she realized that her leg was hurting and she could feel a warm wetness trickling down to her ankle. She stopped once she was off the porch and on solid ground again. There was a rip in her jeans, and sure enough…a gouge in her leg that was just big and nasty enough to require a visit to a doctor or urgent care. “Of course,” she said. She inhaled deeply a few times.
Apparently Joe had mistaken her calming breaths for pain as he had now scooped her up into his arms and was in the process of carrying her to his house. She knew she should protest. She was quite certain nothing was broken. And yet at the moment, there was no place she would rather be than nestled in his strong arms. Before this, she had only seen arms like this in movies. She had only imagined what something like this would feel like. Now she was experiencing it. And there was something comfortable and natural about the way it felt to have his arms around her. Without thinking, she wrapped an arm around his neck and buried her face against his throat. It was warm and smelled fresh and clean. She wanted to stay there forever. Then it was over. Joe had placed her on the counter, smoothly extricated himself, and was now examining her injury while she was struggling to recover from their closeness.
“I’m fine,” she argued, a bit unnerved.
“You just fell through your porch. I told you it had to come down. I swear. Did you not listen to me? Did you not believe me? Or were you just not paying attention?” He was ranting while pulling up her jeans to get a better look at the wound.
She bit her lip for a moment. She had just stopped crying and was trying desperately not to start again. Everything was getting to her at the moment, from the shock of her being alone in a strange town far away from everything and everyone she had ever known, to the embarrassment of the injury, and the utter humiliation she felt from having her husband discard her like a stone in his shoe. She sniffled and looked around to see if there was something for her to wipe her nose on other than her sleeve. Finding nothing, she shrugged and swiped at her nose anyway. It was better than the alternative.
When she looked at him again, he was studying her leg with a frown. “When was the last time you had a tetanus shot?”
Her head fell to the side as she considered that question. “I don’t know. I could call my doctor and ask him. I’ve had the same one my entire life. It has become more awkward with age…” Her voice trailed off and she smirked.
“Well, you call while I drive.” And with that he picked her up and brought her out to his truck. He stood her next to the door while he opened the passenger side for her.
He was about to pick her up again to lift her into the cab when she peeled his hands off her waist and pushed him back with one hand to the middle of his strong muscular chest. And after she recovered from that distraction, she glared at him. “I can walk, you know. You don’t need to man handle me.” Her hands were on her hips and she narrowed her eyes while she spoke. She started to climb in and discovered he had moved closer again so she waved his hand away. Once she was seated, she turned to him. “There. All by myself.” And then she pulled the door closed.
By the time he had walked around the truck, she had already started to call the doctor. And soon she had the nurse looking up her file. “I’m on hold,” she announced while she sat there with the phone against her ear.
“I can see that.” He was mildly frustrated with her at the moment. He was also rather impressed. Finn was the kind to milk every injury. Back then he had to constantly baby her, coddle her, and treat her like a princess. Now he had to deal with Marti who had a gouge in her leg so deep that he swore he could see bone, but she would rather die than accept any help.
She was jotting down information, like the date of her last shot and the fax number for the office in case she needed to fax