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“Mom,” she cried out when she saw me and proceeded to immediately burst into tears. “I’m so sorry,” she sobbed.
I cried, too, sitting on the side of the bed and holding her to me, shaking hands wrapped around her back. I had no idea what she was sorry about yet, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she was okay.
“Shhh,” I said, rocking her against me. “I don’t care about anything except you being okay.” I pulled back out of our embrace. “Are you okay?” I asked, realizing my own face was covered in tears as well.
“I’m okay. I think it’s just my ankle. I just got back from an X-ray and the doctor is going to let us know.”
I looked down at the end of the bed and noticed her foot was wrapped in an ace bandage up to her shin and propped up on a pillow.
I had no idea what had happened, but if all that came out of it was this damn ankle situation, I’d count us lucky.
“It was a bad car accident. You and Prisha are lucky you weren’t hurt worse.” I heard Weston say from his corner of the room.
I looked toward him for the first time since I’d entered. I’d almost forgotten he was here.
Thank God he’d been with her. But then my mind registered that he had indeed been with her. How had that come to pass?
I was confused, to say the least, but Parker was so upset, that I didn’t want to make it worse.
“You’re okay, baby,” I said, wiping the tears from her face. “We’ll figure this all out, okay?” I looked over to Weston. “Can we talk in the hallway?” I asked.
“It’s not Weston’s fault, Mom,” Parker said from the bed.
I gave her a small smile. “Of course it’s not. I just want to talk to him and figure things out. Okay?”
I stepped out into the hallway after Weston, my whole body jittery. He turned to me as the door fell closed behind us and for the first time since I’d gotten here, I really looked at him. Like really looked at him.
And what I saw shocked the hell out of me. It scared me even more. I sucked in a breath at the sight.
My eyes took in the length of him, staring at the Columbia Fire Department navy blue T-shirt he was wearing. Station number nine it said, and I felt sick all over again.
A reflective vest sat over that shirt that I’d seen other firemen wear on the scene of car accidents so that they weren’t harmed in high-traffic areas. He had black pants on and black work boots. I continued to stare at those boots because I couldn’t look at him.
Not now.
Screams. Smoke. Burning in my lungs.
I swallowed down my fear and grief and went for anger instead.
Fuck, I was dumb. I hadn’t realized, but I hadn’t asked either. It was as much my fault as it was his. I swallowed the saliva that pooled in my mouth and sucked it the fuck up. I couldn’t talk about this with him right now. My daughter needed me.
I could only handle one crisis at a time.
I couldn’t deal. My daughter was hurt and I needed to know what happened.
I lifted my gaze to his. “What happened?” I asked, all business.
“I’m not sure, but we got a call that there was a bad accident downtown. When we got there, I recognized Prisha’s car right away, so I was one of the first ones on the scene. There were five girls in the car. There were no injuries except for Prisha and Parker. We believe Prisha has suffered a concussion. Her head hit the steering wheel pretty hard. She was transported here as well. Parker said that when they wrecked she’d had her foot up on the front dashboard, which is how she injured her ankle.”
I slowly nodded even as my stomach rolled. He was right. It could have been so much worse. I was just thankful that everyone was okay. “How did they wreck?” I asked, confused about the whole damn thing.
“I don’t know. Prisha hasn’t been driving long and the kids were probably being loud. Looks to us like they T-boned another car, running a stop sign. Downtown streets can be confusing and this happens all the time to new drivers.”
The way he said “us” and was so knowledgeable chapped my fucking ass at that moment. He hadn’t told me. I felt like he’d kept it from me. His job. And maybe he had, but I’d been dumb enough to not ask. I’d just assumed he was retired and living off of that, but I should have known better. Men like Weston didn’t ever retire. Not really.
And I couldn’t do this. Not fire. Anything but that. But I couldn’t get upset about all of this yet. I was still dealing with all of Parker’s shit.
“I just don’t understand,” I said, beyond frustrated with the whole damn situation, Parker, Weston, and all. “She was supposed to be in school.”
