Page 215 of Keeping Kasey
“Are you okay?” I ask when the nurse pushes her wheelchair to my side. “What did the doctors say? Did they check for internal bleeding? Should you even be out of bed?”
She reaches her mobile hand up to cup my cheek. “I’m fine. Thirty stitches, two cracked ribs, a broken ankle, some swelling in my shoulder, a minor concussion, and a hell of a lot of bruising.”
“Well, when you put it like that, it doesn’t sound so bad,” I mutter with an eye roll, even as I shamelessly lean into her touch.
“It isn’t. It could’ve been a lot worse,” she says, and her fingers rake behind my ear, curling into my hair. “What about you? How do you feel?”
“I’ve been better.”
The nurse—now suppressing a smile—scans my hands warily. “Now that you’re awake, the doctor is going to want to do a full examination. Is there anything I can get you before I send him in?”
“Half an hour,” I tell her.
She hesitates, eyes flicking to my hands again, but she must conclude that I’m not in any imminent danger because she nods and leaves the room.
I reach for Kasey’s hand, and she hesitates before taking it gently in her own.
She runs her fingers over my hand with a feather-light touch, inspecting the damaged skin with a furrowed brow. “Does it hurt?”
“Not when you’re touching me.”
A stifled laugh cuts into the blissful moment, and I turn a vicious glare on Moreno, who presses his fist to his lips.
I’m about to part with the remaining feeling in my hands to send my fist through his face, but Kasey’s sharp tone beats me to it.
“Get out, Joshua,” she snaps. “You’re being an asshole.”
Moreno’s smile is unmoving as he rises from his chair, a thoroughly amused Damon at his side. “I’m going to tell my wife you’re awake. You have approximately five minutes until she’s busting through this door.”
“Make it ten, and I won’t tell her that you’ve been antagonizing Logan,” Kasey threatens.
He laughs as he goes, and I get the sense that it’s an agreement.
Damon lingers just long enough to make things awkward. “Well,” he says, looking down at his watch. “I’ll just, uh, go.”
The door closes behind them, and if I could walk, I’d lock it.
I arch a brow at Kasey. “Since when are you on a first-name basis with Moreno?”
Hearing his name on Kasey’s lips brings back murderous feelings I thought I had under control where my brother-in-law is concerned.
Kasey gives me an exasperated look, gently rubbing her hand over mine. If she means for the gesture to calm me, she nails it.
“Since he carried me a mile through the snow in the middle of the night.”
“He didwhat?”
“Imagine my disappointment when I thought it wasyoucoming into the cabin, only for him and Damon to show up.”
“Better than waking up to him here,” I mutter, and Kasey’s soft laugh eases me in ways nothing else in this world ever could.
When her laughter fades, her hold on me tightens, and her eyes study me with wonder.
“I thought you were dead.”
“Me too,” I admit.
“You would’ve been if your siblings hadn’t gotten there on time.”
