Rooter (Double H Romance) by Teiran Smith Read Free Book Online

firsthand.”
    We come to a railroad track and he slows way down in an obvious attempt not to jostle me too much. Rooter looks out of place behind the wheel of a car. Especially in my grandma-esque two thousand and four Toyota Camry. “Well, let me tell you, first hand, they’re not all rumors.” He shoots me a stern look, trying to convey a message.
    “Is that what you meant when you said,” I raise my left hand to make a quote, “Consider yourself warned?”
    He looks back to the road. “That’s part of it.” 
    “If you’re so bad, why are you helping me?”

Chapter 5
Another Argument
    Rooter hesitates, lets out a deep breath and his shoulders sag. “I don’t know.”
    “I have a hard time believing you do anything without a reason.”
    He shakes his head infinitesimally and raises an eyebrow. “You’re perceptive, you know that?”
    I lean in his direction, ignoring the searing pain it causes. “So what’s your reason for helping me?”
    He pulls over and turns to me with a conflicted expression. “Fuck it,” he throws his right hand in the air, “here goes. I’ve been watching you since I moved in three years ago,” he admits.
    My eyes go wide and my breath catches. Holy shit. He’s been watching me for three years?
    “The first time I saw you,” he continues, “was when you thrashed the girl across the street.”
    He’s referring to Janelle. She rents the house across the street from us. There’s no parking on her side of the street, so when she moved in she claimed the spot in front of our house. Miranda parked there one day and Janelle went off. A fight ensued and poor Miranda, unsurprisingly, was on the losing end, so I stepped in and ended it. A quick left hook and a knee to her nose was all it took.
    “The second time I saw you, you came to help Mrs. Frank in the garden. You had the face of an angel.”
    I gape at him in total disbelief.
    “I watched as you came and went, visiting the Frank’s. You washed their cars and helped around the house. But the day you moved in I decided to learn more about you.”
    I can tell there’s more he wants to say, but he stops there, allowing me to process the information.
    “You watch me?”
    “More than you watch me.” 
    Shit! He knows.  I stare at him, mouth agape. Without another word, Rooter puts the car in drive.
    Rooter pulls into the Urgent Care parking lot, parks, and shuts off the engine. He turns to me with a mixture of sadness and worry etched into his face. “Sophie,” his voice is so gentle, “I wasn’t kidding when I said I know a lot about you.” He turns in his seat to face me. “I know about your childhood. About your mom. About how you left home after she put a gun to your head.” He pauses long enough that I think he’s done, but then speaks again, softly. “I know about the rape.”
    Tears pool in my eyes and a lump forms in my throat. He knows about the worst moments of my life. My chest aches. How does he know all these things? More importantly, what else does he know? The pain in my ankle takes a backseat to the wave of emotion I’m experiencing. “You know a lot about me.”
    He nods. “You’re like a walking contradiction. So strong, and yet so frail.”
    With those words, it seems he understands me better than anyone. I wipe a tear away with the back of my hand.
    “Now are you scared?” He asks.
    “No.” I should be. A normal person would be.
    Rooter shakes his head, gets out, walks to my door and helps me out as gently as possible. He lifts me into his arms and carries me to the Urgent Care entrance.
    “How can I be afraid of you when all you do is help me?”
     
    An X-ray confirms my ankle isn’t broken, but severely sprained. The doctor wraps it, prescribes Vicodin for the pain and recommends RICE: rest, ice, compression, and elevation. I can’t work for two weeks.
    I hobble to the car on crutches with Rooter at my side. We haven’t spoken since we walked into the Urgent Care facility. The