27. Cal
I ran my thumb over the indented scratches on Ruth’s glasses, flinching when the jagged glass bit into my skin. She would need a new pair, so I wasn’t sure why I was hanging onto these. I couldn’t seem to let them go. I glanced up from where I sat beside her hospital bed, eying one of the local police officers interviewing her.
There were six of us in the small hospital room, with Gemma and Rook standing by the sliding glass doors, two officers standing in front of Ruth, and me in a chair on the other side of the wide bed. The accelerated rhythm of Ruth’s heartbeat filled the otherwise silent room before one of the officers looked up from a tablet to address a clearly nervous Ruth.
He had a blocky, frowning face and he tapped a finger against his tablet while his partner jotted down notes on an identical device. “When you say Mr. Hormel detained you, was this with physical force?” They’d already inundated her with questions for over an hour now, and I could tell it was draining her.
Ruth hesitated, her wide eyes bouncing between the two officers. I’d gone back to her house to get her contacts for her, so I knew she could see them clearly even without her glasses. But she still looked confused. “I’m sorry, but I did say he blackmailed me.”
“Yes, but did he detain you?” the bulky officer asked.
His shorter, older partner gave him a side-eye. “What Officer Taft means is, did he restrain you with his hands, handcuffs, rope—anything like that?”
Ruth looked distinctly uncomfortable. “Oh, no. Nothing like that.”
“Not true,” Rook added smoothly. With his bulky arms folded across his chest and his shoulder leaning against the wall casually, he looked more like he was waiting in line at a fucking deli instead of acting as a witness to a crime. “I saw him grab her.”
Simmering anger in my chest ignited into an inferno. “And you let him ?”
Rook blinked back with icy blue eyes. “It looked like a marital spat. Not my business.”
Gemma rounded a furious glare his way. “How about I shove your head up your ass? Will it be your business then?”
Rook angled an amused look down, down, down to the much shorter woman. “Easy, chihuahua. ”
“Chihu—” Gemma started to splutter.
The taller officer cleared his throat. “Thank you, Dr. Rook. Miss Coldwell—”
“Dr. Coldwell,” Ruth and I corrected in tandem.
The officer sighed, his patience apparently beginning to thin. “ Dr. Coldwell. Apologies. Can you confirm what Dr. Rook has just indicated?”
Ruth nodded uneasily. “He did grab me a few times.”
My fingers tightened around her broken glasses so tightly, I heard the lens crack. The shorter officer gave me a knowing look before addressing Ruth. “And did he physically harm you during these instances?”
Ruth seemed to consider that. I loved watching her think—I could practically hear the delicate, mechanical whir of it. “I don’t believe he did. More than actual physical violence, I felt intimidated by the possibility of it.”
The shorter, older man with a head of silver hair nodded and made another note. “Understood.”
“I believe we have everything we need from you, Dr. Coldwell. We will be in touch if we need clarification. Remember to email us those text records when you’re feeling up to it. Is there anything else you’d like to add?”
Ruth physically shrunk away from that. “No, I’m good.”
Once the officers had exited through the heavy, extra-wide hospital room door, Rook straightened away from the wall. “If that’s all you need from me, I’ll be going.”
Gemma’s ears had gone bright pink, and I was surprised steam didn’t jet out from them. “That is not all. You work in the same building as her.” Gemma threw out her hand, gesturing at Ruth. “And you just walked by some asshole threatening her?”
Rook looked at Ruth, arms still folded, and his expression gentled a fraction. “I apologize, Dr. Coldwell. Truly.”
Ruth looked like she wanted to burrow under her blankets, and she brought them up to her chin. “It’s really—it’s fine. Like you said, it probably looked like none of your business.”
Rook nodded once. “I’ll see you around, then.”
“Oh, I really fucking hope not,” Gemma seethed.
Unperturbed by her ferocity, Rook opened the door and gestured for Gemma to exit before him. “I’m sure Ruth is ready to get dressed and go home.”
Gemma glared up at the tall man. Then, deflating slightly, she seemed to accept his inferred suggestion and gave Ruth a worried look. “I’ll stay if you want me to.”
One corner of Ruth’s mouth quirked up. “I’m okay. I do want to go home.”
Gemma gave me a wary glance before looking back to Ruth. “If you’re sure.”
“I’m sure,” Ruth assured her. “I’ll call you when I’m home.”
When Gemma looked back up at Rook, I could have sworn I actually heard a chihuahua-like growl come from the short blond woman. Rook cast a long-suffering look up to the ceiling, and then they were gone.
I stood, glancing at Ruth’s monitor to make sure her vitals were still stable. Not one time had they so much as blipped since we’d been here, but it was like my heart had sustained actual bruising from the shock of seeing her catapult herself from that car. It still smarted when I thought about it.
“Stop worrying,” Ruth said gently. I gave her a silent look of censure, sliding my hands in my pockets. She huffed, and the way she looked up at me through her lashes nearly gave me another heart attack. “I’m fine, Cal.”
I ran my eyes over the angry road rash on her arms, and then on the split down her full lower lip. “Clearly, our definitions of ‘fine’ differ.” She had also opened her knee wound, and the tissue was so damaged from already having been stitched, it looked like she had a baseball hidden under the tightly wrapped dressing.
Ruth blinked once, but for once, she didn’t seem concerned about my reproval. I shouldn’t keep scowling, I knew that, but my worry and anger had returned to a low simmer in my chest, and I still felt like putting my fist through drywall. She gave me a tentative smile. “Want to throw your doctor weight around and get me discharged early?”
Ruth’s scans had looked good—they hadn’t shown any serious damage, and technically, there was no reason for her to remain in the ER. “I can talk to the nurses,” I agreed reluctantly.
Her knowing smile made me want to pinch her cheeks. I’d told her I loved her, and she’d taken that remarkably well considering the circumstances. I couldn’t help but wonder if she reciprocated my feelings, but it didn’t seem like the right time to ask. With one last glance at her picture-perfect vitals, I went out to the nurses’ station to ask Marlene to discharge Ruth.
The older nurse gave me a pinched frown as she handed me the tablet with the discharge paperwork on it. “You seem inappropriately interested in this girl, Dr. Reed.”
I choked out a laugh, taking the smooth tablet from her wrinkled fingers. “I’m offended, Marlene.” When her eyes went squinty with suspicion, I added, “I’m inappropriately in love with that girl.” Several heads turned my way in surprise, but I left before the nursing staff could dive into that confession too deeply.
When I returned to Ruth’s room, she was already dressed again in the shorts and blue tank top she’d been wearing before. She winced as she reached down to fit her foot into her sneakers, and I assumed that had something to do with the cracking scabs all along her right side. I closed the door behind me, set the tablet on the counter to the left, and came to kneel in front of her. I moved her hands away and tightened the laces with brisk efficiency. “Why does no one ever want to stay in the hospital? We practically have to tie you stubborn patients down to the beds half the time.”
Ruth straightened, cradling her bruised right elbow against her stomach. “You’re right. It’s such a charming experience being here.”
I lifted an amused look up to her briefly before moving to her other foot and helping her wedge her foot inside the white canvas shoe. “I’m here. Isn’t that a little charming?” Her fingers sifted through my hair, surprising me .
I glanced up again, and she smiled softly. “Truthfully, yes. I’d stay anywhere you are.”
I had to stop my jaw from falling open. I swallowed instead. “So, if I suggested you get admitted overnight for concussion watch—”
Her fingers tightened in my hair, pulling it at the roots. “Don’t push it, Dr. Charming.”
Grinning, I looked back down and tied her shoe as she released my hair. “Just checking.”
When both her shoes were tied, Ruth bracketed my face with her hands and tilted it up to her. On my knees, I stared up at her in unabashed adoration. Gray-blue eyes held my attention seriously. “You know I don’t say things without thinking them through… mostly.”
I nodded, slipping my arms around her legs and hips, avoiding the road rash on her right thigh. “I know you don’t.”
“And you know I’ve spent a lot of time thinking that I’m,” she swallowed visibly, and her voice broke when she whispered, “unlovable.”
I tightened my arms around her, wanting to bury my face in her lap and squeeze her until she had no tears to shed. “I know,” I whispered back.
Ruth’s hands smoothed across my cheeks, scrubbing the beard growth along my jaw and sending shivers down my neck and back. “What you said about love not being earned, about it just being, I think I know what you mean, now.”
I held my breath, watching her with quiet hopefulness. Her full lips rolled together as she thought again, choosing her words carefully as always. It occurred to me then how much like her own eyes Ruth was. She wasn’t sunshine and bubbles like other women aspired to be. Ruth was a rainy day, comforting and gentle in its slow pace. She was sleepy mornings and a soothing cadence of clean, pure rainwater. She was tranquility.
Snaring me with that deep, sharp-witted gaze, she whispered, “My love for you just is.”
A torrent of dammed-up emotions filled my chest and climbed up my throat. I swallowed roughly, hoping I’d heard her correctly. “You love me, Shortstop?”
She nodded, and I stood, pulling her up with me. She tugged me down so my lips hovered just over hers. “I love you in the most irrational way possible.”
I gave her a speculative eyebrow raise. “How are we supposed to function if we both love each other like crazy people?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it cancels out,” she said, her breath puffing across my lips.
My lips curved. “Sounds logical.”
“Good. Then shut up and kiss me, Doc.”
I grinned just before she sealed our lips with a desperate kiss. Mindful of her bruises and scrapes, I curved my arm around her waist drawing her up against my body as I deepened the kiss. Starving for her, craving more of her, I took all she had to give and then demanded more. She sighed into our kiss, arms looped behind my neck and body leaned into mine like she didn’t doubt for a moment that I would hold her up.
Because I would. Always.