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“You two know each other?” he asked.

“Long story, but Wyatt’s father owns the building that Zander’s in. We’ve crossed paths a time or two, or someone from the Fierce family did.”

Which reminded her what Zander had said before. About whether her mother had talked to any of the elder Fierces about her.

Nah. Not something she was too concerned about. At least now.

“I’m an anesthesiologist,” Wyatt said.

Bella’s smile dropped. “I have to have surgery?”

“That’s why I’m here,” Dr. Charm said, his eyes soft, his smile compassionate. This man had some sweet bedside manners, and almost had Bella eating out of his hand by looks and tone of voice alone.

Or any woman who might land eyes on the hunky man in front of her. No ring on his finger, but that meant nothing. It was a nice distraction for the teen right now though.

“So what’s going on with Bella’s ankle?” Colson asked.

The doctor sat on the bed and pulled the cover back, undid the brace, but kept it on. He pointed out areas that were broken while he talked, ligaments torn that need to be repaired.

“I’ll show you a better picture here.” Dr. Charm lifted his tablet, then brought up the images for everyone to look, Bella spending more time looking at the doctor as he talked.

“How long will I be here?” Bella asked.

“We’re going to get you into surgery within the hour. There is an OR opening soon, so we’ll get you prepped. They said you haven’t eaten nor had anything to drink since lunch so that allows me to put you in front of someone else. The surgery will be a few hours.” Dr. Charm turned to Colson and Marly was next to him now, her hand reaching for his. She saw Wyatt glance down and then smile. “We’ll keep her overnight. No reason to discharge her that late. I’ll come back to check on her in the morning and then she can go home.”

“I can’t believe Lauren stepped on my foot and caused this,” Bella pouted. “It’s not fair.”

Dr. Charm rubbed Bella’s shoulder. “It’s going to be okay. It will take some time to recover, you’ll need some physical therapy after, but hey, you’ll get to ride the elevator at school too.”

Bella’s jaw dropped. “Oh yeah. And I can get out of class a few minutes before the bell so I don’t get run over in the halls.”

Colson groaned. “It’s fine,” she whispered. “They know how to handle these things in school.”

“If you don’t have questions right now,” Dr. Charm said, “we can talk again after surgery.”

“Should I get a second opinion?” Colson asked, looking at her, as if she’d know.

Marly looked at Wyatt. She trusted him. Surprisingly, she trusted Dr. Charm too.

The way he calmly spoke to Bella, addressed her first too, made her feel as if she wasn’t being discarded just because she was a kid.

That went a long way.

“That is your choice,” Dr. Charm said. “It will delay the surgery several days to a week. The bone will start to heal and the tendons also, and not properly. It’d make the surgery longer, but again, this is our recommendation.”

“No, go ahead,” he said. “Do it. I’m just trying to catch up.”

“Okay, we’ll talk again after surgery. Dr. Fierce will explain the next step and we’ll get signatures.”

Colson signed on the pad consenting to the surgery, then Wyatt explained how the anesthesia would work.

Bella got more worked up over the IV, but Marly was right there soothing the teen.

“We’ve got what I call happy juice. It helps to relax you. Once we have an idea of when you’ll go into surgery, we’ll administer it. Maybe sooner,” Wyatt said, looking at Colson.

He nodded. “Might need to after the IV.”

Wyatt rubbed Bella’s other foot in comfort. “We’ve got you. You’ll take a nice long nap. I’m going to get one of our best nurses in here for the IV and you won’t feel a thing. I’ll stay and distract you.”