Chapter 10 #2
“This sick fuck of a man said, ‘Does she go to Jesper County in Montana? Or Jesper County in Georgia?’” He growled. “My baby, my eleven-year-old. Gemma had shared where she went to school, what sports she was in, pretty much documented Kaylee’s entire freakin’ life.”
“Daddy…”
I looked over at Kaylee who was now cradling her arm against her chest.
I hadn’t even realized that we were done with the x-ray.
Shit.
“You can stand up.” I smiled apologetically. “Let’s go see what this shows us.”
I didn’t bother taking her back into the exam room.
I just took them back to my office and pulled up the x-ray, asking them both to have a seat in the chairs opposite my desk.
Putting the x-ray on the light across from the desk, I examined it.
I studied it for a couple of seconds before I found the hairline fracture.
“There it is.” I pointed. “It’s small but it’s there. I think with this kind of break, we won’t need to put you in a full-blown cast.” I stopped. “What sports do you play?”
“Soccer,” she answered quietly. “I’m not super physical, though, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“It was,” I said. “I’m going to recommend a brace.”
“What kind of brace?” the dad asked.
I pulled out my phone and pulled up an example of the cast I wanted her in.
“This.” I twisted my phone around for them to see. “You can pick it up at any Walmart in the area. Unless you actually want a cast. Then we can do one. It’ll only be about three weeks of wearing this.”
“I don’t want a cast.”
We went through the rest of the talk, and I released them.
It wasn’t until Sage came in saying the mother was still in the patient’s room that I realized that the dad hadn’t stopped to tell the mother that they were done.
A small smile on my face, I went into the room and said, “Ma’am?”
The woman didn’t look up.
Didn’t even acknowledge me.
“Ma’am?”
Again nothing.
I turned off the light and closed the door.
I didn’t bother trying to get her attention anymore.
“Just schedule around that room,” I said. “We’re at the end of the day anyway.”
“I heard what he said,” she mused.
“Awful, isn’t it?”
It took the woman another forty-five minutes to step out of the room in confusion.
By that time, we were shutting down for the day, cleaning up, and getting ready for the next day.
“Uh, excuse me?”
I didn’t stop the cleaning I was doing, but did say, “Yes?”
“Where’s my daughter?”
I frowned and looked at her. “Ma’am, your daughter went home with your ex-husband over forty-five minutes ago.”
The way I said it insinuated “how could you not notice that?”
She opened her mouth and closed it, looking embarrassed.
Before the mom could say anything, Sage was back in the room carrying her things. “I’m ready to leave. Are you?”
The mother left before anything else could be said.
The door closed behind her, and I asked curiously, “Do you think we’ll make it onto her social media?”
“There’s no doubt.” She snorted. “I’ll bet we’re in a video tomorrow about ‘leaving patients alone in rooms for hours.’”
“Lord save me.”
We walked together to our vehicles.
Only, Sage’s vehicle happened to be running, and mine did not.
I groaned as the cold hit me.
“Should’ve started mine,” I grumbled as I dropped inside and slammed the door closed.
I frantically reached for the start button, then searched for my gloves.
I didn’t bother turning up the heat.
I still had everything on high from earlier that morning.
It was marginally better now than it was when I’d left this morning, but this morning I’d had the wherewithal to actually start my truck before I was ready to go.
The drive home was miserable, and by the time I’d pulled into my driveway, my heat had finally started working.
It was also, once again, snowing.
I pulled up to my garage and hit the button, looking forlornly at the space in the garage with annoyance.
My truck was too big for the garage.
I’d give my left nipple to be able to park it in there.
That would mean that I wouldn’t have to scrape snow off my truck every morning before I had to go to work.
Though the snow had already been knocked off my truck this morning when I’d gone outside to do it.
I assumed that Creed was responsible, and it’d made me roll my eyes.
I loved my brother, but he didn’t need to go out of his way to clean my truck off on his way to work.
The big dork.
Sadly, I had to take my hands off the steering wheel to go inside.
Also sadly, when I turned the truck off and got out, my two least favorite people were there drinking beer and standing in their yard leering at me.
“Hello, Bernice.”
I hated the way Lanny said that.
Gross.
I didn’t acknowledge him.
“Bernice!”
This time, my name was called by a woman.
I turned to find Heidi waving as she rushed down the street in boots that were six sizes too big for her.
I recognized the boots, too.
They were Hux’s.
They had a really weird emblem on them that made them look custom.
A little bit of envy rolled through me at the thought of being able to be so comfortable around Hux that I could just slip into his clothes and shoes without worrying I’d offend him.
“Come on,” Heidi said as she got close enough to grab my arm. “I don’t like the way they look at you. Come eat pizza with us. We’re having family night.”
I hitched my bag up on my shoulder and said, “I’m not going to insert myself in your family night.”
Plus, I was really cold and wanted to get into my warm bed and snuggle in deep with my heating blanket.
“Don’t worry,” Heidi said, not letting go of my wrist as she tugged me along in her wake. “None of us will care that you’re here. We’re easy like that.”