“I’m sure you are.” She sensed this man was an island. He thought he liked it that way. He just didn’t know any other way.
“But I want to help.” She glanced down at his ice-covered hand, rotating the bag so as not to overdo any one spot. “Put your free hand here and I’ll arrange for a car.”
She’d found a helpful list of various things, left behind by one of the former assistants. Car service had been on it.
He placed his hand over the ice, brushing her skin as they switched positions. Electricity—inappropriate and so wrongly timed—rushed over her, causing the hair on her arms to stand on end.
They made the trip to the closest hospital in silence, Kade’s clenched jaw an indication of his pain. And because this was a typical emergency room and since a bruised hand wasn’t triaged as urgent, they waited for hours, surrounded by sick people who used the ER as a doctor’s office.
Hacking coughs, lots of noses being blown loudly, a knife-wound victim with blood trailing behind the injured man, and the topper, the child vomiting in the corner.
Squicked out, Lexie inched closer to Kade, afraid of catching anything. But she was determined to stick it out and get him that X-ray. She wasn’t a doct
or, but those knuckles looked bad. She held her tongue and tempered her frustration at how long they had to wait.
Not Kade. He complained. Bitched. And finally tried to bully and ultimately bribe the triage nurse to let him pass before she threatened to call security and have him thrown out on his ass.
Lexie got in his face with a wagging finger. “Look, you might be used to preferential treatment most of the time, but here you’re less important than someone having a heart attack. Deal with it,” she ordered, feeling every inch the shrew as she lectured him. He deserved it.
“You’re bossy,” he muttered.
“But I get the job done.” She folded her arms across her chest and, with a glare, dared him to comment.
He didn’t. Instead he focused on the fresh ice the nurse had given him.
His compliance lasted another hour before he rose to leave. “That’s it. I’m done. The pain’s not that bad anymore.”
“Liar.” She scowled at him, then physically grabbed his arm on the uninjured side and pulled him back to his seat. “Quit making a scene, and I’ll go ask if they have any idea how much longer it might be.”
Before she could do as she promised, a male nurse stepped through the double doors. “Barnes? Kaden Barnes.”
“Thank God,” Lexie muttered, remaining seated when Kade stood.
“This way,” the nurse gestured.
Kade glanced at her. “Well? Let’s go.”
She shook her head. “They’re not going to let me go into X-ray with you. I’ll be here when you get out.”
“They’re just going to take me into a room and make me wait some more. You’re coming.”
She shrugged and rose to follow, surprised and secretly delighted that he wanted her with him. The nurse didn’t argue, so she soon found herself in a curtained cubicle as Kade had predicted. After the expected wait, a doctor finally came in to examine him.
Lexie winced along with Kade as the doctor lifted the hand and attempted to move fingers and thoroughly looked at the injury. “I’m pretty certain it’s a Boxer’s Fracture, a result of a break in the metacarpal when the bones hit a hard, immovable object.” He glanced at Kade as if waiting for an explanation as to how he’d gotten the injury.
When none came, the man shrugged and called a nurse to take him to X-ray. He allowed Lexie to wait in the cubicle.
While he was gone, Lexie called her sister to check in. The call went straight to voice mail, and she left a message, requesting Kendall call her back.
Kade finally returned, which led to another long wait for a doctor to come in with the results.
“Thank you,” Kade said into the prolonged silence.
“You’re welcome.” She almost told him she was just doing her job but stopped herself because that would have been a lie. True, Derek and Luke had asked her to go along, but she would have anyway and not because she was Kade’s personal assistant.
Because in a very short time, she was coming to care about him, and that was something she couldn’t let happen. She already had firsthand experience of what happened when she didn’t put a man first in her life. And a demanding man like Kade? He’d have no patience for her sister or her issues, no matter how kind he’d been when she’d told him the truth about her mother.
With a little luck, Kendall’s meds would kick in, and this would be the time things stuck. She’d turn herself around and get her life back on track. Then Lexie could focus on herself. Even if Kade was truly interested in her now, the sad truth was that said interest would fade long before that ever happened. The thought caused a pain in the pit of her stomach.