Page 12 of Married to Her Yeti
Why wasn’t Mari drinking Mai Tais on a beach with her family? Probably because she’d closed on a new business today. “Is there anyone else I should call?”Like a boyfriend I don’t want to know about?
But Mari simply shook her head. Nima hadn’t been too worried about another guy, not after what they’d done in the closet, but he still secretly cheered at her answer.
Margie yanked the curtain around the bed, and Nima took a seat, trying not to overhear questions like, “Are you pregnant or do you think it’s possibleyou could be pregnant?” He couldn’t make out Mari’s response, and Margie continued to the next question as fabric rustled and Mari let out more than one groan of pain that made Nima grimace. He disliked Mari being hurt.
When Margie drew the curtain back, Mari, now in a pink gown that hit past her knee, sat in a wheelchair, yellow hospital socks pulled partway up her bare calves.
“Your earrings should be okay, but please take off your necklace,” Margie requested. “Nima can hold it for you for safekeeping.”
“Of course,” Nima said, holding out his hand. It may have been his imagination, but Mari seemed to hesitate before she unhooked it.
Margie paused too and stepped toward Nima’s open palm. “Is that spruce sap?” she asked, wrinkling her nose.
“It is. The tree put up a fight.”
“But you won. Mari is no longer under it,” Margie said, handing him several packets. “It’ll come off with rubbing alcohol, but all those little cuts will sting like the dickens.”
Mari offered him a small, appreciative smile that made his heart sing. Then her cheeks stained a deepcrimson as she placed her necklace in his palm and quickly glanced away.
Nima closed his fist around the jewelry, perplexed at her reaction. Had it been a gift from a past boyfriend?
Margie pushed the wheelchair out the door, depressing Santa’s belly once again. “Sit tight, Nima. We’ll be back after the X-rays.”
A moment later, he was alone in the room. Nima uncurled his fingers and peered down at an unremarkable silver chain holding two rings, one large enough for a yeti, and one small, as if sized for Mari.
Two silver rings.
A memory flashed. Nima had seen these rings before. Mari had purchased them from a silversmith in Nevada, but the ring she’d bought for Nima didn’t fit. His fingers had swelled in the desert heat.
Nima sat with a heavy thud. A cold sweat pricked his forehead as he put the pieces together. If Mari wore these around her neck, she considered them significant. Were these their... wedding rings?
Mari had wornher and Nima’s wedding rings on a long chain tucked below the neckline of hershirts for years. At first, she’d been afraid someone would see the rings and ask about them. But no one ever had. She wasn’t sure if that said something about her friends and family or the distance she’d kept from others. In either case, her marriage to her yeti sweetheart had remained a secret.
If Nima somehow didn’t realize they were married, would he understand their significance? Mari put it out of her mind. Easy to do when her body ached.
The clinic hallway was cold but cheery. “Who won the decorating contest?” Mari asked as Margie wheeled her toward the X-ray lab.
Margie huffed out a laugh. “Billing. They recreated the Grinch stealing a Christmas tree by pulling it up through their ceiling tiles, which they decorated to look like chimney bricks. They deserved the grand prize—a dozen red and green glazed donuts.”
Mari couldn’t help but grin. “Nima and I used to watch the cartoon version of that movie every Christmas.” Not only had they dated for years, but their grandparents had been friends. Her parents had pictures of her and Nima together as babies—they closely guarded those photos as yeti rarely allowed pictures. Her and Nima’s shared youth had created astrong bond, but it hadn’t prevented a broken heart. Or made fixing one easier.
As they rounded a corner, Isaac, a former classmate of Mari’s sister, passed them in the hallway. He held up a bandaged hand while Mari tugged at her gown to cover more of her legs.
“Earthquake injury?” he asked.
Mari frowned. “I lost a battle with a spruce tree that snapped during the shaking. You?”
Isaac sucked air through his teeth. “Ouch. I bet that hurt. Well, I’m embarrassed to say I tripped in the dark when the lights went out and landed on broken glass. Needed ten stitches.”
Mari’s face pinched. That sucked for him. “I’m sorry. I hope it heals fast.”
Before they parted, he cautioned, “Watch where you’re stepping if your power is out when you return home.”
“Solid advice,” Mari agreed, thinking back to Tseten’s report of Pema and Jack’s damage.
Margie pivoted outside a double door, wheeling Mari through the backwards. “Have you seen many earthquake injuries tonight?” Mari asked.
As Margie parked the wheelchair next to the X-ray machine and locked the wheels, she said, “No,thankfully, only a handful and mostly minor. You might be the worst off.”
