“She’s oblivious to things when it pertains to her, but she’s always noticed the littlest things about everyone else.”
“She is way too observant,” Kierstie adds.
Before I can ask what she means by that, Pa comes up and clears his throat.
“So, boys, I was planning on this being a surprise for her birthday if things aligned, but it turns out your brother is an even better lawyer than I thought.”
“Pa, what the hell are you talking about, and where is Max, anyway?” Jon asks the question we all are wondering.
“He’s picking up a client, son. A very important and special client. They’ll be here in a little over an hour I figure.”
“Who, Pa? Who could be so important he’s not here?” I don’t get what could be more important than being with family.
“Well, like with you, son, when Max sniffs that something’s amiss in a conviction, he’s like a dog and doesn’t stop till his client is free. Turns out there was some DNA evidence that the public defender in her dad’s case never had tested. He got a court order to have it tested. Turns out it wasn’t his. That along with one of the most straightforward cases of ineffective assistance of counsel that the court had seen in years, it’s taken a couple of weeks of paperwork and processing, but Mike was released about an hour ago, free and clear.”
“Oh wow.”
“So I guess you boys need to prepare to meet your future father-in-law here shortly. He’s been told what happened and that she’s hurt but okay.”
This is going to send our woman over the moon. Having her dad here and free can only help her recovery from whatever the doctors find.
“Y’all can’t do anything small, can ya?” Ben asks, sitting next to Ma.
“Pa originally said we’d have one kid. We ended up with seven. After that, nothing’s ever been small,” Ma tells him while smiling big.
People around us are engaging in the small talk people do while waiting and can’t handle silence. All I can think about is our woman alone back there in pain and without us to be there for her. Knowing she’s possibly carrying our baby is just ratcheting up my need to see her, to hold her.
“Big R, I know you’re dying to get back there, but boring a hole through the door with your eyes ain’t gonna accomplish it.”
I glare at my little brother who’s decided to move to sit next to me. Nicky’s on his other side, with his knee unable to stop bouncing.
“You’re so helpful with your observation there,Little R. By the way, I want to be in the room when y’all admit this to Jane.”
Ry looks a little confused.
“She going to have a problem with me and Nicky?” Both Nicky and I get a chuckle out of his look of confusion.
“No, babe. She’s not going to have a problem with us seeing each other, she’s gonna yell at us for not telling her about it. She might yell at you some, ’cause she gets a bit protective over me and will think you were hiding me.”
“If you wanna hear how she lays into someone when she’s giving them what for, you should ask Juan. He’s put his foot in his mouth the most, though she’s yelled at Jon before too. I know my time is coming, but so far I’ve squeaked by.”
“Family of Jane Barrett?”
“Here.”
The doctor looks at all of us. “And you are?”
“Fiancés and family.” I think the three of us standing with most of the club behind us leaves the doctor looking a little unnerved.
“Right, well first off, she’s going to be alright. We’ve got her on some antibiotics to prevent infection in her hands, we cleaned, and sutured her palms. She’s going to have to keep her eyes closed till morning to help heal her corneal abrasions from the sand being thrown in her eyes. We are keeping her overnight for observation since she did suffer a concussion, but she should be able to go home in the morning.”
“Is there going to be any lasting damage to her hands?”
“Both hands are swollen right now, so we’ll have to see if there is any permanent nerve damage.”
“The medication you have her on—”
“None of it will harm the baby. Give them a few more minutes to get her into a room and they will come get you to go see her. I’ll be back in the morning to check on her before we release her.”
