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“Clear out,” she commanded. “Let me get a look at the patient.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Colt gently set my foot down and then stood.
“Thanks for your help,” I mumbled, suddenly feeling shy. He nodded and dipped out of the bathroom, leaving me with the unknown woman.
“I’m Joni,” she introduced. “Colt got you out of your clothes already, huh?” Her blue eyes were teasing. She wore indigo scrubs with a pink heart pattern all over them and her sorrel brown hair was pulled into a perky ponytail.
“What?” I asked.
“Just giving you a hard time,” Joni said. “Let me see your wrist.” She examined my swollen appendage, and when she grazed the bones on the outside of my wrist, I saw stars and scrunched my eyes closed in anguish.
“Ah, sugar, I’m sorry. I can wrap it now, but you need an X-ray. I think it’s probably just a bad sprain, but it could be broken based on the pain you’re feeling.”
“Damn,” I muttered.
“Have you taken anything for the pain yet?” she asked.
I shook my head.
“Idiot,” Joni stated. “Colt—not you. Give me a minute to find some Tylenol. You should ice it immediately.”
She left me in the bathroom for a few minutes and then came back with a glass of water, four pills, and a bag of mixed frozen vegetables.
I swallowed the pills and then gave her my wrist. She was gentle as she wrapped it, crooning words of encouragement. When she was finished, she set my hand in my lap, covering it with the frozen veggies.
“Let me take a look at your feet. Jeez, what are you, a size six?”
“Five,” I corrected.
She shook her head. “I’m a size nine.” She set my right foot down. “You should stay off your feet, but you didn’t cut yourself deep. They will heal in a few days. Colt washed them with soap?”
“Yeah.”
Joni helped me out of the bathroom and into Colt’s room. She made me sit on the bed and then with great authority, opened a drawer of Colt’s dresser. Pulling out a pair of his navy boxers, she looked over her shoulder at me.
“Here,” she said. “You can wear these for now. I’ll throw your pajama bottoms in the wash for you.”
“Ah, thanks.” I pulled on the boxers, relieved that I wouldn’t have to parade around in my underwear. “You know your way around here…”
“I’m Colt’s sister,” she explained with a wide smile.
There was no mistaking the curl of relief that settled low in my belly.
Huh.
“Oh, I don’t—I didn’t think—”
Her grin intensified. “Yeah, you were thinking something about me, but you were too polite to ask. You rest now. I’ll go get you a plate of food.”
She shut the door behind her and I was alone on a surprisingly comfortable bed that begged me to take a nap.
A few minutes later, Joni returned with a plate of steaming food and a mug of hot coffee. My mouth watered. The fast food sandwich had been nothing more than a gut plug.
“Eat,” she commanded.
“You know, you don’t look a thing like your brother, but you have the same domineering personality,” I said as I dutifully lifted a bite of scrambled eggs toward my mouth.
She smiled. “Noticed that already, did you?”
