Chapter 33
“Is your brother here yet?” Jodi asked, simply to have something to say to break the silence.
When he didn’t answer her, she turned her head and opened her eyes to find him sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at the wall. “Danny?”
“I’m going to marry you,” he simply said, taking her by surprise.
“I’m sorry. What’s this now?” she asked, trying to sit up, but the pain shooting up and down her back had her lay back down on her stomach with a wince.
“I’m going to marry you,” Danny said more firmly this time.
“Is this about the condom?” Jodi asked, having absolutely no idea where else this could be coming from.
“Yes,” he said, sighing as he shook his head and said, “No,” confusing her even more.
“Okaaay,” she said, drawing out the word, even more confused now.
“This isn’t because of the condom, Tinkerbelle,” Danny said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I planned on asking you. I have a plan, but I thought after what happened tonight that I should tell you that I planned on marrying you in case-”
“In case this got me pregnant,” Jodi finished for him with a nod of understanding.
“Yes,” Danny said, turning his head and giving her one of those smiles that she loved. “I didn’t want you to worry.”
She grabbed a handful of the comforter as she struggled not to have a nervous breakdown. “I wasn’t worried,” Jodi said, glad that she was lying down for this conversation. She wasn’t ready to get married, not yet.
After what Jerry had put her through, was still putting her through, she was in no position to get married.
She was still cleaning up the damage her last fiancé left her with.
She had an insane amount of debt, barely any savings and a year before she’d be out of debt.
She didn’t want to go into a marriage like that.
She didn’t want her problems to become his.
“Good,” Danny said, leaning down and kissed her cheek, “I don’t want you to worry about anything.”
“Danny, I can’t-”
“Thank God,” he said, sighing with relief as he went to answer the door while she lay there, trying to figure out how she was supposed to tell him that she couldn’t marry him.
“Aidan told me that you needed a doctor,” his father said before he could ask him what he was doing here.
For a moment, Danny considered turning his father away, but Jodi needed him. With a nod, he stepped back and gestured for his father to come in. Without another word, his father walked into the room and headed to the bed, where he suddenly stopped and stared.
“Is that, um,” his father cleared his throat just as he noticed Tinkerbelle’s beautiful skin turning bright red from the tips of her toes to the tips of her ears, “rugburn?”
“Is that Dr. Bradford?” she whispered weakly into her pillow.
“Yes,” Danny said, answering both questions at once.
“I see,” Jodi said, lifting her head as she grabbed her pillow and in one move, pulled the pillow over her head and attempted to hide.
“From this rug?” his father asked offhandedly as he glanced down at the dark green rug.
“Yes,” Danny said, leaning back against the wall, waiting for his father to fix Jodi and leave.
“You’re probably going to need a shot of antibiotics as well as a topical solution just in case,” his father said, clearly intent on acting like he wasn’t even in the room.
Like usual.
He wasn’t having that, not when it came to his Tinkerbelle. “She reacts badly to medicine,” he told his father, not at all surprised when his father didn’t bother looking at him.
“What’s her reaction?” his father asked, taking the black backpack off his shoulder and placing it on the edge of the bed next to Jodi’s dainty little feet.
Jodi mumbled something into the mattress, but since there was no way either one of them could understand her, and he doubted that she was going to pull the pillow off her head to answer them, he decided to answer for her. “She becomes disoriented and intoxicated.”
His father nodded thoughtfully as he looked over the damage done to Jodi’s poor skin while Danny did the same. He felt like such an asshole taking her like that.
“I’m afraid it’s necessary,” his father finally said with a sigh. “Jodi, I’m going to clean the abrasions now and I’m afraid that it’s going to sting.”
He wasn’t sure, but he thought she nodded. “Once your abrasions are clean, I’m going to apply a topical antibiotic, which also has a numbing agent and should give you some relief. After that, I’m going to give you a shot to make sure that you don’t develop an infection. Is that okay with you?”
The pillow on top of her head shifted slightly again. His father took that as another nod. “I’m going to get started now,” his father said with a reassuring smile as he reached into his bag and took out a kit.
Another nod had him walking past his father and around the other side of the bed where he sat down on the bed next to Jodi and took her hand in his. She squeezed his hand but didn’t say anything as his father cleaned her back, bottom, and arms.
“She’s not going to feel like doing anything for a few days, which is for the best. She should relax, stay in bed and give the abrasions a chance to heal. She should refrain from taking baths for the next two days. Showers are fine, but make sure that you apply more antibiotic afterwards.”
She groaned, long and loud beneath the safety of her pillow.
“I’m going to have some antibiotic ointment delivered later,” his father explained as he pulled out a syringe and a small vial of medicine. “For now, this should help you sleep.”
The pillow shifted from side to side and he knew that she was shaking her head because they both knew that whatever his father gave her wasn’t going to help her sleep.
“It will be fine. I promise,” his father said reassuringly as he leaned over and injected Jodi with the medicine that was guaranteed to make the next twelve hours a living hell.
“Sit on her!”
“You do it!” Danny snapped back at his father, who was pressed against the door, trying to stop Jodi from making another escape.
“Please! I just want to go on one ride, two at the most,” Jodi said with that damn perky smile that she’d been trying to use on them for the last couple of hours as she pulled at the collar of the tee-shirt they’d finally managed to get on her an hour ago.
It was one of his shirts and she was practically swimming in it, but at least she was covered.
“We’re not taking you to the Magic Kingdom,” he said, realizing that he probably sounded like a broken record by now.
“I don’t need you to take me. I can take one of the hotel’s super friendly, fast service shuttles,” Jodi said with that damn smile that was starting to make his eye twitch.
“Jodi,” his father said softly, “sweetheart, I don’t think that right now is a good time for you to go to the park.”
“Oh,” she said, scrunching her face up adorably as she considered his words. “Then, can I have something to eat?”
His father sagged against the door as he mumbled, “Thank God.”
“What would you like, Tinkerbelle?” Danny asked soothingly, hoping not to startle her into skipping to another subject since food was safe.
They could handle feeding her and if she was eating, that meant that she wasn’t driving them out of their fucking minds and, not that he would ever admit this, scaring the shit out of them.
“Can I have a burger and fries? And a chocolate milkshake? Or a root beer float?” Jodi asked with a hopeful smile.
“You can have whatever you want,” Danny said, leaning down and brushed his lips against hers, glad that she was finally settling down.
“Write down how she likes her burger and I can go get-” his father began to say, sounding really fucking hopeful.
“I’m getting her burger,” Danny snapped, turning around to glare at his father.
“I’m getting it,” his father snapped back, pushing away from the door.
“You’re the one that gave her the medicine,” Danny pointed out, keeping his gaze locked on his father as he reached out and grabbed his wallet. “You should stay and monitor her.”
“You’re the one that gave her rugburn!”
“He really did,” Jodi said with a dreamy little sigh and smile that he forced himself to ignore and headed for the door.
“I’ll be back in twenty minutes,” Danny said to his father. “Please, just watch her.”
He thought that his father was going to argue, but much to his surprise, his father stepped away from the door with a nod.
Thankful for a break, even a small one, Danny left the room and headed towards the elevator, praying the entire time that Tinkerbelle would be sound asleep by the time he returned, so that he could pretend for at least one night that his father didn’t know that he’d skipped getting matching Mickey ears with his family so that he could fuck his girlfriend raw.