Groomless - Part 1 by Sierra Rose Read Free Book Online

up my mind at the very last minute. Maybe I’m not all spur-of-the-moment like you, but I’m getting there.”
    “Well, adventure is like fine wine or aged cheese, an acquired taste. Honey, life is short, and moments are fleeting. We have to take risks, just go out there and grab the bull by the horns. If you don’t, you end up with the end of the bull where the crap comes out, and who needs more bullcrap?”
    I laughed; my father had a way with words, and I liked to think I’d inherited some of it. “So taking you to the burger joint is grabbing the bull by the horns?”
    “You might not be spontaneous, but I know you can’t resist a challenge.”
    My gaze narrowed as he played another angle. “What’s up your sleeve?”
    “I challenge you to sneak me outta here for a burger run.”
    “You’ve doubled up on the pain patches, haven’t you?”
    He laughed.
    “You’re right. I can’t resist a dare,” I said, “but you also know I won’t break the rules.”
    His green eyes blazed.
    “Hmm. Maybe rules are meant to be broken, Dad, but I’m sure you didn’t think that when I broke curfew after prom.”
    “That was ages ago, and I didn’t want you being so wild and reckless then.”
    “But it’s okay to be wild and reckless now?”
    “You’re twenty-three, a grown woman, and I’m a grown man. I want a burger, and it’s my constitutional right to have one, right?”
    “I’m not sure I ever read anything in the Bill of Rights about Burger King, Dad.”
    “Touché.”
    “You just love constant adventure,” I said. “It’s an adrenaline rush to you.”
    “Yup. Always have and always will. These days, I can’t go cliff-diving or dive with the sharks, so I’ll have to get my kicks sneaking out for fast food. Now let’s go.”
    I picked up my cell phone and called a taxi to meet us out front. I then hooked a green oxygen tank to his wheelchair. “Okay. Spontaneous it is,” I said. “You climbed Mt. Everest, so I guess there’s no keeping you down.”
    “Onward and forward!” he yelled as I quickly pushed him down the hall.
     
    Chapter 4
     
    I had to laugh as I rolled my father down the corridor in his wheel chair while he shouted, “Woo-hoo!” It was really like one of those beautiful, triumphant moments in an ABC Family movie. I moved at a sprint, elated and delighted at an odd sense of freedom that overcame me. I had to admit that being spontaneous felt more wonderful.
    “Lookin’ good, Bill,” said an older woman with a scarf over her head. “Got good results from that test this mornin’, I take it.”
    I looked at my dad, surprised that he hadn’t mentioned it to me. “Dad, did the tests come back today?”
    The band on his arm set off the alarm at the door, and I bit my lip as two orderlies rushed toward us.
    “Busted,” I said.
    “Quick! Make a break for it,” my dad said.
    With my rebel of a father cheering me on, I pushed him to the waiting taxi. I packed up the wheelchair and got him squared away. As soon as I slid into the taxi beside him, I asked again, “Well? What did the tests show?”
    “I don’t wanna talk about that right now,” he said. “I’ll fill you in after dinner.”
    “Okay,” I said, assuming by his beaming face that the results must have been pretty positive.
    “Can you believe they put that wander guard on me?” he said. “I’m not gonna run away.”
    The taxi driver smiled and said in broken English. “Um, is you not doing this now?”
    We both burst out in laughter.
    “You know what I mean,” he said. “I’m not a flight risk. Besides, this is their fault. If they wouldn’t serve me hockey pucks for dinner, I wouldn’t have to go out to get a decent meal.”
    My dad wasn’t usually a complainer, but I was sure the stress of being away from home was just getting to him. The meals at the nursing home had been horrendous lately, as the new cook they’d hired was only one step above me on the scale of culinary chaos.
    My dad started