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Spencer smiled at the person behind her and moved over to her right side.
He looked into her eyes. “Kenna, honey, this is my friend Adelaide. We call her Addy. She’s our team medic. She’s here to look at your injuries. Will you let her?”
She swallowed, and it felt like she had a pound of dust in her mouth. “Yes.” It came out as a croak, and she tried swallowing again. “Yes.”
He hurried to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. He twisted the cap and held it out to her. Her hands shook as she wrapped her fingers around the bottle. Her fingers touched his, and she felt shivers run up her fingers. He smiled at her and she struggled to look away.
Lifting the bottle to her lips, she swallowed down several gulps of water and closed her eyes as the cold liquid slid down her throat. Spencer reached forward and took the bottle of water from her and replaced the cap.
Addy knelt down in front of her and her beautiful brown shiny eyes assessed her face first. “Kenna, can you tell me where you’re hurting the worst?”
She lifted her hand to the right side of her face again and Addy’s smart, concerned eyes examined the area. “I’m going to touch you to see if I can feel anything. I’m not trying to cause you harm, but you may feel some pain. Just let me know when it’s too much.”
“Okay.”
She closed her eyes as Addy’s gentle fingers felt around her eye and into her temple. She probed across her eyebrow and down the bridge of her nose. “I don’t feel anything broken. But maybe we should take you into the hospital for X-rays.”
“No. Please. My dad will be so upset. If I don’t get better in a few days, I’ll go in, but I don’t think anything is broken. I’m feeling bruised and battered and tired. Maybe I need to go home and lay down.” Her voice shook, and she hated she felt weak. Her eyes welled with tears and she swallowed. “I’m just tired,” she whispered.
Addy dabbed a cloth near her eyes and smiled at her. She was beautiful, petite with long dark hair she’d braided and flipped over her right shoulder. Little curls escaped the braid and framed her face. Her teeth were incredibly white and straight and right now Kenna felt so ugly and beaten and worn that she sobbed. Her hands flew to her face, and she covered her ugliness as Addy stroked her back and softly whispered close to her ear, “You’ve been through a lot today, and you’re experiencing an adrenaline crash right now. It’s normal and expected and believe it or not, crying is cleansing your eyes out, so this is all good.”
She let it out. Addy handed her the cloth she had dabbed near her eyes, and she gripped it between her hands and cried into it. Addy continued to rub her back. She tried taking a deep breath and cried out as it hurt. Addy’s hands froze, and she heard Spencer gently explain.
“She has an injury on her left rib area.”
Addy gently lifted her t-shirt, and Kenna swiped under her eyes with the cloth, horrified when she saw all her mascara on the cloth. It had likely been running down her face. Her cheeks burned hot.
Addy’s fingers were gentle as she moved around the injury. “It looks like a contusion. If you try slowly to inhale, can you?”
She sat back against the back of the chair, now embarrassed to look at Spencer. She inhaled slowly and let it out slowly. It pinched, but not more than that.
“Okay. Good. I don’t think anything is broken.”
“He kicked me there.” Her lips trembled, but she didn’t burst out crying this time.
“Yeah. You’ll have a nice bruise there for a few days.”
Her eyes darted to Spencer, who still kneeled near her, watching and assessing. He held her bottle of water and she reached a hand out to it. He grinned as he handed it to her, and she drank down a few more swallows of water. The cooling was still satisfying, but not as cold as it had been prior.
“Kenna, you’ll need someone to stay with you overnight to make sure you don’t have a concussion. We should monitor you for headaches, dizziness, ringing in the ears, loss of balance, and sensitivity to light and sounds. Do you have someone who can stay with you or somewhere you can stay where there will be someone with you?”
She closed her eyes. She would not go to her parents’ home. Would not. She wasn’t even going to tell them about this. Her girlfriends from high school all had kids. She didn’t want to go to anyone’s house looking like this. So, she lied. “I can have my mom stay with me tonight.”
Her eyes darted from Spencer to Addy, and she swallowed. She hated lying. But she’d just monitor herself and set her alarm often to get up and make sure she didn’t have a concussion.
“Okay. Let me clean up some of these cuts and bandage them, then you can go home and lie down.”
11
He saw her eyes darting back and forth and recalled that her father had been unwell. So why would her mom choose to leave him and stay with Kenna? He pulled a metal chair close and helped as Addy cleaned her injuries and bandaged her up. She sat straight and barely moved as Addy applied ointment and dressing. She only winced twice, and he watched as she bit her lips at others. Addy cleaned the cuts on her arms and applied the ointment. Those seemed to be sensitive, but not as bad as the cuts on her face and above her eyes.
Addy cleaned up her empty gauze packages and applicators, and he watched Kenna. She was stoic. And brave. Maybe too brave. But she was beautiful. And she had a lot of secrets. She didn’t say she had them. He got that feeling in his gut that she had them. Given her profession and the confidentiality she needed to provide to her clients, he assumed that seeped into her private life, too.
Addy closed up her medical bag and stood. “Kenna, why don’t you let us drive you home?”
“I can drive myself.” It came out funny because her bottom lip was now swollen. She touched it with her right hand and her nose wrinkled.
He looked up at Addy. “I’ve got this. I’ll make sure she gets home.”
