Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
I had a feeling I knew where this was going.
Bernice had told me enough that I could put together the pieces that he hadn’t said yet.
I lifted my bad hand and placed it on his thigh. “Don’t say anything here.”
I gestured with my head at the flimsy curtains separating us from the rest of the very large room.
I could hear nurses talking just beyond the curtain, and it didn’t matter how quietly he was speaking. I didn’t want him to chance it.
“Bernice told me,” I whispered. “Don’t say it again.”
He ground his teeth together for a few seconds before he gritted out, “I can’t say that I reacted the best that I could have.”
No, he hadn’t.
But I understood.
Now that I knew what Bernice faced, I was kicking my own ass.
I hadn’t known.
I’d been feeling pretty low since Creed had rightly chewed my ass out.
“You reacted just the way you should have,” I promised.
He opened his mouth to say something but didn’t get to finish before the curtain was once again pulled backward and a man wearing a scrub cap and those barefoot shoes that outlined the toes came into the room.
“Ahh, you’re awake. Just like I like to see,” he murmured. “You remember what happened?”
“I do,” I confirmed.
Not sure I’d ever be able to forget, to be honest.
The look on Charleigh’s face when that first spurt of blood hit her.
The way Hershel’s cries of alarm had sounded around the small space.
The sight of blood spurting like a geyser from my arm with each beat of my heart.
The…
“Good.” He tapped my foot. “I won’t peel back the wrap right now. We’ll do that in the morning, and I’ll show you what you’re working with. I’m pretty confident that you didn’t permanently damage any nerves in your hand when this happened. However, I want you to take it extremely carefully over the next week. No heavy lifting. No working of any kind. No strenuous activity,” he leveled us both with a look, clearly meaning sex. “And I want someone there with you for the first few days after you get out of the hospital. I can’t begin to stress this enough, but if someone isn’t there and this repair ruptures, you could bleed out. You won’t be able to react in time, and your loved ones will find you dead on the floor of your home.”
I gritted my teeth.
He acted like finding someone to stay with me was just so easy.
I didn’t have that kind of life!
“Now, when you get down to med surg, be nice to your nurses. They’re short-staffed.”
“Birdee’s the nicest person I’ve ever met,” Creed murmured. “You don’t know that yet, though, so I’ll forgive your rudeness in thinking she’d ever be mean.”
The doctor snorted. “Patients can be sweet as molasses normally, but when they’re sick and hurt, they turn into raging assholes.”
“On that note.” He turned and walked away without a backward glance.
“Okay then.” Creed snorted.
I looked over at him out of the corner of my eye and felt a jolt straight to my heart.
I should’ve prepared.
Looking at Creed felt like looking into the sun.
Today his beard was a little bit more unruly than usual. His hair, which was usually combed and under control, was wavy and wild, going every which way but one. His eyes were puffy like he’d just gotten out of bed, and his usual carefree face looked lined with exhaustion.
“What’s going in that pretty little head of yours?” he asked quietly, jolting me out of my contemplation of his attributes.
“Pretty?” I scoffed. “As to what’s going through my head, I’m thinking about the fact that I just started a job that I now can’t go to for probably a solid ten days. I’m thinking about how I’m going to wash my hair and do anything to it with one arm. I’m thinking about how I have to go volunteer at the dog shelter this week, and I won’t be able to do that. And they’re already severely understaffed.” I looked at Creed more closely then. “You should always encourage everyone to spay and neuter their pets.”
His brows rose as a small smile kicked up the corner of his lips. “You’re the spay and neuter police?”
I used my good hand to scrub at the back of my neck. “The shelter in town isn’t a no-kill one.”
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “They aren’t?”
I shook my head. “I usually go once a week to hold some paws while they’re put to sleep. So they don’t feel alone when they go.”
Silence.
“Most strays don’t have a good life. They’re stuck in cages for the majority of it, and what kind of life is that? Our shelter is pretty small, too. Not funded like it should be. They can keep a stray for like a month before it needs to be euthanized due to space constraints.”