Page 11 of River

“She’s my wife,” I said, surprising myself more than anyone else. “I’m going with her.”

“All right,but only the husband. The rest of you will have to stay in the waiting room.”

I followed them inside, still a little shocked at my own words. I helped remove her wetsuit, and as the doctor examined her, he noticed a few scars on her thigh and back. “These look like bullet wounds,” he remarked.

“Kat was a medic in Afghanistan and Iraq; she was sent back to the States when she was shot in the back.”

A nurse handed me a green hospital shirt to wear, and that’s when I realized I was shirtless, wearing wet swimming trunks.

“Why don’t you sit down somewhere? You’re making everyone nervous with a body like that and standing here like you will kill anyone who does something wrong,” the nurse teased.

“Sorry,” I said. Kat opened her eyes and smiled at me. “River, I’m going to be fine; stop worrying. Can you give me a ride home? I don’t think I can drive; whenever I open my eyes, I feel like I’m going to vomit,” she said, closing her eyes.

The nurse looked at me and pointed two fingers at her eyes and then at me, telling me she was watching me.

“Why do you surf those huge waves? They are fucking dangerous,” I said, watching her closely.

“I wonder who the kid who cut me off was. That’s against the surfing rules. He’ll be lucky if they let him back on the beach.”

She didn’t say anything else. I assumed she went back to sleep as the doctor examined her head. The damage was mostly on her shoulder and the back of her head. “I’ll have to stitch up her shoulder, so I’m going to give her a pain shot so she won’t feel anything.”

Kat opened her eyes and looked at me. “Once, when Iwas out surfing alone, I was so far out there all by myself, where only stupid people go. I started to paddle back to shore when I realized how far out I was. For some odd reason, I stopped and sat straight up on my board, looking around.” She stopped talking and had a faraway look in her eyes.

She looked at me. “Something told me to look around, and I felt like I would see a shark. I was almost afraid to turn my head. That’s when I saw something black in the ocean not far from me. I thought it was a seal, but it was a boy with a wet suit on,” she took a deep breath.

“He kept going under, and I dove in so many times before I got hold of his leg. My arms were killing me, but I pushed him up on my board and started doing CPR. I was so scared. Some lifeguards met me on the beach. They said they had been hunting for him for six hours.”

“That was a miracle for that boy,” I replied.

“Yeah. He lost his board—he didn’t have it secured to his ankle. He was only eleven, and his name was Conner. When he told me his name, it shook me to my core. My legs went weak, and I almost fell on my face,” she wiped her eyes.

“His parents were crying on the beach, and the ambulance was way down the beach. They never would have found him. I could never figure out how I ended up in that part of the ocean because when I started that morning, I was two miles down the beach,” she whispered.

The doctor and I looked at each other. “I remember that boy. His parents tried finding you, but you didn’t come to the hospital,” the doctor said.

“That’s when I met Josh and Mitch, and before I knew it, they had me out there catching waves with them. It helped me at the time—the bigger the wave, the better.”

“But now,” I asked.

“Now, I don’t need that kind of excitement to take my thoughts away anymore,” she replied as the nurse returned.

“You have a concussion. Do you have anyone who can stay with you for the night? You need to be woken up every hour.”

“Here is a prescription for her. It needs to be filled; it’s the ointment for her shoulder,” the doctor said.

“I’ll stay with her,” I said before thinking about it. I took the prescription, and the nurse pushed her into a wheelchair, wearing a hospital gown. I carried her wetsuit. We went to the waiting room, and I handed the prescription to the guys to get filled.

Kat looked at me, smiling. “You don’t have to wake me up. I’ll set my alarm. Thank you anyway. That is so sweet. I won’t tell anyone that you are the sweetest man I know. They wouldn’t believe me anyway,” She grinned as she looked at the nurse.

“I’ll find you some scrubs to wear home.”

“Thank you,” Kat said.

We had Tag drop us off at my vehicle. I left my vehicle at Raven’s, and Gage drove Kat’s vehicle to her house to drop it off. I noticed her board was already tied to her little car.

The guys got out and made sure it wouldn’t fly off. Gage squeezed inside, trying to adjust the seat so he had some room, but he looked like a sardine squeezed in there.

I heard everyone chuckle as Gage drove away. “Would you mind if we stopped at my place so I could change and grab a few things?” I asked.

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