“Was I just naked?”
I stood and grabbed a clean pair of shorts off the counter. “You were, but now you’re not so we don’t need to talk about it.” I worked his shorts up his legs and waited for him to lift his butt. I was bent over at the waist and my face was right in front of his. “Lift up, Roc.”
He slowly lifted up, and I quickly pulled his shorts up. “You seem a bit flustered right now, Doc.”
I was, but did he really need to point it out? I was feeling things for Roc that I shouldn’t. Never mind the fact I had just stood in the shower with him for twenty minutes while he was naked with only a small wash cloth over his dick, I was also just warming up to him in general. Sure, he was gruff and to the point, but that was part of his charm. That was Roc, and I oddly liked it.
“Shirt?” I asked.
“No.”
I wished he would have said yes. It was hard enough dealing with a shirtless Roc when I was giving him a bath. Having dinner and watching TV with him when he was shirtless was a whole different ballpark.
I helped him into the wheelchair and breathed a sigh of relief when I didn’t have to touch him anymore. “What do you want for dinner?”
I had thought of having dinner beforehand but figured Roc would be dead tired after eating, and I wanted to make sure he got a bath.
“Burger. Fries,” he grunted.
“Then why didn’t we just go out with everyone else?”
The Rooster was known for their juicy, delicious burgers. There was no way I could make a burger even close to those.
“Because I wasn’t up for going out. It’s fine for me to wheel around the garage in this chair, but I’m not really up for going out in public.”
I hung up the towels and watched Roc wheel out of the bathroom. “Why don’t you want to go out in public?” I asked.
I followed Roc out of the bathroom and into the kitchen.
He opened the fridge and pulled out a beer. “Because I don’t want to.”
“I’m sure you’ve got friends outside of the garage. We could go out with them one night if you want.”
I didn’t want Roc to think he had to stay in the house doing nothing. He had two broken legs, but he was getting better every day and able to get around pretty good as long as he didn’t need to walk.
“Not really up for the pity party, Doc.”
I pulled the grill pan out from under the cabinet and set it on the stove. “They’re your friends. Why would they have a pity party?”
Roc wheeled into the living room. “Just not into people telling me how sorry they are about the accident..”
“Well, we are going to do some things that don’t involve going to the garage.”
I had a week left of my vacation from work, and I wanted to do a couple of things that had been on my list. I had planned on staying with Roc for at least two more weeks after I went to work, but before then, I wanted to go have some fun.
“Like what?”
“Well, I’ve always wanted to go to the aquarium in Chicago. Then we could do pizza and walk around downtown.”
“Walk?” Roc chuckled.
I rolled my eyes and grabbed the hamburger patties from the fridge. “You know what I mean.”
The man was such a dry, sarcastic smartass.
Roc wrinkled his nose. “Aquariums and strolling around downtown Chicago really aren’t my thing, Doc.”
I turned the burners on under the grill pan and unwrapped the burgers. “Well, that’s too bad. I think you can do something that really isn’t your thing for a day.”
I grabbed a bag of tater tots from the freezer and spread them out on a baking sheet. I stuck them in the air fryer and got to work on the burgers.
“Isn’t there like a car museum or something like that we could go do?”
I was surprised Roc even made a suggestion. Granted, it involved cars, but it was better than going to the garage and bossing around the race team.
I plopped the burgers on the grill and grabbed the pack of buns that were sitting on the counter. “We could look to see if there is something in driving distance.”
I was going to latch onto any idea Roc had. We were going to go out and do things, but I much preferred them to be things that Roc would enjoy doing.
“Isn’t the whole USA within driving distance? Well, besides Hawaii and Alaska. Just depends on how far you want to drive.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, you’re right. I mean something within five or so hours. I think any further than that and you’ll get uncomfortable in the car.”
Roc scrolled on his phone while I finished making dinner.
“You want to eat in the living room or at the table?” I called.
The food was ready, and my stomach was growling from being so hungry.
Roc rolled into the kitchen and grabbed an empty plate. “Fill me up, doc.”
I laid a bun on his plate and topped it with a burger. “What do you want on it?”
“Everything,” he grunted.
After I put the lettuce, tomato, ketchup, pickles, and mayo, I pressed down the top of the bun and wondered how the hell Roc was even going to get that in his mouth. “May the odds ever be in your favor,” I mumbled.
I dumped a pile of tater tots on his plate and a huge squirt of ketchup.
He set the plate in his lap and wheeled over to the kitchen table. “Good thing I’m starving,” he laughed.
I made my burger the same as his but skimped on the tater tots. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to eat it all, but it looked too good not to try. I sat down opposite Roc and dug into my food.
Roc had his phone next to his plate and he read off it as he picked up his burger. “There is a classic car museum in Canton. About three hours from here.”
“That’s not too bad. Is there anything else we could do there?” I didn’t want to drive three hours only to look around the museum an hour and then drive back home three hours.
“Just call me Google, Doc,” he mumbled. “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is about fifty miles away from there and also there is the Pro Football Hall of Fame there.”
I rolled my eyes and groaned. “I vote for the car museum and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I can’t do football. So boring,” I grumbled.
I was beginning to appreciate cars more now that I had been around Roc, but football was a huge no-go for me. I had to draw the line somewhere.
Roc took a bite of his burger. “Sounds good to me. Not really into football either.”
“Are you really gonna have a cookout Sunday?”
I was nervous but also excited that Roc wanted to have people over. His earlier comment about not wanting to go out made me wonder if I was going to have to drag him kicking and screaming to places. Thankfully, he had agreed to go to Canton.
He nodded. “We normally do something when we have a bye week.”
“We’ll have to go shopping.”
Susan had stocked up Roc pretty well, but I knew we didn’t have nearly enough food for a party. Shopping with Roc was sure to be interesting.
“Shop Friday, go to Canton Saturday, and then grill out Sunday.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “For the record, this is one of the best burgers I’ve ever had.”
I pointed to his bare forearm. “And you don’t have grease dripping down your arm like you would if you were at the Rooster.”