Page 37 of Biker's Babygirl

Duke

“How’s the patient?” Ellie asks as I enter the living room.

It looks like she’s watching some medical drama—I don’t know how she can stand to watch them after what we do all day, and I’ve told her so on more than one occasion—and Shep is in the kitchen making a sandwich. One of them must have gone to the store while I was busy with Ginny.

“Make one for me, bro?” I call.

He gives me a thumbs up and I see him pull out two more slices of bread.

“I think she’s okay,” I answer, trying to put my doubts out of my mind. It’s an odd thing—I don’t know Ginny well at all, yet, I just became her Daddy, and there’s a part of me that feels like I’ve known her forever. And though she told me she was tired; something is niggling at the back of my mind.

Ellie opens her mouth, presumably to inquire further, but I don’t get to hear her question. At that moment, my beeper goes off.

The muscles in my shoulders and the back of my neck go tense even as I whip it out of my pocket. No one beeps me unless it’s an emergency. Otherwise, I get messages at the café from Peggy, or they call the house.

I can feel the tension radiating from Ellie and Shep as I check the beeper. “It’s Old Man Keller,” I announce as I stride to the phone.

“I’ll get dressed,” Ellie calls out.

Shep drops the knife he was holding over the head of lettuce and sprints out of the kitchen.

“Don’t,” I call to Ellie as my fingers dial. “Someone has to stay with Ginny.”

“I’m not a babysitter!” she retorts hotly, hands on hips. “I have a degree like every single one of you, and?—”

“She’s sick, Ellie.”

Her fury vanishes instantly. “Seriously?”

I nod. “Fever.”

“Shit.”

My sentiments exactly,I think, but before I can say anything, there’s a voice in my ear.

“Hello?”

“Mrs. Keller?”

“Duke, is that you? Thank God! Mr. Keller had an accident with the tractor and his leg is hurt real bad.”

“When?”

“It was half an hour ago. I wanted to call earlier. Hell, I wanted him to go to the hospital, but you know how?—”

“Is it broken, Mrs. Keller?”

“No, I don’t think so, but it’s swollen up something awful! I was hoping you could come take a look. He’s going to be so mad that I called you,” she frets on the other end.

“We’re on the way, Mrs. Keller. And don’t worry—you did the right thing.”

But no sooner than I hang up the phone, does it ring again. The person on the other end thinks they were bit by a poisonous snake, and the closest hospital is forty-five minutes away. I promise someone will come out and hang up the phone.

As soon as I turn around, Shep and a bleary-eyed Elvis are standing there. “Division of labor,” I announce.

After explaining the situation, we decide that Shep will go check out the snake bite and Elvis and I will head to the Keller’s farm.

“And Ellie?—”

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