that much from the Silver Bell Memorial Hospital logo plastered across the top.” The woman is fluent in sarcasm. It cuts through my foul mood, and I feel myself smirk.
“You should be a reporter.”
“Since apparently the ability to read is the only qualification, maybe I will.”
It’s my turn to bump her with my leg. “Smart ass.”
“So, I’m told. Now, do you want to tell me what this is, or can I read it? Medical privacy and all that. Don’t want to invade yours if you’d rather I not.”
For a moment, I’m touched until I squint up at her and catch her in the act.
“You’re already reading it.”
“Well yeah, but it’s still polite to ask.” I watch as her gaze slides across the page, then drops to the next. “You’re A negative. That’s a rare type if I remember my high school biology class, right.”
I nod, bitterness slowly crawling back up my throat. “Incredibly rare. But you know what’s even rarer?” I slide my arm to my chest and stare up at the ceiling.
“What?”
“Having A negative blood when neither one of your parents had that type. My mom was B positive. My dad was O.”
The sentence hangs between us for a moment, a stretched rubber band right before it pops. Those suckers sting.
Billi shifts to face me, her knee pressing lightly into my hip as she covers my hand with her own. It’s a nice feeling at the worst possible time. “I was a terrible student, but that can’t be good.”
“It’s about as not good as you think it is. It’s scientifically impossible not to share a blood type with one of your parents. Unless, of course…”
Unless, of course.Three words that detonate like a bomb.
“Unless you weren’t technically related to them,” she finishes the sentence for me.
“There’s notechnicallyabout it.”
“So…you were adopted? And no one told you?”
I shrug. “Appears that way.”
She lies back on the bed, still holding onto my hand but keeping a few inches of space between us. It’s selfish, but suddenly my body becomes consumed with thoughts of kissing her. I inch a bit closer, my mid-section on fire, my pulse ratcheting up, every muscle tense with anticipation. But I turn my head the other way and stare at the wall, knowing exactly what the feeling is. A distraction. A need to think about anything but my lying, no-good parents. Billi is hot as hell, maybe the most oddly attractive woman I’ve ever met. Punk rocker chick never looked so good.
But even I am not that much of an ass.
I take a deep breath to regain some self-control and turn to face her. She’s staring right at me, concern tucked into the crease between her eyebrows.
“Have you found an adoption certificate?”
I shake my head. “No. I found a birth certificate, though. Except it wasn’t for me.”
