I said. “I made a promise, and I don’t break them, Mr. Drummond.”
He raised his eyebrows. “So you’re callin’ me Mr. Drummond now?”
“If you’re going to accuse me of things I haven’t done, then I think formality is appropriate.”
Hank glanced from Wyatt to me and back again. “Did you accuse her of something?” When Wyatt didn’t answer, Hank said, “What do you think she’s gonna do? Rob me?”
“I don’t know,” Wyatt said, his voice a growl of frustration. “And that right there is the problem. None of us really know her.”
Hank’s gaze found mine and he gave me a sad smile. “Oh, but I do, boy.”
Tears filled my eyes, and I reached for his hand and squeezed it. Wyatt was right. Hank barely knew me, and vice versa, but we shared a secret that drew us together in a way that went beyond normal relationships.
Hank dropped my hand and turned to Wyatt. “Carly’s stayin’ with me whether you like it or not, so deal with it or get the hell out.”
Wyatt gave him a defiant glare, yet there was something deferential about it, which caught me by surprise. I’d seen him tell off his brother and stare down hard men at the tavern. But Wyatt was kowtowing to Hank, and I wanted to know why.
A nurse came in a few minutes later, looking exasperated. “I know you’re in a hurry to go home, but we had to get all your paperwork in order, Mr. Chalmers.”
She turned to me and Wyatt. “Which one of you is Mr. Chalmers goin’ home with?”
“That would be me,” I said.
“Me,” Wyatt said, getting to his feet.
She chuckled. “We got a custody battle goin’ on?”
“We’ll both be takin’ care of him,” Wyatt said. “At his place.”
She glanced between us again, shaking her head a little in amusement. In all likelihood, most older patients didn’t have a line of people wanting to take care of them. “Whatever y’all do is your own business. I just need to know who to teach about carin’ for his wounds. Someone will also need to make sure he’s checkin’ his insulin.”
“Both of us,” Wyatt said. “We’ll be workin’ in shifts.”
I expected Hank to protest, but he sat in silence, his previous amusement gone.
The nurse pulled back his covers and exposed the bandaged stump of his right leg. “We took the drain out yesterday, which is why he’s ready to go home today, so you don’t have to take care of that part, but you do need to watch the incision for any signs of infection or cellulitis.” She glanced up at us. “A fancy way of saying the tissue is dyin’.”
My stomach churned.
For the next fifteen minutes she showed us how to care for Hank’s stump. She made both of us take turns unwrapping and rewrapping it, and to my surprise, Wyatt didn’t flinch. Once Hank’s leg was rewrapped, the nurse gave us a list of supplies and prescriptions for the various medications—pain, antibiotics, injectable insulin, and a pill to help manage his diabetes—we’d need to pick up before taking Hank home. She reminded Hank that he needed to check his blood sugar more regularly.
“Yeah,” he grumped. “I know.”
“Do you want me to show your caregivers how to check your sugar and give you insulin injections?”
“I’ve been managing my own damn diabetes for over fifteen years,” he groused. “I had a leg amputated, not my brain.”
I couldn’t help wondering what I’d gotten myself into. Taking care of Violet had been relatively straightforward compared to the whole business of changing bandages and monitoring medications. I was sure I was going to screw up. Part of me couldn’t help but wonder if Wyatt was right. Maybe I was overstepping. But Hank needed help, and I needed a place to stay where I felt like I was earning my keep. And this gave me an opportunity to look for Seth’s evidence. Sometimes you had to listen to fate.
Next, the nurse helped Hank get dressed. I offered to step out of the room, but she told me I should stay—dressing him would be part of the job. He put on a faded and stained blue and white button-down shirt and a pair of jeans, the right leg of which had been cut off. The nurse carefully pulled the pant leg over his stump, telling us it was important not to tug too hard and possibly disturb the sutures. Finally, she brought in the wheelchair and helped Hank out of bed, making him use his crutches