Page 74 of Property of Bob

I’d gotten my wish.

Anchor had pushed me back to the clubhouse from the parking lot after I’d finally given in and sat my ass in the wheelchair. I hadn’t liked it. Not even a little. There was something about having another grown man push me around that made me feel like I couldn’t do a damn thing for myself, even though I knew that wasn’t true.

I could walk. Just not very fucking far.

And apparently, standing in a parking lot for five minutes while everybody argued about the weather and Shay’s tits counted as overdoing it.

So I’d sat my ass down and let Anchor push me.

I’d also managed not to tell him to fuck off more than twice on the way back to the clubhouse.

Now I was parked at the end of one of the tables in the common room with a plate of food in front of me and a beer I wasn’t allowed to drink sitting in Push’s hand across from me.

Push took a long drink.

“Asshole,” I rasped.

Push lowered the bottle and smiled. “Skull said it was doctor’s orders.”

“Didn’t hear the doctor tell you to drink it in front of me,” I growled. “Give me the fucking beer.”

“No.”

I lifted my middle finger.

Push laughed and took another drink.

“Keep fucking with him,” Anchor warned from beside Pearl. “He’s going to get pissed off, try to stand up, and then we’re going to have to pick his ass up off the floor.”

“I can fucking stand,” I grumbled.

“Then why are you still sitting?” Push asked.

I looked at him.

He smiled. “That’s what I thought.”

I was going to kill him. I stabbed my fork into a piece of chicken and shoved it into my mouth instead.

The clubhouse was loud around me. Exactly the way it was supposed to be.

Someone had music playing from the speakers behind the bar. Post and Lost were arguing about something at the other end of the table. Piney was bitching because Wannabe had apparently used the last of some hot sauce before he left to stay with Erin and hadn’t put it on the grocery list. Pearl and Shay were talking over each other while Anchor occasionally threw in a word even though I was pretty sure neither of them was listening to him.

Normal.

I leaned back in the chair and let myself take it in. I’d missed this. I hadn’t realized how much until I’d rolled through the clubhouse doors again.

The hospital had been too quiet even when it wasn’t. Machines beeped. Shoes squeaked down the hallway. Nurses came and went. The television was always on somewhere, but nobody was actually watching it.

This was home.

I took another bite and looked across the room. Ramona sat between Shay and McKayla.

Since we’d come back from the parking lot, I’d known where Ramona was every second. When I’d been sitting outside while Piney and Post messed with the RV, she’d been close enough that I could hear her laughing. When everybody started heading back toward the clubhouse, she’d walked beside my chair until Pearl pulled her into some conversation about the haunted house.

Now she was maybe fifteen feet away.

Close. In my orbit.