Page 109 of Violent Little Thing

I lifted my hand to touch it, but she shook her head and said, “Don’t. Your hands are probably dirty. Plus, it looks like it’s clotted mostly. You don’t want to mess with that.”

I dropped my hand and held on to the mattress that Charleigh was resting on.

“Court.”

Her soft whispered words had me leaning in to whisper in her ear, “I’m here.”

“Good,” she breathed.

Twelve hours later, I sat in Charleigh’s hospital room with six stitches in my head waiting for her to wake up.

Her parents were there, as well as Beau and Lysander.

Her old landlord had just stopped by, bringing everyone coffee and food.

Birdee had come and gone, also bringing food as well as flowers.

The rest of the Dixie Warden women were in the waiting room, waiting to make sure that she came out of surgery and was awake.

They’d been in the waiting room with me for the last few hours as we’d waited for Charleigh to have her broken leg surgically repaired. They were still there now, even after I’d abandoned them there for Charleigh’s recovery room.

Charleigh’s hand twitched in mine, and I leaned forward. “Are you awake, baby?”

Her eyelids fluttered.

Skye and Thomas got up as well, Skye’s hand smoothing back Charleigh’s wild hair. “Charleigh. Baby. Wake up so we can stop freaking out. Your man looks like he’s about to lose it.”

Charleigh’s smile was soft as she rasped, “Courtland Navarro? Never would he lose it.”

“I think in this instance.” Skye laughed. “You obviously haven’t been paying attention to the last twelve hours.”

Charleigh’s eyes opened and there she was, searching for me.

“Hey, baby,” I rasped, my hand going to the other cheek that her mother was still holding. “You with us yet?”

“Maybe.” She smiled. “I feel like I’m flying.”

“You’re dosed up pretty good on painkillers, baby girl,” Tom murmured.

She hummed. “I like them.”

We all had a small laugh at that.

“Enjoy it while you can,” her doctor said as he came into the room. “You’ll be on these for tonight, then tomorrow you’re on pills.”

Charleigh frowned rather ferociously at him. “That’s not nice.”

The doctor smiled. “No, it’s not, is it? But you won’t need them after tomorrow. Have you ever had any reactions to oral painkillers?”

“Kind of,” she answered. “When I broke my foot on a tour in Iraq, they gave me something that made me itch like a motherfucker.”

“Did it go away with Benadryl?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Then we’ll play it by ear,” he said. “In the meantime, you’ll be with us tonight. Then you’ll be released tomorrow. You’ll be in that brace for eight weeks. We’ll have an evaluation at four to see if everything’s healing all right. You can take the brace off at night to sleep and to shower. Otherwise, I don’t want to see you without it. Later tonight, we’ll get you up and moving. The physical therapist will work with you to make sure that you can use the crutches. Use the bathroom. Get up stairs. All the fun stuff like that.”

I looked down at Charleigh to see what she was comprehending and realized that she had a dazed expression on her face. “Charleigh, baby. Are you getting any of this?”