What a f**king dick!”
To punctuate my point, I brought my hand down on the window ledge and then shouted, “Ow!” mainly because it hurt.
I looked at Eddie. “I hurt my hand,” I informed him unnecessarily.
His dimple appeared first, then his lips formed a grin.
“Maybe we’l get the doctors to look at it after they check the bul et wound to your head.”
I blinked at him, then nodded, “That’s a good idea.”
“You gonna move your leg now?” he asked.
“Sure,” I answered, the soul of amenity and then I moved my leg.
He slammed the door and walked around the front of the truck.
Everyone was gathered at the side. Mostly they looked shel -shocked. Except Daisy, she looked pissed, right the hel , off. And not Lee and his boys, I noticed they were al trying to hide grins.
Eddie got in and started the truck.
To let them know everything was al right, I flashed a To let them know everything was al right, I flashed a smile and gave a jaunty wave as Eddie pul ed away.
* * * * *
It wasn’t until a lot later that I saw (regardless of the fact that it was just a graze) the amount of blood that had leaked down my face. I was sitting on the end of a bed in the emergency room at Denver Health and the nurse was cleaning me up. “That’s a lot of blood,” I remarked, staring clinical y at the towel she was using as if it was someone else’s blood.
“Head wounds bleed,” she said in battle weary tones; the voice of experience.
That’s al I heard because it was then that I fainted.
Eddie was sitting by the bed when I woke up.
“Hey there, Cariña,” he whispered.
“Don’t tel anyone I fainted,” I whispered back.
His eyes smiled even though his lips didn’t.
“They must have thought I was a lunatic, ranting about Dad with blood running down my face.”
“I don’t expect they thought much of anything except bein’
glad you were alive to rant.”
I figured he was right.
He helped me sit up and then took off to go to the waiting room to tel everyone I was okay while I fil ed out forms (I was praying, since I was on an unplanned, unscheduled vacation, that Smithie stil had me insured…
told you he took care of his girls, probably no other strip joint had good insurance).
Then Eddie came back.
“You should know, someone told Duke and Tex and they were both out there. Your Mom too. I told ‘em you were fine, I’d take care of you and sent them home. You can talk to them tomorrow.”
I pushed back the alarm of Mom knowing I’d been grazed by a bul et and focused on feeling grateful. Grateful I had friends who would sit around in the waiting room of a hospital to hear news of a graze and grateful that Eddie took care of them so I didn’t have to. Because I was grateful, I found his hand and I gave it a squeeze. He one-upped my squeeze by bringing my fingers up and brushing his lips against my knuckles.
The gesture was so intimate, my bel y curled and the oxygen burned in my lungs.