Page 8 of Shattered Secrets

Running a hand over his closely cropped hair, he caught Doc’s eye. “Hey, Doc. How can we help?”

Doc shook both his and Cade’s hands in greeting, then said, “We’ll need to head over to the clinic for X-rays.”

“What happened?” Scarlet asked in that soothing voice, steadily swaying side to side.

“I falled down,” Daisy wailed.

Her distress had Matt sucking in a breath and shooting a frantic glance at Doc.

The man chuckled, giving him and Cade a soft smile. “The little peanut’s going to be fine, boys.”

“Oh my sweet girl,” Scarlet said. “You fell down? Is that how you hurt your arm?”

Daisy nodded, and her lower lip wobbled.

Flora held out a small stuffed unicorn to Daisy, who shook her head and burrowed deeper into her mom’s arms. “We were all coming in from playing outside, and she tripped,” Flora explained. “But when she fell, she landed on the edge of the bottom step.”

“I falled down really hard,” Daisy said with another loud hiccup.

“You sure did, honey,” Flora said. “And you landed right on your forearm.”

“It hurts, Mama.”

Scarlet pressed a kiss to the top of Daisy’s head. “I know, baby.”

Matt’s gaze flicked around the room. Holy shit, why the hell was everyone still standing around? They needed to move. Not chitchat about what had happened. He waited a moment, expecting the others to recognize the situation’s urgency, but Flora and Scarlet continued to quietly discuss Daisy’s fall.

Nope. He was done waiting.

“I’ll drive,” he said, pulling Scarlet’s keys from his pocket. He nodded at Cade. “Call Poppy. Scarlet’s going to want her friend.” He turned to Scarlet. “You can sit with Daisy in the back and?—”

“Oh, can I now?” Scarlet’s eyebrow arched, and an amused look flittered over her face.

Matt wasn’t quite sure if she was being sarcastic or not, but it didn’t matter. They were wasting time. Daisy needed to be attended to. Immediately. After all, what if her arm wasn’t the only thing that had been injured?

His chest seized. Holy shit, what if she’d hurt her ribs in the fall? “Doc, you’ll want to do a chest X-ray just to be sure. What if her fall?—”

Doc laughed and slapped him on the shoulder. “Calm down, son.”

“I’m perfectly calm,” he replied, making sure to keep the annoyance out of his tone. “But her arm isn’t going to X-ray itself, now is it? Let’s get moving, people.”

Placing his hand on Scarlet’s lower back, he ushered her out of the kitchen.

Forty-five minutes later, Daisy’s giggles filled the exam room, and Scarlet finally let out a relieved breath. The arm X-ray had revealed a fractured ulna, but luckily, it didn’t require surgery. As for Daisy’s ribs, Doc hadn’t believed there was any damage during his initial exam—there was no apparent bruising and she didn’t show any signs of pain when he’d poked and prodded her ribs. However, whether Matt had intended to or not, he’d planted that seed in Scarlet’s brain. When she’d asked Doc if he could do a chest X-ray just to be sure, she was certain he’d balk. But to her surprise, he’d simply said, “I understand. I’m a father and would do the same thing. I’d hate to miss something.”

In the back of her mind, she flinched at the added expense because she knew her crappy insurance wouldn’t cover the cost of the additional scan. It didn’t matter, though. She’d happilytake on extra shifts—hell, she’d get a second job—to make sure Daisy wasn’t injured beyond her arm.

Thankfully, the chest X-ray had confirmed no damage to Daisy’s ribs.

Doc had given Daisy some over-the-counter medication to dull the pain, and now his nurse was distracting her sweet little girl with an impromptu puppet show.

“We’re doing a fiberglass short arm cast,” Doc said as he fit a stocking-looking thing over Daisy’s arm. “The fiberglass is lighter than plaster, and since this peanut is so petite, it’ll be more comfortable for her.”

Scarlet nodded, listening to him further explain that it would take between four and six weeks for her arm to heal, but with her being so young, it could be even sooner.

“I’ll have you bring her back in three weeks,” Doc continued. “We’ll take the cast off and do another X-ray. From there, we’ll see if we need to recast or move her to a splint for the final weeks of healing.” He paused in applying the padding and nodded to the door. “Why don’t you grab something to drink in the waiting room? After this padding, I’m going to apply the cast tape, and I think Daisy wants to surprise you with the color she’s picked out.” He looked down at her daughter and waggled his eyebrows. “Isn’t that right, peanut?”

Daisy nodded, a giant grin growing on her cherub face. “The color’s gonna be a surprise, Mama!”

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