“That’s okay,” I assured him. “The ice is helping.”
“I’m going to call for a bus,” he said, grabbing his phone.
“No!” I exclaimed. “That’s unnecessary, Gabe, and I can’t afford it.”
“I don’t have room in my SUV to give everyone a ride to the hospital.”
“That’s okay,” Heather said. “If you’ll grab Joy’s chair, Addie and I will walk back to the diner for my car while you take Jaelyn and Ivy to the hospital.”
“Yes,” Ivy said, nodding. “I want to go with her.”
“That will work,” Gabe said, standing and grabbing his bag. “Stay put,” he said, pointing at where I sat. “I’ll help you up once I have the car ready.”
With a weak nod and a smile from me, he walked to his car while the other women gathered around me. “I’m sorry you feel bad, Auntie Jae-Jae.” Joy’s sweet nickname for me lifted my lips into a stronger smile.
“Thank you, sweetheart. Thanks to your daddy, Auntie Jae-Jae will be okay soon.”
Heather knelt so Joy could kiss my cheek before she stood again. “I’m so sorry our fun ended this way. If you need anything, just let me know.”
My sigh was loud in the quiet afternoon. “I’ll need a place to sleep tonight. This will set me back just when I was getting ahead.”
Ivy shook her head immediately. “You're at my place tonight, and we’re not arguing about it. Besides, you don’t need to worry about that right now.”
“You all have a family to raise,” I said, wishing I hadn’t agreed to this adventure with Ivy. “The last thing I want to become is a hindrance. Maybe I can stay at Audrey’s for a few nights until the pain improves. I don’t want to keep your kids awake if I can’t sleep.”
“It’s only temporary,” Ivy promised, squeezing my shoulder. “You know you’ll have a place at New Beginnings very soon. Just keep the faith.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her I’d lost that many years ago.
Chapter Ten
“Dr. Warren?” A head peeked around the side of my office door, and I glanced up, startled.
“Oh, hey, Loretta. What’s up?” I asked, setting the file for my final patient on my desk. I was ready to clock out and head home after a long day.
“There’s a gal in the ER with a scaphoid fracture of her left wrist. I know you aren’t the attending orthopedic doctor today, but I was hoping you’d take a moment to see her before you leave. She’s a good friend, and I would consider it a personal favor. Between you and me, she’ll need a fixation of the bone by the looks of it, and I want her to have the best of the best.”
My laughter filled the office. “Loretta, you are a sweet talker. You butter me up, so I don’t get offended that you’re doing my job for me.”
“I only speak the truth,” she assured me. “I wouldn’t be standing in your doorway if I didn’t feel that way. Bells Pass was lucky to get you. That said, I’m not doing your job for you. That came straight from the mouth of the ER attending.”
“Well, I appreciate the strokes to my ego,” I said, rising and walking around the desk. “I was teasingyou, anyway. Chances are, you can probably diagnose most of what comes through these doors without our help, but since I’m here, we’ll take a look at it. Who’s our patient?”
“Have you been to The Nightingale Diner?”
“Do cows moo?” I asked as I laughed. “I don’t like to cook.”
“Noted,” she said with a grin. “Then you probably know her. Jaelyn Riba. Tall with long, dark brown hair.”
My heart sank. Not Jaelyn. She would be so upset if what Loretta said was true. A broken arm was the last thing she needed, considering her job. “I just saw her yesterday. I was the celebrity chef on the food truck. I’m a huge fan of the Spanish Rooster.” And her, I thought as I tried not to grimace at the idea that the woman I’d come to daydream about was now lying in pain in my ER. If she had a scaphoid fracture, I was going to be the cause of more pain for her, a thought I didn’t relish. If she required a fixation procedure, she wouldn’t be waitressing anytime soon, which meant I’d have to find other ways to see her.
Deep breath, Major. Do your job and stop obsessing over this woman.
“That’s her,” Loretta agreed, leading me to a cubicle in the ER after she grabbed a tablet off the nurse’s station on the way by. “Her X-rays are cued up.”
Accepting the tablet from her, I brought up the radiologist’s findings, which revealed an offset fracture of the left scaphoid bone and a possible fracture of the lunate bone. I flipped the X-ray up on the screen and grimaced.
“Gnarly, right?” Loretta asked.
