She just snorted and shook her head like he was crazy. “Naw, James Bond doesn’t cry ‘bout things like this.”
His mouth opened and closed a couple of times, but then it slammed shut as he looked at me.
“That’s you told,” I snickered.
“Hey, Linda,” a deep voice said through the phone. “Looking beautiful as always.”
She blushed and waved a hand. “Charmer!”
A female voice shouted, “I thought we agreed that if Cole hurt himself again, Grams, it wasn’t Parker’s turn to deal with him?”
“It’s not Cole. I’ve got a beautiful little girl here who’s hurt her ankle,” Linda confirmed, rolling her eyes at them. “That’s not to say he won’t hurt himself, though. The day’s still young.”
The woman sounded concerned when she replied this time. “Is it one of the kids? What happened?”
Hitting the screen, Linda said to Nemi, “Wave for them, precious. This is my granddaughter, Ariana, and her man, Parker. He’s the doctor who I want to just look at your ankle to see if we need to take you for an x-ray.” Then, she added for the other two people, “Parker, Ariana, this is Nemi, her mom, Heidi, and her guardian hottie, Bond Klein.”
“Hey, sweet girl,” Ariana greeted. “Wait, are you Jarrod’s brother?”
“Yo, Nemi,” Parker said in his deep voice. “Bond, brother, nice to see you again. How are the rest of the family?”
Holy shit, I hoped the voice matched his face. I knew he’d been a doctor here at some point, but he wasn’t Nemi’s pediatrician, and we were both pretty healthy, so I’d never had a reason to see anyone outside of Nemi’s doctor and my OB-GYN. Now I was kicking myself for it.
“Doing good, man, but missing your magical medical fingers. Katy and Jarrod got married last year—finally—and we’ve just opened up Kleins. Think you can help my little buddy here? She’s the bravest kid I’ve ever met, and I think her brain’s even smarter than Tom and Cole’s.”
“That’s not hard,” Parker mumbled at the same time as Ariana. “Linda, if her mom supports her ankle, could you pan around it closely so I can see the whole joint, please?”
Moving around the chair and squatting down on Nemi’s bad side, I carefully held the limb and waited while Linda did what he’d asked for.
“How long ago did she do it?” Parker asked.
Glancing up at the clock on the wall, Linda guessed, “I’d say roughly twenty or twenty-five minutes ago.”
He sighed. “It might be an idea to get it x-rayed just to make sure she hasn’t fractured something. It’s hard to tell over the phone, and it’s definitely bruised and swollen.”
My stomach sank at the thought of Nemi being in that much pain.
“What does that mean?” my daughter asked, not loosening her grip on Bond as she looked at the phone.
Spinning it around after hitting the screen, Linda passed it to her. “Here. You speak to him and ask Doctor Parker all the questions you need to.”
“Hey, Nemi,” he greeted, sounding like he knew her and immediately putting her at ease. Some doctors were smart that way. “You know how we have bones inside us?” When she nodded, he explained, “Okay, so, sometimes we can put a tiny line in those bones or break them completely, and I want to make sure you don’t have a tiny line on one of yours.”
She looked down at her foot and frowned. “How can you see it?”
“We have special machines in hospitals called x-ray machines, and they take a photo of your bones. Smart, huh?” When she nodded, he added, “Our bones are also held together and moved by muscles, tendons, and ligaments, which can get pulled or torn, too. When the doctor looks at you, he’ll check those over as well because you might have sprained one.”
Frowning, she tightened her grip on Bond and looked up at me. “How do they fix it?”
“If it’s a line, they’ll probably put a cast on you, which is like a hard bandage. It’ll be on for six weeks until the bone heals.”
“That’s right,” Parker confirmed, getting Nemi’s attention back on him. “They come in cool colors, so you can pick which one you want. If it’s a sprain, they’ll wrap it up with a soft bandage, but they can take a while to heal, so you’ll have to be super careful, okay?”
Instead of agreeing it was okay, my kid was stuck on the bandages. “Do they have Pirates Of The Caribbean or Bond ones?”
Parker whistled through his teeth while the rest of us laughed. “Your kid ain’t stupid, is she?”
“Nope,” I agreed.
“She’s the smartest kid I’ve met,” Bond said through his grin as he winked at Nemi. “I don’t know if they do them in those patterns, but I’m sure we’ll find a way to fix that.”
After thanking Parker and leaving Linda to say goodbye to them both, I ran the tip of my finger over Nemi’s knee.