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“Okay, fine. But you owe me.”
“Thanks, man.” I hung up and lowered my phone just as Aspen’s lashes flickered open. The pain medicine they’d given her must’ve kicked in because her green gaze looked glassy and incoherent.
“You don’t have to stay. Really. I’m fine. If you need to go to work, go to work. They’re probably going to release me pretty soon anyway.”
“And you’re going to need someone to drive you home once they do,” I argued in a soft, reasonable tone.
I felt like shit for getting her hurt. But who knew corners of cardboard boxes could slice open such deep, nasty gashes? Jesus, I should’ve let her pull the damn thing down off the shelf by herself. She’d no doubt be uninjured right now if I had. And I know it had hurt, a lot. She’d let me drive her to the hospital without a word of resistance.
“I can drive just fine. I have a small nick. It’s not like they cut off my whole arm.” But as soon as she spoke, color seeped from her face. Her eyes went sallow and lost as if her own words had elicited a painful memory. Slamming her lashes closed, she let out a regretful whimper. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
I tilted my head to the side, confused. “Why not?”
She blinked me back into focus. “Because...” She didn’t answer, just stared at me with wide eyes. “My dad,” she finally added, but that was all she said.
From her purse, a phone started to ring. Since it sat on the cart next to me, and I didn’t want her to move, I reached into it without asking for permission and snapped open the top clasp. Her phone rested near the top. As I pulled it out, I saw the call was from Parents.
“Here.” I handed it over, but she just stared at me. You’d have thought I was handing her a poisoned apple or something. So I tried to be helpful as I said, “It’s your folks.”
“Oh, God.” If she’d been pale before, she was sheet white now. “It’s karma.”
I grinned, glad to know I wasn’t the only person who blamed all my bad shit on karma. “Why would karma use your parents’ phone to call?”
I was trying to be cute enough to make her smile. It didn’t work. If anything, she looked even sicker. “If you only knew.”
For some reason, I did want to know. “So tell me.”
Aspen stared at me, her expression startled. The phone continued to ring between us. She blinked and shook her head before taking it with shaking fingers.
“Hel...hello?” Her voice sounded so young and afraid. I didn’t like that. I thought I hated it in class when her pitch turned professor-ish. But right now, I would’ve given anything to hear her powerhouse, self-confident tone again.
From where I sat, I heard a muffled woman’s voice tell Aspen her father was in the hospital. Hmm. What a coincidence. Must run in the family to visit a hospital today. National Kavanagh Hospital Day. I waited for her to explain she was in one too. But she didn’t.
“I...um, how long has he been there?” She nodded as a muted answer came through the receiver. “And his leg?” she asked next. “Is this going to affect that at all? He still has it, right? They haven’t amputated anything yet?”
Oh, so that was why lost-limb jokes were taboo in her book. Good to know.
When she closed her eyes and crossed her fingers, I experienced this unavoidable urge to reach out and clasp that hand, or at least cross my fingers right along with her.
She looked so alone and small on that bed, her fingers crossed with hopeful, childlike anxiety. It made me uncomfortable to watch her this way, mostly because I couldn’t do anything to help her, or more accurately because I shouldn’t.
Thinking screw it, she needs this, I reached out and took her hand. Her fingers were cold and gave a startled jerk under my grip. But I didn’t let go. Her eyes flashed open to peer up at me, but I just nodded, letting her know I was there. When her fingers finally squeezed back, I swear I felt the grip tighten around my heart instead of my palm.
“Well, that’s good,” she said into the phone only to wince as if she knew that was the wrong thing to say. But it must not have gotten the response she feared because she let out a relieved breath a second later. “Okay, then. Thank you for calling.”
And that was that. I glanced around the room before turning back to her. “Is that all?” I asked. “Why didn’t you tell them you were in the hospital, too?”
She flushed and handed the phone back to me. I regretfully let go of her fingers to take it. “I...” She shook her head and waved her bad arm. “This isn’t a big deal. She only would’ve derided me for being clumsy.”
“But you weren’t clumsy. It was my fault you got hurt.”
“No...” She sighed as if exhausted. “It wasn’t your fault. And even so, she would’ve somehow found a way to blame me.”
I frowned, which only caused her to glance away. Her fingers fidgeted with the blankets.
From listening to her drunken rumblings on Saturday, I already thought her parents were complete assholes. But now, I really didn’t like them. I didn’t like the way they affected her, making her stammer and turn placating. This was not the woman I’d seen lead a class for the last few months. And it certainly wasn’t the woman I’d held in my arms all Saturday night.
“After everything they’ve done to you, I’m surprised you still
