I’d repeatedly told her how sorry I was the whole time we’d driven here, the entire time we’d been waiting in this room, and I’d be telling her again after we left.
“Ah, and you as well, Mr. Evans,” he said as he turned toward me. “We’ll need to remove that piece of wood and make sure there’s nothing else in the wound, but I think stitches should fix it.”
Yeah, the frame had a chunk that’d been glued back on it at some point with shit glue after a previous break, so when it’d hit me, the broken piece had come loose and gone into my shoulder.
The odds of it happening the way it did were probably one in a million, yet here I was with a small piece of light blue wood sticking out of my shoulder. I hadn’t even noticed it until the doctor had pointed it out while Zuri was getting her x-rays done.
Now that I thought about it just pulling it out would get a majority of the bullshit out of the way so he could focus on her. So, I reached up and pinched the piece of wood between my finger and thumb, giving it a sharp yank to get the job done.
Holding it up in front of the doc, I raised an eyebrow. “Just sew me up and focus on her.”
Looking at it, the doctor frowned as he glanced back down at his screen. “Hmm, there’s a piece missing. The piece on your x-ray is L shaped, but that one is more of an I.”
“Ah, hell,” Zuri mumbled, looking pale as she dropped her head onto the pillow.
Anything else she was going to say was cut off by the doctor, who was frowning still, but this time it was at my shoulder, which felt like it was on fire. “You should probably put some pressure on that to stop the bleeding.”
That’s when I felt something moving down my arm and looked down to see red splashes on the ground under where I was standing.
Just in case I passed out or anything happened, I held my arm up to show him the tattoo on my wrist that said I had a condition called Malignant Hyperthermia—a reaction to volatile anesthetics that affected my body temperature.
Seeing it, he nodded and typed something on the screen. “It’s unlikely you’ll need a general anesthetic, and it’s probably also on your notes already, but just in case something happens and we have to take you into surgery, I’ll write it down again. Do you have any other allergies?”
“No,” I sighed, looking at Zuri over his shoulder and seeing her lips twitch like she was trying to fight a smile.
“All right, then. We’ll be back in to get started on your shoulder,” he pointed to me, then turned to look at Zuri. “And then we’ll do your back. We’ll also put a cast on your arm and take some more x-rays to make sure it’s all still in alignment afterward. Any questions?”
Raising her non-broken hand, she asked, “Can I lie on my front?”
Before he could answer, a familiar voice said, “I’ll help you get into a comfortable position, honey,” as my sister-in-law breezed into the room, pushing a rolling cart in front of her with packages and all the types of shit I hated looking at. Hospitals weren’t my thing.
Of all the people.
Looking back at me, Rose smirked. God, this was going to be hell.
And just to make it even better, at that moment, a blonde nurse poked her head around the edge of the doorway, and dismissed Zuri and Rose with a curled upper lip, which disappeared when she saw me watching her.
“Garrett,” she cooed. “Do you need a hand?”
She looked familiar, but that was it. I couldn’t place where I knew her from, or even if I’d ever spoken to her.
“I’m good, but Rose might need a hand wi—”
“No, she doesn’t,” Rose interrupted without even looking up from what she was doing.
“Why don’t I work on you while she deals with her?” blondie offered with a sneer, making me frown.
Moving over to where my sister-in-law and the woman who was now glaring at me from her face down position on the bed were, I waved off the rude nurse. “Nah, I’m good, thanks.”
“But I could—”
“For the love of angels and demons, woman, will you give it up already,” Zuri finally snapped. “He said no.”
Taking a step into the room with her hands on her hips, the glare the nurse shot at Zuri was lost on her, seeing as how she never turned around to look in her direction as she shot her down for me. “Look, Garrett and I go way back—”
“No, we don’t. You look familiar, but I don’t even know who you are.”
“I helped you when you were here looking after her,” blondie pointed at Rose, who snorted.