Chapter 36

I knocked on her door and rearranged the panties hanging around my neck so they were obvious if the scent of feminine arousal wasn’t enough to tell the tale.

She opened the door and shook her head. “What have you gotten yourself into this time?” she asked with a chuckle, letting me in.

“I could tell you I took a job as a part time carpet cleaner, but that would be a lie. There was no carpet,” I told her lightly.

“And are those Ingrid’s size or Samantha’s?” she asked, hooking a finger in the panties.

“I haven’t been to see Ingrid today,” I said brightly. “That’s a great idea though!” I let a grin light up my face as if I hadn’t thought of the prospect. “Samantha did ask me to tell you that you’re falling behind though.”

“So how far did she go with you?” she asked, wondering just how many points in their competition she was behind by.

“She stood there and I kissed her deeply until she couldn’t stand up on her own any more. She never touched me beyond a very thorough examination of my wounds.”

“I see,” she said with a slight smile. “From the look of your chin and cheeks, she either has a drooling problem I never noticed before or you were kissing her somewhere more interesting than her mouth.”

“No lipstick, but plenty of gloss,” I confirmed.

“Alright, get lost and let me think of how to deal with Samantha. I’ll see you next week. I hope you don’t need me before then, but call if you do.”

I nodded and slipped out of her office, heading down to x-ray. Diego wasn’t expecting me to be on a set schedule since he knew I had appointments with Samantha and Victoria, so I took the time to stop in, looking for Ingrid.

She was just showing a patient out when I came down the hall and she paused to speak to me. “I didn’t expect to see you quite so soon,” she said with a grin. “Couldn’t get enough of being seen right through yesterday?” she asked.

“Well that and I wanted to make sure you saw Day 2 proof,” I hooked a finger in the underwear around my neck and she blinked in surprise.

“That looks more like displaying a trophy than wearing them,” she pointed out and sniffed the air. “They smell like a trophy too.”

I shrugged. “I’m fourteen,” I said apologetically. “I’m too young to drink, too smart to smoke and they won’t let me drive my fast car yet. Bragging is my only vice.”

“Boys don’t get these without indulging in a completely different vice,” she said, pointing to my throat.

“True, but I thought you might be amused to know I’m going to my appointment with Diego next. His eyes are going to boil in their sockets.”

She laughed at that. “Like three-minute eggs!” she agreed. “I wish I could be there to see that.”

“You want me to tell him I just came from seeing you or do you want me to leave his imagination alone in the woods to wander on its own?” I grinned at her.

She laughed again, the thought of his face seeming to be hilarious to her. “Which do you think will drive him crazier?”

“I think he’ll assume that they’re yours,” I confided. “Give me your number and I’ll text you to let you know what happened.”

She gave me a knowing smile. “You could have just asked for my number,” she pointed out.

“I don’t like to put pressure on people,” I reminded her. “If I’d asked for it yesterday, you’d assume that I was gonna use it to hit on you.”

“And you’re not?” she asked with an arched eyebrow.

“Not in particular,” I said. “You haven’t shown any real interest in me that way. I like you and you’re hot, but if you’re not interested, I’d rather be friends and not make you awkward being around me because I seem to need an alarming amount of x-rays. By the way, do you have a really attractive female friend? Someone that you look at and think that you’re not gonna get any attention if the two of you go out clubbing together?”

She nodded. “My friend Wanda,” she confirmed. “She does some modeling locally. You asking me to set you up?” she asked with a smirk.

“I’m not even looking to meet her, really,” I said, “but when Diego asks if they’re yours, I can deflect him by telling him you have this GORGEOUS model friend and then tell him it’s impolite to kiss and tell.”

She howled with laughter at that. “He’ll swallow his tongue!”

She gave me her number, still chuckling about Diego fantasizing about a friend hotter than her. I programmed it into my phone and promised to let her know how Diego reacted.

She grinned, making her look even more alluring and then I was off to my last appointment of the day.

I tapped on his door and he waved me in, barely glancing at me as he peered at something on his computer. “Just gimme a sec,” he said. “I’m checking over your x-rays from yesterday a little more.”

“Take your time. Nothing wrong on the pictures, I hope,” I said lightly. “The arm feels good after yesterday.”

He shook his head, but didn’t answer, looking over the details of the scans in minute detail for several minutes. Finally he leaned back and nodded. “I think we can kick it up a notch or two,” he said finally. “I’ve been comparing your original x-rays to the new ones and you’re WAY ahead of where you should be for this stage of your recovery. I mean, we’ve all been talking about it, but I have to know what you’re doing. Are you juicing on something? If you’re more comfortable talking about it off the record, we can do that and I can investigate the health benefits without attaching a note to your file, but I’ve gotta know. I have too many patients that could benefit from it.”

“Sex,” I told him. “I eat as well as I can, follow orders as well as I can and fuck like a porn star. That’s really the only thing I can think of that’s abnormal about me.”

He looked at me skeptically and then sniffed the air. “Did you...” he trailed off and saw the panties hanging around my neck. “You did! You just got laid in this building! I know you’ve been here since school let out and that smells fresh. Miss Fine take pity on your skinny white ass?”

“Well, I DID just come from seeing her, but these aren’t hers,” I took a picture of the shock on his face so I could send it to her.

“I’m all ears man! If it wasn’t her, then who?!!?” he asked, leaning over the desk.

“I can’t say,” I told him. “I can tell you that Ingrid does have an absolute drop-dead gorgeous friend. She does some modeling. I’m thinking of asking her for some tips and seeing if I can hit an endorsement deal off my YouTube channel. I’ll have to bring it up, the next time I see her.”

“So you went down to see Miss Fine, banged her girl and she never batted an eyelash?” he asked, eating it up. “Did she say ANYTHING about it?”

“Well, she did give me her number so I could text her later and she gave me the kind of smile that makes me look forward to that conversation,” I confided, telling him the truth without putting anything in proper context.

“You son-of-a...” he trailed off in awe. “You nail her friend and she wants you to have her number for later? HOW?”

“I told you, sex is my therapy,” I shrugged. “I feel a lot better in the morning if I have sex the night before.”

He shook his head. “Well, that’s really not a service your average physical therapist can offer for recovery,” he muttered dismissively. “I guess I can start recommending it to people that have a partner though.”

“I dunno. Dr. Spencer says I’m fairly unique. This could just be a quirk of how my body works. People heal different, right? I’m young, in good shape, worked out my shoulders extensively before the shooting and may have a genetic predisposition toward rapid recovery.”

He nodded and shrugged. “I’ll talk to a few patients about it and see if it impacts their recovery much,” he said hopefully.

“Well let’s get to work and see how well my shoulder is taking the new workload,” I suggested.

We went out to the main gym area and he ran me through my paces for the next hour. “You’re in good shape, but we’re gonna hold it there for the next week or two before we try to push further,” he told me.

“Dr. Forester said you anticipate me being back to normal by the end of the month,” I mentioned as I rolled my shoulder experimentally. “Where am I now, in your opinion?”

“You’re well over even the 50% estimate we had earlier. I’d say that you should stick to the weight we discussed and see how that feels for the rest of the week, then we’ll look into increasing it and seeing how you take that upgrade. You’re moving faster than I’m comfortable with, but I don’t think we’re bringing you along as fast as you could go in your condition. Be patient with me for a little longer. I don’t want to overdo it and put you back where you were.”

I nodded. “I understand,” I said. “This week I feel like we’re finally moving forward. I don’t wanna screw that up. What about returning to my other activities like Kung Fu and rejoining cheer practice?”

“Your shoulder’s still healing,” he reminded me. “It feels good, but a solid hit there and you’d risk all your progress.”

“Okay, so no sparring, but what about attending the class and doing the forms?”

“I think you’ll be okay with that so long as you take it easy,” he agreed. “As for cheer, does that mean you want to cut back on our sessions to three days a week?”

I shrugged. “Not really, but I was training hard for April when I got shot. I hired the cheer coach specifically because she could help me with tumbling and gymnastics too.”

He nodded. “Well, how about I come to the classes for a couple of weeks and I start with warming up your shoulder and end with a few exercises?” he offered.

“That sounds perfect to me!” I said. “Does that mean I can start back tomorrow?”

He thought about it and nodded. “You’re WEEKS ahead of where you should be and I don’t mean like two. This kind of injury usually takes four to six months to heal. It happened seven weeks ago and I think in another three weeks, I’ll be booking a new patient in your slot. That’s kind of miraculous.”

“I’ve been heavily motivated to get well,” I reminded him. “Someone told me to focus on giving those girls a big hug.”

“It doesn’t hurt that you want to kick Chris Evans’ ass,” he laughed. “You think you’ve got his number?”

“I’ve started running, tomorrow I start back with my tumbling coach, I return to Kung Fu this Saturday, I’m almost ready to go back to the routine I was on before all this started. I’m also downplaying my recovery when I post videos so he may be slacking at the gym.”

He laughed. “A little psychological warfare?” he asked.

“My plan is to do a big reveal on my condition about a week before the big day. That’s enough time for him to really hit the gym, but not enough for him to make a big difference in time for the competition. But it’ll be enough time for him to spend most of his energy pushing weight in the gym, so he shows up exhausted.”

“Alright,” he relented. “I’ll come to the class tomorrow and warm you up, watch the class and then evaluate your condition at the end of class. If it works out, we’ll cut back to Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. If your progress starts to hurt, then we’ll look at whether we need to kick it back up to five days a week or if you’re just starting to level off.”

“Thanks, Diego,” I said, meaning it. “I think I’d still be in a sling if not for you.”

“Honestly, I barely did anything,” he protested. “If you DID want to thank me, you’d put in a good word with Miss Fine for me,” he said playfully.

“Not a chance!” I said with a laugh. “If I’m gonna try to get her hooked up with someone, it’s gonna be me. You can be happy for me.”

“You’re lucky you’re still gimped up,” he laughed and flicked my ear. “Otherwise I’d kick your ass for being unkind to the less fortunate.”

“Oh, so now it’s a charity thing?” I asked dryly. “You didn’t strike me as being so hard-up you’d beg for help from a fourteen year old.”

“Ah, get out of here!” he sassed me back. “Who needs help from a skinny white-boy like you. They’re probably hoping your lily-white skin will reflect more sunlight on them when they want a tan.”

“White boys blush better than you can. The girls love it, they think it’s cute,” I told him.

“I suppose that’s true,” he said. “The ladies do go wild when they get a solid blush out of a boy like you.”

“It doesn’t hurt that I can move like a porn star,” I said.

“How would you know about porn stars?” he scoffed.

“Internet,” I shot back. “Diego, before I go, I was on a stretching routine before getting shot. You wanna take a shot at helping me with the initial stretches again before tomorrow?”

He looked at me curiously. “What was it like?” he asked.

“My personal trainer put me onto ballet stretches. My leg feels good and so does my core. I think I’m ready to try it.”

He shrugged and said he was game. I got him to put me through the stretches and had to push him to push me a couple of times.

“You okay?” he asked when we were done. “Some of those stretches are a little unfriendly.”

I got up and concentrated on how I felt, smiling in a distant sort of way. “Yeah. I feel good. I didn’t get you to push me too much. It’s really not even as far as Hanna stretched me out the first time. I’ll be fine.”

I left the hospital and ran home, feeling energized. I let myself into the house and realized everyone was next door at dinner. I went downstairs and tossed Samantha’s panties onto my desk before going to wash up and going next door with a hop of the fence. I was really going to cut the thing down in the spring. I’d had to walk around it one too many times.

I opened the door and everyone was there. Louisa, Hector and Miguel, Gina, Emma, Mom and Lilly, Patty, Dan, Lana and Beck, Tabby, Collie, Tricia and Frank. I blinked. “Family meeting?” I asked, surprised.

“Family dinner,” Patty said. “Nervous?”

“No,” I said, taking off my coat and boots to join them. “It actually gives me a chance to talk to everyone about something I’ve been thinking about. I was planning on doing it Saturday, but Saturday’s going to be busy.”

I rounded the table, giving each of my girls a kiss before I settled in beside Emma. We were having spaghetti and it was delicious. We started digging in and it was Dan that prompted me about what I wanted to talk about.

“Well, let’s hear what’s on your mind,” he said pleasantly.

I paused and looked around the table. “We need a new place,” I said finally. “We’re making do with what we’ve got here, but we all need more space. The houses are way over their capacity. The bathrooms, the kitchens, the general living space, the garages are all getting a little cramped. I think we should look at buying some land and building something that suits us all.”

“You want us to merge the two households?” Patty asked, surprised. She’d been there with me in the depths of the despair I felt when I was sure I’d have to leave them all behind for their good.

“I think we can do better than that,” I said lightly. “There are technically five households at this table and Hanna makes a sixth. I did some searches on land for sale in the area and there’s some available. Even if we can’t find a layout we like for all of us under one roof, we can build two houses on one plot and share a yard, build a pool and deck so that they’re convenient for both houses, or even put up three if everyone wants their own place to escape to.”

“How would you see this all working out?” Frank asked curiously.

I was amazed. I’d expected the most resistance from him. The thought of letting go of the house he’d lived in with Janice was something I expected him to be deeply reluctant to consider. “I don’t have a specific vision that I’m committed to,” I said. “We could do it as one large house and have multiple master suites for everyone to have their own private space to get away to when my antics are too much to handle for the moment or we could just as easily build a main house with a huge kitchen and dining room and then stagger other homes around the property for everyone that doesn’t want to live in the main house. I’m open to suggestions, input, criticism and even opposition if everyone thinks it’s a bad idea.”