All the Wrong Places by Ann Gallagher

Author:Ann Gallagher [Gallagher, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Published: 2016-03-03T05:00:00+00:00

The next morning, I called in to work, then called the school and let them know Tariq would be out today. I’d made him an appointment at ten thirty so his dentist could check the tooth and the stitches, and we’d figure out the rest of the day from there. His attendance record was immaculate, and he was doing fine on his schoolwork—staying home to recover a little wouldn’t hurt him.

As long as we didn’t have to be anywhere for a while, I let him sleep in. Around eight, as I was drinking my first cup of coffee, I heard some movement at the end of the hall. I gave him another minute or so, then put some hot chocolate in the microwave for him.

Just as the microwave beeped, Tariq limped into the kitchen. I quickly schooled my expression so he didn’t see the alarm that shot through me. The scrapes on his face had scabbed over, and his lips were puffy. He shuffled like he was sore from head to toe, which he probably was.

“Hey.” I set the hot chocolate in front of his place at the table. “How you feeling?”

He winced as he sat down. “Hurts.”

“What hurts?”

“Everywhere.”

“Everywhere? Just bruised and sore? Or is it really bad?”

“Sore.” The splint in his mouth gave him a subtle lisp, but it wasn’t bad.

“Well, they sent some pain pills home with you. You need to eat something, though. Anything sound good?”

He scowled. “My mouth hurts.”

“Oatmeal?”

He shook his head slowly.

That made sense. His gums and jaw were probably tender, and even chewing something that soft might hurt. But what else did I have in the house that he could eat? Despite having a father with no qualms about eating leftover cold pasta for breakfast, Tariq turned up his nose at eating anything before noon that wasn’t a breakfast food.

Almost anything.

I grinned. “Hey, you remember all those times you wanted pudding for breakfast?”

His eyebrows rose.

“I think we can probably do that just this once.”

Gingerly, he smiled, more on one side than the other. “Really?”

“You gotta eat something. But it’s only while your mouth is healing. Okay?”

Tariq nodded. “Okay.”

I took a few cups of chocolate pudding from the pantry, peeled off the lids, and put the cups on the table for him. Then I sat across from him with my coffee.

“So,” I said. “I’m really, really sorry it took me so long to get there last night.”

He shrugged and took a spoonful of pudding. “I was okay. Brennan showed me how to play that game on his phone.”

“I saw that.” I wrapped my hands around my coffee mug to keep from wringing them and letting him see how much of a wreck I was. “But I, um . . . I got stuck at work, or I’d have been there sooner.”

“I know.” He licked the spoon and put it back in the cup for some more. “Brennan told me.”

“Did he?”

He nodded. “He said you couldn’t talk while you were driving.”

Oh. Well, I guess that did explain it.

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