11. Isabella
11
ISABELLA
T he nurse handed the discharge papers to Isabella and continued her monologue. The woman had been talking ninety miles a minute since she walked in the door.
“Don’t forget your follow-up appointment on Thursday. Your prescription for pain medication is in there too, but use it wisely. You don’t get a refill.”
Isabella nodded for the twenty-fifth time. She didn’t even remember the last thing the woman said, much less the first. She glanced up at Travis to find he was listening intently to the nurse. She’d have plenty of time to read over the paperwork on the drive, and maybe he’d remember the answers to her questions.
If he had anything to do with her after he dropped her off at Anna’s place. He had good reason to be fed up with her.
The nurse looked around the room. “Where are your clothes?”
Bella looked down at the ratty hospital gown she’d been in for days. “Um, I have no idea.”
“She was unconscious when she got here,” Travis said.
The nurse walked over to the dresser in the corner and started opening drawers. “Oh, here they are.” She pulled out a clear, plastic bag.
Dark, dried blood was smeared over the clothes and bag. She could barely tell the original color.
“You need something better than this,” the nurse said.
Travis stepped forward. “Sorry. I should have thought of that.”
“I didn’t think of it either,” Bella said blankly. She couldn’t wear the gown. The back didn’t secure, and the sides were free to blow in the wind as they pleased.
“I got it.” Travis reached behind his head and pulled the long-sleeve shirt off. The white T-shirt beneath it rode up on his torso, showing off abs no conscious woman could ignore.
Bella sucked in a quick breath and jerked her attention to the wall. Travis didn’t have the hard ridges of a six-pack, but he was thick and strong like a tree. She’d bet on him against one of those well-defined models any day.
He handed her the shirt, and her hand shook as she reached for it. As soon as she hugged the material to her chest, the warmth seeped through her gown and into her skin. The masculine spice she’d come to associate with Travis tingled in her nose as she cuddled the shirt he’d literally given her off his back.
The nurse put the bag on the end of the bed. “I’ll find you some scrubs. Someone will be by shortly to get your contact information for billing. Someone else will come to escort you out.”
“Thanks,” Bella breathed. The hits were coming quickly this morning, and she wasn’t prepared for any of it.
“I don’t even have an address where they can send the bill,” Bella said as the nurse stepped out.
“Don’t worry about it. You can use mine,” Travis said.
Use his shirt, use his address. At this rate, she’d be using his last name by the end of the week.
Nope. Just because things were getting out of hand didn’t mean they’d continue to spiral. She had to believe things would level out and become mundane soon.
Keeping Travis’s shirt close to her chest, she opened the bag and pulled out her old one. It was stiff with blood and split cleanly down the front from collar to hem.
“They probably had to cut it off of you,” Travis explained. “That’s pretty common.”
Bella pushed the ruined shirt aside and reached into the bag. The pants were in worse shape.
A few minutes later, the nurse returned with a clean pair of purple scrubs and handed them to Bella. “There are socks and disposable underwear too. Those won’t be too comfortable, but they’ll get you home.”
Home. She doubted the charity clothes would last until she found her home. Who knew where that was?
In the bathroom, she laid Travis’s shirt on the counter and pulled the rest of her old clothes out of the bag. She dropped dirty socks and underwear into the trash bin and pulled out the jeans. Those had to be tossed too.
She slipped on the scrub pants and reached for Travis’s shirt. She slipped it over her head and breathed in the pure comfort. It was three sizes too big, but it covered her bruises and wrapped around her like a security blanket.
Just like Travis. She’d been clinging to him like a crutch, and she had to pull herself together at some point.
For now, she’d wallow in the gift she’d been given.
She stepped out of the bathroom, and Travis looked up. His gaze swept from her head to her feet before climbing back up to meet her eyes.
Bella gripped wads of the shirt in her fists, pulling on it like the skin that didn’t feel like hers. “It’s a little big, but it’ll work.”
Travis’s jaw twitched and he shook his head. He cleared his throat. “I have gym clothes in my truck, but I stopped there before heading here this morning. You don’t want those.”
He was right. Sweaty Travis clothes would only muddle her thoughts even more. “Thanks for letting me wear your shirt. I’ll get it back to you as soon as I can.”
There was a knock at the door, and a teenage girl stepped in with a wheelchair. “Miss Young?”
“Yes,” Bella said, hoping that she was, in fact, Miss Young and not some other title and surname she’d missed. That would be a huge oversight, but she hadn’t figured out a way to know for sure. If she could get in touch with someone besides her parents in Omaha, maybe she could piece together some of her history.
She wouldn’t think about her mom’s dismissal. Not now or anytime soon. That knife was still lodged in her back, and any attention she gave to the wound would only make it larger.
Travis stepped toward the door. “I’ll go get the truck.”
The morning had been a storm of confusion, and her anchor was drifting out the door. Bella sucked in a long breath and lifted her shoulders. She could manage a few minutes without him. Then she’d work up to living without him altogether.
Baby steps.
The young girl grabbed Bella’s arm and made a big show of helping her into the wheelchair.
“I’m okay. I can walk.”
“Standard procedure, miss. I have one job, so I should probably do it well.”
Bella smiled, and the pull on her cheek was only a fraction of what it was yesterday. “I love that you take your job seriously.”
“I just want to help,” the girl said as she wheeled Bella down the hallway to the elevators. “My mom is a nurse here, and my dad is a physical therapist at the rehab center next door. I’ve always loved what they do, so I’m excited to get my turn to help now.”
Bella linked her hands in her lap. Her parents skipped between jobs with the seasons, and sometimes went months without employment.
But they could be doing anything now, and Bella wouldn’t have the slightest clue. The gaps in her past were a constant sore that only festered when she paid attention to it.
The young girl wheeled Bella out into the midday sun, and a soothing warmth tingled over her skin. Travis stood beside a red pickup truck parked next to the sidewalk. The white T-shirt clung to his chest and stretched over his arms.
No, she couldn’t wallow in his kindness and be attracted to him. One without the other was shallow. Together they were a recipe for an unrequited crush.
Bella stood and thanked the girl with as much of a smile as she could muster. When she turned, Travis was right in front of her, waiting to guide her to his truck.
“You ready for this?” he asked as he opened the passenger door for her.
She wrapped her empty arms around her middle, holding her fragile world together. “I have no idea.” She was getting into a stranger’s truck, and it felt right.
“Hey, everything is going to be fine. One step at a time. Today, let’s just focus on getting you settled in at Anna’s.”
Bella climbed up into the truck and looked back at him. “How do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Make it sound like anything is possible.”
His gaze locked on her, and his mouth lifted on one side. The imperfect grin had her heart racing as he closed the door without answering her question.
This was happening. She was getting a ride from a stranger to another stranger’s house where she was going to live indefinitely while she waded through an identity crisis.
Travis settled into the driver’s seat like it was a chair at a table. She, on the other hand, had climbed in like a kid on a playground.
He started the truck and merged away from the sidewalk. “What kind of music do you like?”
“Matchbox Twenty,” she said quickly. “And Goo Goo Dolls.”
Travis glanced over at her. “You sound sure about that.”
“I am. I remember listening to their CDs in my room until the grooves wore off and they didn’t work anymore.”
“And how old were you?” Travis asked.
Bella closed her eyes as the buildings passed by. “Around fourteen, I guess.”
“So, you think you still like those bands?” he asked.
Bella shrugged. “I know I did once. I don’t think I would have stopped liking them ten years later.”
Travis pressed a few buttons on the radio before landing on an FM station. He turned the volume up on a Counting Crows song.
Bella sat up straighter. “This one.”
Travis bobbed his head. “If nothing else, your taste in music will stay timeless.”
“You like nineties alternative rock?” Bella asked. “What are the odds?”
Travis rested one hand on the top of the wheel and his elbow on the console between them. “I could have easily hated it since…”
Oh no. The way that sentence trailed off said the memory attached to it wasn’t good. It would be best to stay far away from that topic. “What do you like to listen to the most?”
Travis cleared his throat and stared out at the road ahead. “Matchbox Twenty and Goo Goo Dolls.”
Bella shifted to face him. “You’re kidding.”
“Not kidding. In fact, I played ‘Here is Gone’ at Barn Sour last Friday night.”
Bella stared at Travis, but he didn’t look her way. “You played?”
“Guitar. At a local bar.”
“You played the guitar?” Bella repeated.
“I did. Still do. Not while I’m driving, but otherwise I’m able to.”
Bella covered her cheeks with her hands. “I sing.”
“You do? Since when?”
“Since… forever. I love to sing. Mom used to tell everyone.”
Bella’s shoulders sank. That was such a happy memory, but other things clouded the joy now. Knowing there was even more hurt between her and her mom turned her heart into a broken piece of glass–shattered like a spider web from the impact.
“Would you sing for me?” Travis asked.
His words jerked Bella out of the memory. “You want me to sing?”
“I could play. You could sing. Sounds like we’d make a great team.”
Bella was still wallowing in the vision of her and Travis playing and singing together when he pulled up to a gate. He pressed a code into the box beside the drive, and they were welcomed into the protected premises. Fences lined both sides of the path until a massive home appeared. Two stories towered above the flat landscape, and multiple garages were situated around the main structure.
Bella released her seat belt and scooted to the edge of her seat. “This is where Anna lives? It’s gorgeous!”
“Anna’s place is off to the side, but yes, this is where she grew up.”
Travis drove around the left side of the house to a smaller cottage. The guest house was still a full-size home that emanated cottage charm.
Bella was still staring at the place when Travis opened the truck door beside her.
“You ready?” he asked with an outstretched hand.
“I guess so.” She extended her hand, and his larger one wrapped around it. “Are you sure we didn’t need to stop for anything?”
“Anna said she had most of the things you’d need, but she mentioned a girls shopping trip. I figure she’d be upset if I stole that from her,” Travis said.
Bella slid out of the truck, and her knees wobbled when her feet hit the ground. “I don’t have any money. I don’t think shopping is going to happen anytime soon.”
Travis gave her hand an encouraging squeeze and released it as they walked toward the stately front entrance. Bella tucked the cold hand under her arm. Why couldn’t she just hold onto him until this was all over?
Would it ever be over? The doctor was careful to warn her that she may never fully recover her memories.
The hand she’d just been holding caught her attention as they walked, and her gaze swept up his arm to the broad shoulders and kind face that had guided her through the last terrifying week. Couldn’t she just go home with him? He probably didn’t live in a rock house with more windows and garages than walls.
Bella shook her head and wrapped her arms around her torso. Of course she couldn’t go home with a strange man. For all she knew, that was how she ended up bleeding out on the road.
She had a history of making bad decisions. That much she remembered. Her high-school years were full of parties–drinking and smoking with people who didn’t know her half as well as Travis did after a few days together.
Travis knocked on the door and stepped back. His soft brown eyes locked on her, and his smile lifted. “Relax. Everything is going to be okay.”
The words triggered something cold inside of her. It wasn’t a memory. A feeling? Her throat tightened and her fists clenched. The urge to scream just to release the clawing chill that gripped her mounted by the second.
The words were climbing up her throat, then sitting on the tip of her tongue.
“I’m not okay!” a voice inside her head screamed.
Travis reached out and touched her arm. “Bella, are you okay?”
The cold receded but didn’t disappear entirely. Bella touched her throat, unsure if she’d let the agonizing scream out or not. “Yeah. I’m just tired.”
The door opened, and a bright-eyed Anna bounced on her toes. “You’re here! Come on in.”
Travis gave Bella one last questioning look, but she shook her head. How could she even tell him what was going on if she didn’t know herself?
Anna closed the door behind them as Bella and Travis stepped into the main room. Light-pink walls were framed by bright whites. A soft gray sofa and chair faced a rock fireplace, and slate-gray throw pillows adorned the furniture. The windows were open, letting in fresh air and light.
“Oh no. Your clothes,” Anna said.
Bella crossed her arms over the baggy shirt. “My clothes from the accident were pretty dirty.”
Anna ushered Bella toward a hallway. “Let’s find something for you to wear. You can get a shower while Travis and I finish prepping dinner.”
Bella glanced back at Travis. He’d stopped just inside the door and slipped out of his boots. How did he look comfortable in every setting? He owned every room he walked into.
“Travis, can you take the cookies out of the oven in about two minutes?” Anna shouted over her shoulder.
“Yes, ma’am,” he answered as he gave Bella a playful wink.
Turning around quickly, Bella focused on the hallway leading to the promise of clean clothing. She had to ignore the pounding of her heart as she walked away from the man who was slowly building her into a new woman–one who didn’t care about the pain of the past.