AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her heart sank. The chair was empty.
The door swung open, and a nurse entered. “Good morning, Ms. West. I’m Jenny. I’m here to get you ready for discharge. As soon as the doctor makes his rounds, we fully expect he’ll let you go home.”
“Great,” Rachel said and pushed to a sitting position.
Nurse Jenny ran Rachel’s vitals and charted her results. “Everything appears normal. The doctor should be here shortly.” The nurse started for the door. “If you need anything, just press the button.”
Rachel needed to know where Griff had gone. He’d been in the chair all night. She knew because she’d woken up every hour, startled out of her sleep by the nightmare of her tumbling over a cliff in her SUV.
Griff had squeezed her hand each time and spoken quiet words of encouragement.
Rachel had fallen asleep each time, relieved to know he’d been there the entire time.
Until now.
Jenny had her hand on the door when Rachel stopped her with, “Could I get a hairbrush and a toothbrush?”
Jenny smiled over her shoulder. “Absolutely. I’ll be right back.” True to her word, she was gone no more than a minute and was back with a cheap, plastic hairbrush, a toothbrush wrapped in plastic and a small tube of toothpaste.
“Thank you,” Rachel said, happier about the generic toiletries than seemed possible.
When Jenny left the room and the door closed behind her, Rachel flung back the sheet and slowly swung her legs over the side of the bed. Because she was alone, she didn’t want to risk a fall, unsure of her stability after the head injury.
Rachel eased her feet to the floor, held onto the bed and straightened.
No dizziness, weakness of the knees or blurred vision. She felt practically normal, except she needed a shower and clean clothing. She couldn’t walk out of the hospital in the open-back gown. What she’d worn into the hospital was covered in dirt and smelled of smoke. However, they would have to do until she could get home, take a shower and find something clean to wear.
Rachel grabbed her clothes, which were inside a plastic bag on a shelf, ducked into the bathroom to change, washed her face and brushed her teeth. Her hair took a little longer to work through all the tangles and clumps of dried blood. It needed to be cleaned, but that would have to wait.
When every tangle had been smoothed, she sighed at her wan complexion and the goose-egg knot on her forehead.
“Take me as I am,” she said to her reflection, then turned and left the bathroom.
Her heart leaped.
Griff stood near the bed, a cup of coffee in each hand. “Oh, good. You’re up. I thought you might want some caffeine.”
“You really are a life-saver.” She grinned as she took one of the cups.
“I have creamer and sugar in my pocket,” he offered.
She shook her head. “I like my coffee strong and black.” She tipped the cup up, took a tentative sip and nearly gagged.
Her face must have shown her reaction.
Griff chuckled. “Not good?”
She lifted her chin. “You try it and tell me.”
“I’ve had many different variations of coffee throughout my life. How bad can this be?” He took a sip from his cup, maintaining a straight face throughout. When he lowered the cup, he grinned.
“You’re kidding, right?” Rachel stared harder, looking for a chink in his set face. “You can’t love that coffee. I can’t be with a man who would drink that swill and dare call it coffee.”
He blinked twice, and his face screwed up in disgust. “You’re right; that’s not coffee.” He took her cup from her hand, carried both to the sink, dumped the contents and tossed the cups in the trash. After rinsing the sink, he returned to Rachel.
She chuckled. “Thanks for trying. When I get clearance to leave, we’ll go get arealcup of coffee.”
“Sounds good.” He scrubbed his hand over the stubble on his chin. “I could use a shower and a shave before we do that.”
