was herself again. Her disorientation was either from the jarring of the accident or from the bump on the head she’d received, but it didn’t last. They made her lie down and checked her out and sent her for a couple of X-rays. The conclusions were that she’d sprained her wrist (it had probably gotten yanked too hard by the motion of the steering wheel), and she had a mild concussion.
That was good. That was nothing. She wasn’t worried about either of those injuries. The problem was that they wouldn’t let her go home unless there was someone to take her. She told them she could just get a ride share, but they didn’t think that was good enough. If they were going to send her home, she had to have someone to stay with her to make sure there weren’t any complications from the concussion.
Otherwise, she’d have to stay at the hospital, and she wasn’t about to do that.
The argument she had with the doctor on this topic was the last straw in a very hard day. She was almost in tears as she tried to explain that, yes, that was an engagement ring on her finger, but her fiancé wasn’t available.
She finally told him she had someone to call who would come to get her, and that satisfied him enough to leave her in her curtained-off room alone.
She looked at Carter’s number for a minute, but she didn’t call it. She called Brent instead.
Naturally, he didn’t pick up. He hardly ever answered his phone. So Ruth tried Kayla, who picked up on the second ring.
“Hey! What’s going on? I wasn’t expecting to hear from you this early in the day.” There was a smile in Kayla’s voice, like the girl was happy to hear from her.
Ruth was tired of lying on the uncomfortable bed, so she sat up on the side of it. “Hey, Kayla. Is your dad around?”
“He’s out right now. He and the boys went to a cookout or something. They said I could come, but it sounded terrible, so I said no. Did you need him for something?”
“Yeah. I guess I do. I... I was in a little car accident.” At the squeaking sound she heard from Kayla, Ruth hurried on, “I’m fine. I’m totally fine.”
“Oh my God, Ruth! What happened? Did you get hurt?”
“Not really. Just a little. I sprained my wrist, which is annoying but no big deal. And I bumped my head. Not bad, but they’re kind of worried about it. So I need someone to drive me home. And then I was hoping maybe you could spend the night with me. They said I needed to have someone with me, just in case the concussion is worse than they think.”
“Oh. Okay. I can definitely spend the night. But Dad and the boys won’t be home for another hour or so, I think.”
“That’s okay. I can wait. If maybe one of them can come to the hospital to pick me up, you could ride along, and they could drop us at my place. I really think it’s no big deal. They just want to be careful.”
“Okay.” Kayla was speaking slowly, like she was thinking. “Why don’t you just ask Carter? He’d do it no problem. Then you wouldn’t have to wait for Dad. I could still come over tonight if you wanted, although Carter would probably—”
“No, no. I don’t want Carter.”
“What? Why not?”
“No reason. Just that he doesn’t need to deal with this hassle.” She knew it was irrational—even as she said the words, she knew they didn’t make sense—but it felt very important to her right now that Carter not get dragged into this mess.
“I don’t think he’d mind. Did you ask him?”
“No, I said I didn’t—”
“Have you even called to tell him?” Kayla sounded aghast, which made Ruth feel even worse.
“No. I’ll talk to him later. Kayla, it’s really fine. I’d just be more comfortable if your dad or one of your brothers could do it. If you don’t mind staying with me.”
“Of course I don’t mind. I’d do anything in the world for you. You know I would.”
It was a sign of Ruth’s shattered state of mind that her eyes pooled with tears at her stepsister’s sober words. “Thank you.” Her voice broke, but she mostly held it together. “If you can just keep me updated and let me know when your dad gets home. The nurse said it would probably be at least an hour before I can