Chapter 11
CHAPTER 11
“ D r. L, got a trauma in two for you.”
That was how Aiden’s supper break ended. Not that he was complaining. Staying busy kept him from thinking about the puddle of stress and bills his life had become. He shoved the remainder of his meal into the trash. “What is it?”
“Nail gun gone wrong.”
Aiden grimaced, but at the same time there was that burst of adrenaline in his midsection, the one that he would someday miss if he ever went into private practice. Exhausting as it was, emergency medicine was not without its charms. And it was certainly never dull.
Before he could reach the room, Patricia intercepted him, a grim look on her face. “Dr. L., it’s June.”
Aiden swiveled his head to look. “Where?”
She pointed to the room where he had been heading, and he gasped. “June and a nail gun?”
She nodded. “I’m trying to clamp down the chatter, but people are talking about the curse.”
There was no time to absorb that. Aiden opened the door, expecting to see June with a nail embedded he knew not where. Instead he saw her sitting placidly in a chair, her face deathly pale. Liam lay on the exam table, a handful of nails projecting from his thigh. His face was sweaty and chalky from pain and shock. His eyes were squeezed tightly closed, and his hands were gripped into fists.
“Liam, June,” Aiden said softly. He paused by the sink to wash his hands and put on gloves before easing close to Liam to make his inspection. The leg had been stabilized by the EMT’s, and Aiden saw why. It was perilously close to the femoral artery. The nails weren’t long enough to sever it completely, but it would only take a nick to make an already painful wound turn deadly. On the other hand, all of his vitals looked good and hadn’t changed since the medics first received him.
He finished his inspection and offered Liam a reassuring smile. “I’m optimistic we’re going to be able to remove these, clean you up, and send you on your way with no damage. But I need to see an x-ray first to make sure we’re not dancing on any arteries. And I’m going to order a tetanus booster, okay? How’s the pain?”
“Bad,” Liam said, licking his dry lips.
“We’ll take care of that, too, okay? I promise you in ten minutes you’re going to be feeling no pain, and in a couple of hours, it’s going to be like it never happened,” Aiden said. It was a bit more hyperbolic than he usually aimed for, but there was an odd sort of tension in the room. For June’s sake, he felt almost desperate to diffuse it. He tried to catch her eye, but she stared resolutely at the floor.
Liam muttered something Aiden didn’t catch. He leaned forward, cocking his head. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Not worth it.”
What was he talking about? Surely he didn’t mean that it wasn’t worth it to take the nails out. That kind of fatalism was usually reserved for amputations. “What’s not worth it?”
He motioned to June, still staring at the floor. “It’s not worth it. Nothing is worth this.”
Now June and Aiden both stared at him, with vastly differing expressions. Aiden looked like someone who was watching a speeding train barrel toward a stalled car. June looked resigned, and when she spoke, her voice was soft.
“What did my dad promise you to take me out?”
Liam swallowed hard and squeezed his eyes together. “A new truck.”
Aiden looked at June, but once again June wouldn’t look at Aiden. She merely stood, gliding gracefully to her legs like a wraith, and slipped from the room. Aiden had the perverse desire to jam his fist down on the nails, to make the pain worse. Thankfully, he refrained.
“Someone will be in shortly to take you to x-ray and deliver your meds,” he bit out before turning and leaving the room.
There was no sign of June in the hallway. Patricia breezed by him and inclined her head toward the direction of the chapel. He headed there and opened the door, the reverent silence and darkness of the room swallowing him whole as he stepped inside. After allowing his vision to adjust a few seconds, he saw June sitting in one of the abridged pews at the front of the room, hands folded, head bent as if in prayer. The bench creaked when he sat down beside her.
“He didn’t mean it,” he said softly. “He’s in a lot of pain. People say things when they’re hurt and scared, like cornered animals.”
She looked up at him with a smile so filled with despair it broke his heart. “Which part didn’t he mean? The part where my father offered a man a new car for the burden of dating me, or the part where I’m not worth the fifty thousand dollars a new truck would cost?”
“I don’t understand,” he said, resisting the urge to reach out and touch her. He and Erica had spent hours with June and never once had he seen any red flags, no hidden psychosis, no pockets of crazy or mean or cruel or controlling. In all the many hours she had spent with them, some of which they had spent bickering and exuding stressed impatience, she had never been anything but kind, warm, funny, patient. She was a genuinely lovely person, full of warm-hearted good cheer. Where was the disconnect between that person and the person she became when she was on a date?
“No, I don’t imagine you would,” she said sadly.
“Can you at least tell me what happened?”
She shrugged. “We were in my dad’s workshop. He was helping me build a martin house. For you, actually. It was supposed to be a wedding present for you and Erica. I tell you this because I don’t think I can finish it now, mainly because there’s blood on it. We were joking around, having what I thought was a good time, and then he reached for me and I just…” she paused, swallowing convulsively, “I don’t even know. It happened so fast.”
“It sounds like it was partially his fault. You don’t grab someone who’s holding a nail gun.”
“I don’t think he knew I was holding it when he grabbed me.” She released a shaky breath and tucked a swath of hair behind her ear. “It’s so much easier when it’s me. I had no idea I would feel this badly if it happened to someone else.” She swallowed again, looking like whatever she’d eaten that day was having a hard time staying down. “I cannot do this anymore. I’m so done. For real this time.” She sniffled and swiped impatiently at her eyes. “I mean, I have my dad and brother, I have friends, my little students. Who needs men or love, right?” She gazed up at him with a completely unconvincing smile.
Aiden had no idea what to say. Should he comfort her over her clumsiness? The fact that her father had paid a man to date her? Or the fact that it hadn’t worked? “I don’t know what to say.” If he could, he would hug her, would hold her close and wipe her tears and offer whatever comfort he could. But of course he couldn’t, wouldn’t do those things because she wasn’t his and he wasn’t hers and the very thought of doing so felt like a betrayal to Erica. He shifted, leaning slightly away from her. It was a small movement, but June noticed. She stood.
“So. You guys are all set, house wise. Obviously I’m available for any questions or concerns, but construction is flowing smoothly and Erica knows as much as I do, at this point.”
“June.”
“It’s fine, Aiden. I’m fine. If I don’t talk to you, which I probably won’t, then I wish you all the happiness and joy in your future. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you and Erica these last few months.”
“June,” he began again, but too late. She was already gone.