Page 120 of Love You, Mean It
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Where is she?” The sound of Charlie’s voice, angry and gruff, came from behind me.
He stormed into the room, and the look on his face had my heart sinking.
He’d never forgive me for this.
He rushed over to the side of her bed, and I could actually see his heart breaking as he took in her tear-streaked face. “You’re okay, baby girl.”
“My arm hurts, Daddy.” Her voice was soft and shaky.
“I know it does. But you’re tough as nails, Harps. We’re going to get you all fixed up.”
He hadn’t looked at me yet, and the doctor walked in and introduced himself. Dr. Jenkins asked what happened, and I gave him a brief breakdown about how she went down the slide awkwardly as I tried to secure her, and we crashed at the bottom of the slide with several kids behind us who piled on top.
“I tried to shield her,” I said, my voice quaking. “I didn’t press down on her when we hit the ground, but a larger boy who’d been behind me went over my back and landed on her.”
“All right. Accidents happen. She’s going to be okay. We’re going to get some x-rays of her arm and her wrist, and we’ll do a CT scan and check out the neck and spine. She’ll most likely be going home today if everything looks okay.”
Two nurses walked in the room and said they were ready to take her for x-rays.
“Can they come with me?” Harper whimpered.
“We can let one person come back with us,” the nurse said, looking between Charlie and me.
“I’m her father. I’m going with her,” he said, still not looking at me.
I nodded. “I’ll just wait out in the waiting room.”
I kissed Harper on the forehead and glanced up to see Charlie watching me. Our eyes locked for the first time since he’d walked in, and I wished I hadn’t looked up.
Because the disappointment I saw there shattered me.
And I knew nothing would ever be the same again.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Charlie
I’d calmed down over the last few hours, but the fear that my baby girl had been badly hurt was almost paralyzing.
Jeanne had called and told me that Harper had been taken by ambulance to the hospital.
I swear, I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
I’d never felt panic like that.
It was all because of that damn demon slide.
The one I’d known Harper wasn’t old enough to go down.
And now we were here, and she was getting a cast put on her broken arm.
Her radius bone had been fractured, which is the bone that connects from the elbow to the hand.
Thankfully her neck was okay, and her wrist was just sprained, not broken.
We’d been here for hours.
