Page 10 of Fractured Hope
Shaking myself out of the past, I refocused on Atticus, who was watching me from the corner of his eye.
“We’ll work it out. I’d be happy to help or even front you the money, and you can pay me back later. Your health must come first. Try not to stress too much,” he said.
It took me a moment to process the conversation, and it gave me pause that a complete stranger could be so kind and generous. This was something I’d never really experienced. I was only just able to choke out “thank you” as emotions clogged my throat. I wasn’t used to this level of kindness.
“It’s really no trouble,” he reassured me. “Why don’t you tell me a little about yourself? Where are you from?”
The question caught me off guard and made me pause. How much was safe to say? I hated that I couldn’t trust the kindness offered or even myself sometimes. I settled for starting small. “I grew up in Iowa.”
“You’re a long way from home.” He sounded surprised.
“It’s where I grew up but never said it was home,” I responded morosely. I didn’t like this line of questioning and needed to turn the tables. “What about you?”
Chuckling, he glanced at me. “Well, as Doc mentioned, I’m Hope’s Ridge born and raised.”
“You mentioned something about brothers. Do you have more than one?” I asked, thinking of Sebastian.
“Yes, I’m the oldest of four.” He smiled, gaze focused on the distance. “You met Seb, then there’s Theodore, but we call him Theo, and our youngest brother Lyric.”
“Lyric, that’s an unusual name,” I said offhand.
“For a unique character.” He laughed. “When you finally meet him, you’ll know what I mean. That kid walks to the beat of his own drum.”
I liked the sound of his family, and it was a surprise to find myself smiling. You could tell they cared about each other, and the happiness radiated off Atticus as he spoke about them.
“What about your parents?”
“Mama is still around, but we lost Pa a few years ago,” he said solemnly.
“I’m so sorry.” I rushed to apologize for bringing up what must be a painful memory.
“No worries. It was sudden, but we’ve all come to terms with it one way or another.” He looked so sad.
“If you’ve ever met a Greek mother or grandmother, you’ll know they’re a force to be reckoned with and kept my brothers and I all in line since we lost Pa. Mama’s the strongest person I know.” He went quiet and seemed to be lost in thought but was smiling, so I hoped he was okay. Silence settled over us again. It wasn’t awkward, as far as those things went, but it did allow me to think. I wondered, not for the first time, what my life would’ve been like if I’d known my mom and dad and had grown up in a loving household like Atticus’s.
We passed the rest of the drive in relative silence. I must’ve fallen asleep again because the next thing I knew the truck was parked and Atticus was gently shaking my shoulder to wake me. He even had my backpack hooked over his shoulder and was waiting with a wheelchair for me.
“Where’d you manage to get the chair?” I asked as he helped me into it.
“Charmed one of the nurses.” He went around to wheel me toward the emergency room doors. I didn’t like the way my stomach clenched at the thought of him flirting with someone.
Once through the doors, Atticus let them know I was here and came back to me with what seemed like a million forms to fill out. As Doc had mentioned, I had to go over everything again from scratch. Why was the paperwork always so long? Why couldn’t they have just talked to whoever Doc’s friend was who worked here? Sighing, I concentrated on jotting down my information as neatly as I could with my injured hand. I’d filled in so many of these types of forms since meeting Derek, it was really a matter of muscle memory. I filled it out on autopilot pausing at the address box. I had no address anymore. What could I even put here. Shaking my head I decided to leave it blank and come back to it. I needed to finish what I could before my hand cramped up.
The first time I’d had to fill these in was incredibly difficult and took way longer with my dyslexia to work out what I needed to write. I was always slow with forms, reading, and writing, but now at least I knew what most of it said and could answer the standard stuff easily enough. When it got to the incident section my hand was cramping, as expected. My writing became illegible and my wrist was killing me. Of course, Derek managed to hurt my dominant arm, and the fall had only made it worse. Atticus took pity on me and offered to help. I let him take over while I dozed in the waiting room, listening to the hubbub of activity, pain, and stress that was an emergency waiting room.
Everything seemed to go surprisingly quickly after that. I was examined, poked, and prodded, sent to radiology, led back to the waiting room, and then back to radiology again. They’d given me some Tylenol soon after I’d arrived, and while it didn’t reallywork for the amount of pain I was in, it had taken a bit of the edge off. Now I was just so tired. By the time I was finally led in to see the doctor, I was sure we’d been here forever. Poor Atticus must’ve been just as exhausted as me, going back and forth and in and out of radiology as much as we did. He wheeled me into the exam room and waited, shuffling back and forth, before standing to leave, but I caught his wrist and looked up into those pale green eyes so full of concern.
“Can you please stay?” I asked hesitantly. I was tired, drained, and had had enough of this place. I wanted to take the life raft he was offering and grab on tight.
“You sure?” he whispered back, holding eye contact like he was looking for something in particular. He must’ve found what he was searching for because he smiled at me and took the vacant seat. The doctor glanced back and forth between us.
“You sure you want him in the room, Mr. Erikson?” he asked in his no-nonsense tone from his seat behind his desk. “We’ll be discussing your medical history and treatment.”
“It’s fine,” I responded, ready to get this all over with.
“Okay then, it looks like you have fractured the second and third metatarsals in your foot. We’ll need to fit you with a walking boot for six to eight weeks, and you’ll need to keep it elevated and iced for about a week. You also have a hairline fracture to the ulnaandscaphoid in your wrist.” I sighed at the insinuations that were coming. “There is also some concerning bruising around your wrist. It isn’t all from today’s accident, is it?” He paused to look at me, gaze unflinching.
Hesitating, I answered him without breaking eye contact. I knew this game well and couldn’t risk a police report being written up, not this time. “I also fell about a week ago, down some stairs. It was slippery.” I shrugged, not daring to blink.
