Jessica's Cowboy Daddy - Melinda Barron Page 0,17
tried to crawl toward the bowl.
He slapped her ass and she cried out. The plate crunched again, and a sharp pain sliced through her thigh.
“Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!”
He must have recognized the tone of her voice because he lifted her as if she were a feather and put her on her feet. A small sliver of plate stuck out of her bare leg, right below the hem of the pajamas she wore.
“Oh crap.” There was blood, but not a lot of it. He jumped up and pushed her down on the sofa before he dropped to her knees. “It’s not bad. Maybe I should call Kyle.”
“He’s a vet!” Her voice was much louder than she thought it should be. She reached for the piece of plate and he grabbed her hand.
“Don’t.” He stared at her in concern. “We have no idea how deep it is, or if it’s cut a vein. There’s just a little bit of blood, but if we pull it out it could get worse. Stay where you are; I’m calling Kyle.”
“Okay.” Her leg throbbed a little, not enough for her to think there was a lot of damage from the plate, but enough for her to not argue with him anymore. As Hawk spoke on the phone a thought occurred to her. What if it wasn’t just Kyle and Reed?
“They’re on their way,” he said.
Visions of all six Coleman brothers, plus Holt’s future wife Aurora, filling her living room made her shiver. And then she said, “They’re going to see me in my pajamas.”
“Stay there.” Hawk went into her bedroom and came back with her robe.
“I’d rather a shirt and bra,” she said.
“And I’d rather you not move around so much.” He sat down next to her. “Relax.”
“You don’t have a shard of crockery sticking out of your leg.”
He squeezed her hand, and she focused on the TV. Her leg throbbed, and she wondered if he was right, if the shard was deeper than she thought. What if blood squirted out when they removed it? She didn’t care for the sight of blood.
“Relax,” Hawk said. “I’m here.”
“Thank God,” she said. “It looks small, but it scares me.”
“We’re here,” Reed called out. She looked up to see him and Kyle come into the room. She was glad they hadn’t brought the third triplet, Wyatt, with them. They both had a black bag in their hand.
“Punishment with broken plates?” Kyle called. “That’s a new one.”
Jessica blushed and looked away.
“Cut it out,” Hawk said. “Take a look, see if we should go to the emergency room or not.”
Kyle pushed his way past Hawk. “Back up, dork and let the professionals through.”
The two veterinarians knelt, one on each side of her. They took her pulse, probed around the wound, and then Reed cleared his throat.
“It’s in deeper than it looks, but not too deep,” he said. “I don’t think it’s nicked any major body part. What do you think, Kyle?”
“I think we can take it out and if it bleeds too much we’ll go to plan B.”
“What is that?” Jessica asked.
“The emergency room,” Kyle said, just as a sharp pain spread through her thigh. Reed had pulled it out while she’d been talking to Kyle. She looked down at the sharp piece of crockery Reed held in his hand. It was sharp and covered in blood.
She gasped, and then promptly fainted.
When she woke she was in bed, with Hawk next to her. She pushed up on her elbow and looked down at her thigh. It didn’t hurt, but it was wrapped in a gauze bandage.
“It’s not even four,” Hawk said. “Go back to sleep.”
“What happened?”
“It was a little deeper than they thought,” Hawk said, sleepily. “They took advantage of you being unconscious to clean it, then gave you four stitches. They also gave you a shot of antibiotics to ward off a possible infection, since there was food on the plate when it broke.”
“They had antibiotics they can use on a human?”
“I didn’t ask, but I trust them, implicitly.”
“I don’t do well around blood,” Jessica said. She lay her head against Hawk’s chest, since he hadn’t moved from the bed. He was still flat on his back.
“I noticed,” he said with a chuckle. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you bleed.”
“Hopefully, you won’t see it much.” She snuggled against him. “I sort of ruined Little night, didn’t I?”
“We’ll try tomorrow.” He wrapped her in his arms and she felt warm and cared for.
“Tomorrow is Friday,” she said. “Are you coming to