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What kind of person was I that I was worried about Liam’s reaction tome?Me, who was perfectly fine.
Instead of his son, who was bleeding from his head.
I shuffled through the rain and into the small foyer of the urgent care. It was better coming here; there weren’t so many people.
Liam and Finn were already seated in the waiting area, and I shook off the raindrops from my coat and hair as best I could before sliding into the chair next to Liam.
He didn’t look at me as he asked, “What happened?”
I licked my lips, chapped and bitten from stress. “We were playing the Floor is Lava in the living room, and he fell.”
Liam angled his head to me, meeting my eyes with a narrowed, pained gaze, but he stayed quiet.
“I didn’t actually see it, so I don’t know for sure what happened, but I think he slipped on the pillow and hit his head on the corner of the coffee table.”
Liam’s nostrils flared, his shoulders visibly rising and falling with a deep breath. When Finn whimpered, he ducked his chin, whispering, “I know it hurts. I know.”
“I’m sorry, Liam.”
“Been saying that a lot lately,” he muttered, jaw tight.
It felt like a knife carved beneath my ribs.
“I’m sorry, I?—”
He flicked his eyes my way. “We’ll talk about it later, all right? I can’t…” He shook his head, focusing his attention somewhere on the ceiling. “I can’t do this right now.”
It wasn’t a surprise that he was angry with me. I’d hurt his child. And yet, hearing his cold dismissal, feeling how rigidly he sat next to me, I worried whatever we had was gone. He’d put his trust in me to keep Finn safe and secure, and I’d all but shattered his faith in me.
“O’Neil,” a young Asian guy in scrubs called from the door, and Liam immediately shot up. I didn’t know if he’d want me back there with them, but I followed anyway. Liam answered intake questions about Finn after being escorted into a small room, a curtain closed after us.
“What side of the head?” the nurse asked.
“Left.”
He typed it into the computer and shifted as if to get a look, so Liam removed the towel, and the nurse gently sifted through bloody hair as Finn kept his face tucked into his dad’s chest.
“Mm-hmm. We’ll get that fixed right up.”
The relief I felt was momentary because once the nurse left, the room was silent, save for Finn’s quiet sniffles.
I leaned against the wall, not daring to take a seat on the chair. I didn’t deserve one, and Liam didn’t make a motion or sound, telling me to take it.
So instead, I searched my purse for a tissue. When I found it, I ventured the three steps it took to get to the gurney and bent to Finn.
“Can we try to blow your nose?”
A few moments later, he twisted in Liam’s arms and faced me, pushing his chin out so I could hold the tissue to his nose. He still struggled with the idea of how to do it, and I didn’t want to force him, so I lightly wiped his nose, mouth, and cheeks, a mixture of tears and snot covering most of his face.
“Better?” I asked, attempting a smile, but he merely buried his face into Liam again.
I took my place against the wall and waited until the doctor entered the room, a gray-haired white man who didn’t appear terribly friendly.
“I’m Dr. Thompson.” He peered over the top of his glasses at Liam. “We have a head injury, correct?”
“Yes, left side,” Liam said.
The doctor put on gloves then started prodding at Finn’s head without warning, which only made Finn flail and cry.
