My foot throbbed as I waited for Corina.
“Here’s the tweezers. Let me clean this up before someone else steps on glass.”
I worked at getting the glass out of my foot while Corina cleaned. When I glanced up, Chloe was passed out on the sofa.
“I’ll vacuum in the morning, but I’m pretty sure I got it all,” Corina said. She sat on the ottoman and watched me.
“Shit! I can’t reach it with these damn tweezers. They suck! Do you have any better ones?”
Looking at me like I was stupid, she shook her head. “Mine burned up in a house fire.”
I held onto my ankle. “Jesus, why is it throbbing?”
“Because you have glass in it?”
Letting out a frustrated groan, I dropped against the chair. “I need better tweezers.”
With a quick glance at her watch, Corina said, “Everything is closed. It’s after ten.”
“Why are you home so early?” I asked.
She half shrugged and looked down at my foot. “I don’t know. I wasn’t much in the mood for going out, and Waylynn was having enough fun without me pulling her down.”
I didn’t say anything, even though I wanted to tell her I was glad she came home early.
“What should we do?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Do you have any of that black tar stuff your mom puts on everything?”
Shaking my head, I replied, “No. Christ, it’s throbbing.”
“The glass splinter doesn’t look that big. Maybe soak your foot in Epsom salt?”
“I don’t have any of that.”
Corina sighed.
“There is the ER at the Oak Springs hospital,” I said.
She stared at me, her mouth open. “For a tiny piece of glass?”
“It hurts! And I can’t get it out. I think it’s in there deep. What if it moves into my bloodstream?”
Her lips pressed together, and I knew she was holding back a laugh. “Your bloodstream?”
I rolled my eyes. “It could! I mean…it’s possible…ish.”
The corner of her mouth twitched as she fought to keep from smiling. “Do you think we need to go to the ER?”
“Well, unless you can figure out a way to get it, I don’t know what to do.”
“We could go over to Tripp’s place. I’m sure he has decent tweezers. Maybe a needle so I can try to get it out.”
“You want to poke around for a piece of glass with a needle?! You’ll push it in farther.”
Corina walked over to me, dropping to her knees. She looked into my eyes. “Mitchell, how in the world did you become a cop if you can’t take a piece of glass in your foot?”
Shooting her daggers, I pushed her away. She fell onto her ass and rolled over laughing. “Oh. My. Gosh. I’m sorry! It’s just so funny!”
“I’m going to the ER, and I need you to drive because it’s in my right foot.”
She sat up. “Wait, you’re serious. You want to go to the ER?”
“Just get your ass up and get the kid.”
Corina looked back at Chloe. “You want me to wake up your niece so that I can take you to the ER for a piece of glass that can honestly wait until morning.”
“It’s getting deeper!”
She covered her mouth and tried not to laugh. Once she was composed, she held up her hands. “Okay, doesn’t Lilly live right around the corner?”
I nodded.
“I can call her, and see if she has tweezers.”
Rolling my eyes, I sighed. “Fine. Call her.”
“Hey, Mitch?”
I lifted my brows. “Yes?”
A smile covered her face. “You might want to take off Elsa’s braid before Lilly comes over.”
With a sigh, I pulled the damn thing off my head and tossed it to the floor.
“I can’t believe you pushed it farther in.”
“You wouldn’t stay still, Mitch! Even Lilly said you were acting like a baby.”
Turning to face her, I replied, “She did not say that.”
With a smirk, Corina replied, “Oh, sorry. She said that to me when you weren’t listening.”
My eyes widened. “You bitch!”
Corina lost it laughing as she put on the turn signal and pulled into our small town hospital.
“Looks like parking won’t be a problem,” she said while pulling into the first spot by the ER entrance.
“Ha ha.”
I pushed open the car door and got out. I walked on my heel, being careful not to put pressure on the glass.
Corina walked next to me in silence until we got closer to the door. “You need to lean on me.” She peeked over. “You know, make it look worse than it really is.”
“Shut up! It hurts!”
Her hands covered her mouth for the hundredth time tonight.
As we walked in, Bobby Jo, the nurse who worked the night shift in the ER on the weekends, jumped up.
“Mitchell! What happened? Did you get shot?”
That’s when Corina lost it. I don’t think I’d ever heard her laugh so much.
“Bobby Jo, this is going to sound crazy, but I’ve got a piece glass stuck in my foot and I can’t get it out.”