Twisted Up (Taking Chances #1) - Erin Nicholas Page 0,106
taken care of the scene with calm and poise. He’d been able to watch her take that risk and not charge in there to protect her. He’d convinced himself that it was all okay, that it was proof that he didn’t always have to be taking care of her. That she could be all right even if she was in the middle of it all and he was on the sidelines.
Then a fucking tree branch had knocked her down.
“You’re overreacting,” she said, but it was a weak protest.
Of course he was. She was hurt.
It wasn’t anything life threatening, but he felt like his blood pressure would never be normal again.
“Let me,” he told her gruffly.
She snuggled in. “Okay.”
And he thought his heart might burst.
She was letting him take care of her. Finally.
Avery Sparks, the tough, independent, wounded woman who didn’t let people take care of her anymore was letting him carry her. Literally.
She had come around. She’d let him close.
And now he was realizing that having her trust meant even more pressure to not let her down, and loving her meant even more risk to his heart.
He carried her into the mayor’s office, where Frank, Shelby, Dillon, and others had gathered to review what was going on.
Not because he wanted to be in there. He wanted to take her straight into an empty room—with a lock—and check her over from head to toe.
But Dillon was in Frank’s office, and she needed Dillon’s attention more than Jake’s right now.
One more time when he was going to have to be nothing more than a spectator.
He was not good at being a bystander. Especially when he was in love. Apparently.
Having never been in love before, this was all new to him. But he probably wasn’t going to handle this well.
The minute he stepped through the doorway with her in his arms, everyone got to their feet. Dillon was the first across the room. “What happened?”
“Tree branch knocked her over. It’s her shoulder.”
Jake knew he should put her down on the couch, but instead he sank onto the cushions with her still in his arms.
Dillon gave him a look, but when Jake scowled at him, Dillon didn’t say a word and crouched in front of both of them.
“You got hit by a tree branch?” Dillon said as he checked her pupils.
Jake worked on relaxing his hold so he didn’t crack one of her ribs.
“It was hit by lightning,” she told him.
Dillon looked from her shoulder to her face. “Seriously?”
Avery nodded. “I saw the flash and heard the crack.”
“Do you know what the odds are of you being under a tree when it’s hit by lightning?”
“A gazillion to one, I’ve been told,” Avery said drily.
She’s able to be sassy, Jake thought with an eye roll. That had to be a good sign.
“I can’t lift my arm. It feels like it’s on fire.”
Dillon nodded. He and Jake helped her out of her big, heavy fire coat first. Jake had to grit his teeth through the entire process as Avery tried to cover her soft gasps and grimaces of pain. They got her boots and pants off, then settled her back on Jake’s lap. Jake knew Dillon was going to give him a hard time about that later, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t letting her out of his sight for the foreseeable future.
Dillon poked and prodded the shoulder joint, her shoulder blade, collarbone, neck, and upper arm. Then he tried to lift it for her.
She sucked in a hard breath. So did Jake.
“Ow.”
“I know,” Dillon said. “Sorry.”
“No, Jake’s squeezing me.”
Everyone chuckled, and Jake tried to relax his hold.
“You’ve dislocated it,” Dillon said grimly. “There’s also likely a soft tissue strain at best, a tear at worst. Without an X-ray and MRI, I’m going to say nothing’s broken. I need to reduce the dislocation. Without pain meds it’s going to hurt like a mother.”
Avery nodded, but Jake jumped in. “Can it wait until you have the meds?”
Dillon shook his head. “The dislocation could be impinging nerves or blood vessels. We need it back in alignment.” He frowned at Jake. “Maybe you should step out for this.”
“Step out?”
“Leave.”
“You think I’m going to leave?” Jake asked him.
“You’re not handling this very well,” Dillon said with an eyebrow up.
Yeah, well, he’d called that.
“Just fucking do it if you’re going to do it.”
Dillon sighed and focused on Avery. “You’re small enough that I can probably do this pretty easily.”
“Probably?” Jake asked.
Dillon gave him a frown. “Reductions can be tough.”