Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
“We were in the room filling out our paperwork. I was doing mine on a sheet, but Birdee was filling hers out directly with HR. That’s who called you. Nicole asked Birdee who she wanted to put down as an emergency contact and she just blurted your name out without thinking.”
“Okay,” I said. “Did anyone call her father?”
Charleigh scrunched her nose up at that. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”
I tilted my head, but I semi-agreed with her. I mean, how many times had I seen him with Cody and Mable, but not Birdee?
Reading the look on my face incorrectly, she started to explain.
“She texts him all the time. Trying to engage. And he never engages. We saw them all the time when we were out having lunch before we came to work with Great Dane’s. I don’t think there’s anything worse in the world than seeing her face fall when she realizes that she’s not important enough to invite out to lunch with them. Or breakfast for that matter. Something they have a standing appointment for, which Birdee very well knows. I don’t think they do it maliciously, per se. But I don’t think they can see anything past their own hands, so to speak.”
“Shit.”
That had been what I was afraid of.
Why I’d said something to Vito in the first place.
“I just don’t think he needs to know right now. Then he’ll be here on some misguided attempt to show he actually cares when he really doesn’t.” She gritted her teeth. “In the months that I’ve been working with Birdee, he’s texted her exactly two times. Once to say that he couldn’t come fix her door. And once to ask if she knew someone that Birdee had recommended to her dad’s gym.”
My teeth could literally get no closer together as I clenched my jaw.
“Let’s be honest here, Creed. She’s going to be dealing with a lot as it is. We don’t need to add him. If she wants him here, she’ll say so. But until then, if it’s up to me, we don’t involve any of them.” She looked at the door where we’d stepped off to the side. “She’s going to be wrecked. She just had something go her way for once with this job. Now this.”
I squeezed Charleigh’s shoulder. “It’ll be okay.”
Charleigh turned her aquamarine-colored eyes to me and said, “I hope you’re right.”
“Sir?”
I looked over to find the man that’d apparently been the cause of this all and said, “Yeah?”
“I just want you to know the company will pay for all of this for your fiancée,” he promised. “I’m so sorry this happened.”
I held my hand out for his and only when he took it did I say, “It’s okay, man. I know that this was an accident. Birdee will, too.”
Hershel didn’t look convinced.
Hershel started talking to Charleigh again, and I stepped away to pull out my phone to see which of the club was the closest.
Courtland was only a few minutes away, so I gave him a call as I headed in the direction of the waiting room.
“Navarro.”
“I need your help,” I said. “Something happened.”
Nineteen
I’m only responsible for what I say, not what you don’t understand.
—Birdee’s secret thoughts
Birdee
I woke up to an empty room and my head full of cotton.
I blinked several times as I stared at the white checkered ceiling.
“Ahh, you’re awake.”
I turned my head to see a nurse in navy-blue scrubs and a scrub cap on her head. She had a stethoscope around her neck which she pulled off and placed into her ears.
She placed the bell of the stethoscope against my chest and listened without talking anymore, which had me holding in my questions until she was finished.
“How’s your pain?”
I shrugged. “I don’t really feel anything.”
Except, as I said that, I lifted my arm to gesture and hissed out a breath. “Ouch.”
“Don’t move that,” she ordered. “You just woke up from surgery. Do you remember what happened?”
I blinked in surprise. “Um, not really. I…” I trailed off as I thought back to what I last remembered.
Lunch. Pig nipples. The can. The door. The…
“Oh,” I gasped as I looked at my arm. “I cut my arm really bad.”
“About as bad as it can get,” she agreed. “You had to have surgery on your brachial artery. When the door opened and the can lid sliced into you, it was at just the right spot to cut right into your brachial artery. Hershel, your boss, was able to get a tourniquet placed, and we were able to get blood flow reestablished to your hand.”
“Oh,” I said. “How…is my arm okay? Will I be able to move it?”
She gestured at her hand. “Give it a try.”
I did, and pain once again flooded me.
“Ouch,” I said as I watched my fingers move.
“Looks like you’ll be just fine,” she said. “Your doctor will be in to talk to you a little later this afternoon. He had another emergent surgery.”