Las Vegas Sidewinders: Drake (Book 2) by Kat Mizera Read Free Book Online Page B

direction. I really don’t even care about my arm and
leg so much. My face, though…”
    “Well, every 10 years
your skin will start to sag from aging and I can cut off an inch at a time,”
Mack said with a chuckle. “But until then, I’m going to try really hard. I just
need to know—what is your relationship with my brother and how much am I
allowed to tell him? Sleeping with him makes things a little bit complicated
for me professionally.”
    “I’ll sign anything you
need in that regard,” Erin said lightly. “We’re friends. I think we’d both like
to explore more, but until I come to terms with my body, I can’t think about
anything else. You can tell him anything you want about the results of the
surgery, and the procedures before and after. I have nothing to hide. He hasn’t
seen the scars, but he knows they’re there.”
    “Wait—how is that
possible?” Kate spoke up with a frown. “You had sex .”
    Erin felt her face turn
bright red again. “Oh my God, use your imagination!” She rolled her eyes. “You
don’t have to be completely naked, you know!”
    “Oh shit, TMI,” Mack
gasped, falling into her chair with a bark of laughter. The four women laughed
at her reference to “too much information,” and shared a knowing grin.
    “I am so going
to die of embarrassment!” Erin moaned.
    “I am so going to
give him shit at Thanksgiving,” Mack twittered.
    “This is awesome!” Kate
was still laughing, happy to see her friend experiencing some semblance of
normalcy.
     “So, how soon do
you want to do it?” Mack turned to her calendar.
    “I’m supposed to be
back at work Monday, but since this is related to my injuries in Afghanistan, I
can call my CO—commanding officer—now and tell him I’ve decided to have another
surgery. He’s a good guy—I’m sure he’ll be fine with it.”
    “If you can get the
time off, let’s do it Tuesday. I can take some blood work today to make sure
there are no surprises; we’ll get the results by Monday and I can take you on
Tuesday if everything is good.”
    “That works for me,”
Tessa said, whipping out her cell phone. “My mother-in-law can take Raina Tuesday
so I can be with you, and then my mother usually takes her on Wednesdays so
that’s two days I can devote to anything you need.”
    “And I can just work
from here,” Kate added, also looking at the calendar on her phone. “No events
next week require my attendance.”
     “Dr. Riser?”
Tessa spoke so softly they barely heard her.
    “Please call me Mack.
At this point, you’ve all basically seen my brother naked—at least in your
heads—so we might as well leave out the formalities.”
    Erin flushed red again
as Kate laughed out loud, but Tessa looked so earnest.
    “What is it, Tessa?”
Mack asked softly, noting her discomfiture.
    “What do you really think? We have to know. Erin is going to agonize, and we need to be prepared
for what happens next. It’s been a horrible two years—if you think it’s
probably not going to work, we need to be prepared for that. Really prepared.”
Tessa’s blue eyes were filled with tears as she squeezed Erin’s hand.
    “I am 95% sure I can
fix her eye and her hairline. I am 60% sure I can make her face better—if I see
the same things I saw during the other failed procedures, I will concentrate my
efforts on the side of her nose and the skin under her eye so that at least the
basic features look normal again. And finally, I don’t know if I can make any improvement in her arm and leg.” She looked around the room. “Those burns are
extensive and as deep as the muscle. This procedure is only my fourth on an
adult. If you’d like to wait another year, after I’ve done more research and
other procedures—”
    “No!” Erin shook her
head vehemently. “I’m not putting my life on hold anymore. I’ll be 30 next year
and I’d like to have a baby someday. I need to put my life back together. I
also need to be a normal,