2.
SIERRA
“Your arm is going to be sore for a few days, but if you make sure to flex it now and again, it will help it heal quicker.” with a smile, Nicole,the pretty woman who had cleaned up my wound and given me four stitches at my hairline, snapped the gloves off her hands and dropped them into the trash can beside the door. “Now, let’s talk about why you fainted.”
“I just felt lightheaded and then the room started spinning,” I told her honestly.
“Could you be pregnant?” Nicole asked softly.
“Oh!” I laughed a little too hard at her words before I could control myself. “No, that isn’t the case at all.”
“Has this happened before?”
“Oh, no. I just got some shocking news and then I passed out. I think that’s really all it was.”
“Shocking news at a convenience store?”
“How do you know Rowdy?” I asked her, changing the subject.
“He and his daughter volunteer at the animal shelter I own and they live next door to me. They’re my most reliable volunteers and good friends.”
“Well, that’s nice,” I mumbled, impressed that he and his daughter volunteered.
“Good guy, that one.” Nicole was busy putting things away, clearing up the supplies she used on me.
“How much do I owe you?”
“Nothing at all.” Nicole smiled at me. “I’m not a doctor anymore, so I can’t really charge you for care.”
“Can I donate to your animal shelter?”
“That you can, but it’s not required. I help out where I can with both the Knights and the Kings. They’re good people.”
“That’s good to know.” I said, distracted thinking of where I would go from here. My car was parked at the convenience store and that wasn’t a neighborhood I was comfortable in after dark. I could ask someone to take me to the apartments, but I didn’t want to leave my car there overnight. As worn out as it was, it was my only means of transportation and I couldn’t afford to replace it.
Unless I figured out how to turn in that lottery ticket. If I did that, I could buy a newer car and let Kari have my old one to pass along to someone else. I could also afford an airtight change of identity to make sure that my ex could never find me again.
But in order to do that, I’d have to give the lottery commission my current identification and payments would come to me in that name in the future. It was a puzzle and I couldn’t work it out in my head just yet.
Nicole opened the door to the exam room and both Lexi and her friend Leia came inside.
“You got stitches!” Leia exclaimed as she stared at my forehead. “I’ve never had stitches before. Did they hurt?”
“They numb it before they start to sew it up, so all you feel is the tug on your skin when the needle goes through,” Lexi told her friend. “It’s not as bad as you’d think.”
I grimaced, sad that our day had turned into a reason for her to remember our time with her step-father. Lexi and I both had extensive surgeries and stitches after the last time he found us. Lexi was old enough to remember every minute of those three days of terror with him.
“Where is your dad, honey?” I asked Leia.
“He went to get your car,” Leia told me. “Should be back any minute now.”
“How is he going to get my car?”
“Um, we ride around in a tow truck. That’s his job,” Leia laughed. “I guess for once it comes in handy.”
“Oh,” I nodded. “That is handy.”
“He said he was going to drop it at the apartment for us and come back to take us to dinner,” Lexi told me with a grin.
“That way you two can get to know each other better.” Leia grinned right along with Lexi and I sensed a plot forming.
“We’ll sit at a different table and you can pretend that we’re not even there.” Lexi informed me slyly. “Just pay us no mind at all.”
“What should we talk about?” I asked the two, pretending I had no clue what they were up to with their plotting. I glanced over at Nicole and saw her hiding a smile of her own.
“Well, he likes music and movies. He plays guitar and sings really well. He’s a good dancer, too. He taught me how to waltz and two-step at the lake last summer. Umm… ,” Leia raised her eyebrows and opened her eyes wide at Lexi, as if asking for backup. “He smells good and he showers every morning, no matter what. Sometimes he even showers at night after work if things were crazy.”
“He’s got really nice hair,” Lexi blurted. “And freckles. You love my freckles and his are just as cute as mine.”
Nicole snickered and covered it with a cough behind her hand and mumbled, “Excuse me.”
“Don’t you think my dad is handsome, Miss Nicole?” Leia asked.
I watched Nicole clear her smile before she moved her hand away from her face.
“I think he’s a very handsome man, Leia. And very polite. He has a good job and he’s always here when he says he will be, so he’s also dependable,” Nicole said as she walked toward me. As she moved past me, she whispered in my ear, “And have you seen his ass in those jeans? Lord.”
I couldn’t control my laugh and the girls stared at me in confusion.
“I’ve noticed that myself once or twice,” I told Nicole with a chuckle. “And yeah, very nice.”
Someone tapped on the door and then it swung open. Rowdy was standing there with both my keys and his in his hands. He smiled a crooked grin and told us, “Ladies, if you’re finished here, your chariot awaits.”
I thought my daughter was going to have a problem walking to the
