missing teeth in the middle-aged man’s mouth.
“I am. George…” Before he could say anything else, the man moved forward quickly. Robin’s scream hadn’t even left her before George’s blood splattered all over her face. There was a loud smacking sound when the man’s fist plowed into George’s nose.
In the next seconds, there was a blur of activity as George pushed out of the booth and tackled the man to the ground. Two other bodies seemed to materialize out of nowhere to help George.
“That’s for Laura,” the man was screaming. “You took my wife,” he said over and over as George, Aiden, and Corey held the man down.
“Are you okay?” Suzie asked Robin. It was then that Robin noticed that both Suzie and Lilly had been sitting at a table across the way with their husbands. She’d been so consumed by George’s attention earlier that she hadn’t noticed who else was in the bakery.
“He just…” She felt her throat close up. “George?” She pushed out of the booth when she noticed blood spurting out of George’s nose. “Here.” She took some fresh napkins from their table and covered his nose. “You’re bleeding.”
“Do you have him?” George asked Aiden and Corey before taking the napkins from her and holding them over his nose. “Son of a…” He broke off when he noticed a few families in the dining area. “I think he broke my nose.”
The man continued to scream about a woman named Laura and how George had stolen her from him.
“Why don’t you head over and have your dad take a look at that. We’ve got Larry here.” Aiden motioned to the man. “Witnessed the entire thing.” Aiden turned to the man. “Hey, hotshot, next time you want to assault someone, make sure the sheriff isn’t sitting five feet away.” Aiden shook his head.
“Thanks,” George said while pinching his nose.
Robin grabbed up his coat and followed him outside.
She had to jog a little to keep up with his long strides as he made his way down the street towards his father’s medical clinic.
“What was that about?” she asked him.
“Damned if I know,” he said, walking and trying to keep his nose up in the air.
“Your coat.” She worried that the freezing air was affecting him.
“I’m okay. I think the adrenaline is keeping me warm,” he said through the blood-soaked tissues.
They were less than half a block away from the clinic when they noticed his father standing out on the sidewalk, waiting for them.
“He got you good,” his father said as George removed the soaked tissue. “Becca from the bakery called me and filled me in on what happened.”
“Yeah, sucker punched me while I was sitting down,” George said with a sigh.
“Larry Butcher has always been a coward,” Aaron said with a groan. “It’s not as bad as it looks.” he said smoothly. “Come on in, I’ll set it back to right and check you out.” His father turned and they followed him into the clinic.
She’d been inside the small medical facility a few times. When she’d been a kid one vacation, she’d gotten the flu and had run a fever, prompting her parents to take her to see Doctor Stevens. The last time she’d been inside was shortly after they had finished work on the barn. She’d somehow walked into a nail sticking out of a wall and had cut her leg. Thankfully, the doctor had used super glue after cleaning the cut instead of stitches.
“Can I come back?” she asked George’s father.
He looked to George, who nodded, so she followed the two men through the little lobby, down the hallway, and into one of the smaller examination rooms.
George jumped up on the table like he’d been there a million times. Then it hit her. This had no doubt been his second home growing up. How many times had he been here? Hurt or not.
She sat in the chair as his father examined him, then set George’s broken nose. She was very impressed when George only flinched as his father set the broken cartilage. The bleeding stopped instantly.
“Better?” his dad asked him.
“Much.” George sighed and relaxed back. “Thanks.” He started to get up, but his father stopped him.
“You know the drill. You’ve been assaulted. Aiden would skin me alive if I didn’t do a full exam and check you out for a concussion.”
George groaned, but relaxed back. Robin hadn’t been worried about anything other than the broken nose, but now she worried that there was more wrong with him. She remembered