One Summer in Santa Fe - By Molly Evans Page 0,50
you decaf,” she said, her sharp gaze assessing, wondering.
“No, this is fine. Thanks.” He pulled back. He had to or he was going to allow his emotions to overtake him and that couldn’t happen. He allowed his gaze to fall to Alex and the heat of emotion sliced right through him. The kid’s face was a little pale and his eyes were red, but both were normal under these stressful circumstances. “I talked to Ortho, and they’ll take her to the OR in a few. Ian won’t let me scrub in.” A muscle twitched in his jaw. Dammit.
“It’s really for the best.”
He ran a hand over his face and tried to shake off the anger that burned in his gut. “I’m glad her abdomen is stable. It’s her head that worries me more than anything.”
“Radiology didn’t see anything significant, so it’s probably just a concussion, and now we’re sedating her a little, too.”
She touched his arm, the gesture sympathetic, but he couldn’t respond to it right now. He couldn’t reach out or he would break. “I’m sure you’re right.”
“What’s all that stuff mean?” Alex looked up at him, his brown eyes dark and filled with questions.
Taylor looked at Piper, and she nodded. It was his place to explain. The words stuck in his throat. How was he going to explain this to Alex? The kid would likely read through anything he said. Helplessly, he appealed to Piper, needing her now more than he ever had and hating himself for it. “The words won’t come,” he said, his voice rough.
Piper looked at Alex, her gaze soft and filled with compassion for the boy. “Your mom has to have surgery on her leg to fix it, so Taylor’s friend Ian is going to do that tonight. She doesn’t have any brain damage, even though she’s still not awake. She had some X-rays of her head and everything’s okay.”
“But her eyes are shut, and she has cuts all over her and she won’t wake up.” His chest heaved with anxiety.
“I know. Right now her body is trying to heal and that takes a lot of energy, so she can’t spare the extra energy it would take to wake up just yet.” She sighed and looked at Taylor for confirmation. He looked as if he was getting his feet under him again. That was good. He was going to need to be the stable one for Alex for a lot longer than he’d anticipated. Caroline’s injuries weren’t going to heal overnight.
Piper explained the process of going to the OR, then to ICU until she woke up. Alex seemed to take it all in, but he was still a child and fears still clung to him.
“Piper?” one of the secretaries approached. “OR’s ready for bed one.”
“Thanks.” She spoke to Alex. “I’m going to get your mom ready to go to the operating room, and you can go with us up there, but just to the big doors, then other nurses will take over for us.”
“Okay.” He nodded.
Minutes later, they had Caroline ready and wheeled the stretcher down the back hallway. The neon lights overhead were too harsh, too bold, and revealed too much. Taylor saw everything with surreal vision, one color bleeding into the next. Nothing seemed real right now. Everything about him was exposed and raw in the awful lighting, leaving him stripped bare.
After handing Caroline off to the OR team, Taylor took Piper aside. “Is your shift almost over now?”
“Yes. Do you want me to stay over?” She would. For him, she would stay forever and beat herself up later for being such a marshmallow. Now he needed help. Should she tell him it was her last one? He was going to find out sooner or later.
“No.” He fished out his keys and removed one. “This is to the back door. Can you go to my house and take down the party stuff?”
“Party stuff?”
“Yeah.” He blew out a harsh breath and shoved a hand back through his hair. “We had a welcome-home party planned for Caroline. I don’t want Alex to see it.”
Oh, God. “That’s a good idea.” The key he gave her was warm from his pocket and she closed her fist over it. “I’ll do it. Do you want me to call when I’m done or what?”
“I don’t know, yeah, maybe. I’m going to want to stay here the rest of the night. I know it’s a huge imposition, but maybe you could take Alex home for me in a little