When we got to the hospital, Evie was in so much pain that she was convinced she had broken her back. After getting triaged, they took her down to imaging to do an x-ray, and we’ve been waiting on the results ever since.
I take a seat. “No word yet.” I look around the room, wishing we could go beyond small talk, but I know Evie won’t open up to me again—even if I were to ask all the right questions. I used to be her closest, most trusted confidant, but those days are long gone.
“Thanks for sticking around,” she mumbles after a moment.
Surprised, I nod. She’s picking at her thumbnail, obviously embarrassed. Shortly after she was admitted, I called her dad, but he wasn’t willing to brave the weather to come visit. Evie blamed her borderline hysterical response to this news on the pain, but I knew the truth; she was hurt and lashing out. I had planned to stay with her regardless, but someone would have had to drag me out of here by my hair after I saw how heartbroken she was.
“What were you doing in those few seconds before the accident?” I ask to fill the silence, unable to keep the edge of accusation out of my voice. “Were you texting?”
“What? Of course not! I was—” She touches her throat. “Oh,no.Bert.”
“Bert?”
“A client,” she moans, closing her eyes. “He’s probably worried sick about me right now. I told him I would be over to drop off some leftovers . . .”
A muscle in my neck jumps as a replay of the car accident flashes through my mind. She was out on the road in the middle of a blizzard to deliver some Thanksgiving leftovers to a client. Why am I not surprised? Once she’s feelingbetter, I’m going to kill her myself for being so reckless. A small part of me wonders if she put herself in harm’s way on purpose.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
Her eyebrows pull together. “Wait, what were you doing out there?”
I have no idea what I’m supposed to say. I can’t exactly tell her that I was following her, now can I?
I’m saved by a knock on the door. Evie jumps and winces as she sits up, and I make a mental note to let the nurse know she needs more pain meds.
A physician in a white lab coat pokes his head in. “Genevieve Montgomery?”
“Just Evie.”
He steps into the room and closes the door behind him. “Hi, Evie. I’m Dr. Ramirez.” He pauses to sanitize his hands, then gives us both a brief handshake. “Nice to meet you both. Wish it were under better circumstances.” He turns to me. “Are you the husband?”
“N—”
“Nope,” Evie interrupts. “Just afriend.”
I frown at her. Will she ever let that go?
Evie simply smiles at me.
“Right,” Dr. Ramirez says, nodding soberly as he looks between us. “Well . . . Evie andfriend,” he repeats hesitantly, emphasizing the word in the way Evie did. “Your x-ray results have come back.” He takes a deep breath, like he’s bracing himself for a conversation he doesn’t want to have, and I automatically tense up. “Would you like the good news or the bad news first?”
Chapter 6
Evie
Whyaredoctorsallowedto say stuff like that? It should be illegal.
“The . . . good news?”
Dr. Ramirez offers a stiff, pursed lipped nod. My chest tightens. “Well, the good news is your back isn’t broken. No breaks or fractures to speak of.”
I exhale through my nose and allow myself to relax into the crisp pillows, though I still feel on edge. I can sense the other shoe is about to drop judging by the look on Dr. Ramirez’s face. Plus, I’m in far too much pain for therenotto be some kind of deeper issue going on here. Unless this is all in my head, which I sincerely doubt. There are a lot of things wrong with my head, but I doubt convincing myself I’m experiencing chronic lower back pain is one of them.
“However . . .” he continues hesitantly, sitting down on the stool in front of the computer. A pit forms in my stomach as he glides closer to the screen and pulls up an x-ray image of my spine. “I did notice a slight abnormality in your lower spine—right here.” He pulls a pen from his coat pocket and circles a spot on my spine. “Do you see that there? That’s an opening in your vertebrae. It’s—”
“Anopening?”
He nods, folding his hands across his lap. “It’s more common than you might think.”
