Page 39 of The Wedding Driver
“Let’s deal with one thing at a time.” Tonya sighed. She’d seen Victoria when she’d gone after Foster once before. In a drug-induced stupor, she agreed to go to rehab. When she sobered up, she came at him with both barrels loaded. Not only did she take a few swings at him, but she cut him with her words. “We’re doing the right thing. Her leg is so badly infected that it could cause all sorts of problems if it gets into her bloodstream. It could kill her.”
“You know she’s trying to do that, right? She just won’t do it the easy way.” Foster pulled up to the ER entrance. He glanced over his shoulder. “I don’t want this for her; I just don’t know how much more I can take.”
The pain emulating from his sweet, sensitive eyes nearly destroyed Tonya. She understood he felt a sense of responsibility for his ex-wife. She couldn’t fault him for it, but she wished he could let some of it go.
An attendant came out to the vehicle. “What’s the problem?”
“I’ve got a homeless woman, age thirty-six, who has a nasty cut on her leg that we believe is infected along with a bruise on her face. I think she has a fever. She’s been drinking and is probably on something, but we don’t know what. There could be other things wrong,” Foster said.
“No insurance, I take it?” the attendant asked.
“I’ll take care of the bill,” Foster said.
“Okay. Let me get a wheelchair and a parking pass.”
“Why don’t I park the truck and you go in with Victoria.” Tonya slipped from the back seat. “She’s out cold.”
“Okay. Thanks.” He stepped onto the pavement and took her into his arms. “I’m sorry tonight ended this way.” He pressed his lips on her forehead. “I’ll make it up to you.”
“Right now, Victoria is what matters.”
“Anyone ever tell you that you’re an amazing woman?”
“You just did.”
* * *
Foster leaned against the wall in the hallway of the hospital, listening to Victoria cuss out the nurse. He pinched the bridge of his nose. It had been three hours since he brought Victoria in and she was finally coming down from whatever she’d been on and the only thing she wanted was a prescription for pain pills.
Which no doctor in their right mind was going to give her, although they did want to admit her, but Foster figured she was going to rip out the IV and leave against medical advice.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
The sound of heels clicking against the ugly tile floor caught his attention. He turned his head.
In all of this, Tonya had been a rock. She’d been calm and kind when he wanted to raise the fucking roof. He was tired of being nice. Tired of picking up the pieces. He didn’t want to care anymore.
However, he’d made a promise to his daughter the night she’d found her mother passed out on the bathroom floor in her own vomit that he’d always protect her. He hated that Lisa had to see her mom in that state. That’s when he had pushed hard to get Victoria into rehab and that was the best few months he and his family had ever experienced.
Until Victoria fell off the wagon and everything went to shit again.
Seven months later, Lisa was dead.
Tonya handed him a cup of coffee that smelled like tar.
He took a sip, and it tasted worse.
“It doesn’t sound like it’s going too well in there.” Tonya gave him a weak smile.
“She’s ten minutes away from walking out the door. As soon as the doctor gives her a prescription for antibiotics, she’ll leave. If I don’t bring her back to the alley, she’ll walk, hitch a ride, or whatever.”
Tonya rubbed her hand up and down his biceps. “We did the right thing, no matter what she does from this point.”
Deep down, he knew she was right.
The curtain opened and out stepped the doctor. “So, she’s going to leave and I can’t talk her into staying, even though we’d like to treat her with intravenous antibiotics, IV fluids, and run some other tests. I don’t believe that infection is contained, and her leaving could be the beginning of the end. I don’t believe her liver is functioning properly. I’m not sure about her kidneys, and I won’t know until I have the chance to run tests, but she’s adamant that’s not going to happen.”
“I told you.” Foster pushed from the wall. “Do I need to stop at a drugstore to fill a prescription?”
