The sight of it almost knocked me to my knees. I couldn’t breathe through it, couldn’t even name it if I tried.
“She’s okay,” Isabel said quietly. “I don’t mind.”
Through the roaring in my head, my heart, all I could manage was a slight nod.
The woman finished wrapping Isabel’s wrist and gestured for me to step away from the gurney with her. I swiped a hand over my mouth and tried to gather my racing thoughts.
“Your daughter is very lucky,” she said quietly.
“You sure she’s okay?”
She nodded. “From what the boy said, Miss Ward took the entire impact with how she turned her body. Her side is going to have a nasty bruise, but it seems like her wrist hit first. ”
My jaw tightened dangerously. “You think she should go in?”
With a sigh, she shrugged her shoulders. “We can’t force her. Emmett agreed that she never passed out when she fell. Her wrist and hip took the brunt of her fall, but there’s no telling exactly where or how hard she hit her head.”
Isabel smiled at something Anya told her, even as the guy finished cleaning the cut, and when he covered it with a butterfly bandage, she never took her eyes off my daughter.
The way my heart raced took on a dangerous edge, a hazardous speed that I couldn’t quite pin down.
Too soon.
Too soon.
Too soon.
Isabel as a temptation for me alone was one thing, hidden in quiet moments between the two of us where it was about greedy hands and whispered desires. But Isabel showing me glimpses of a future I’d mourned was something I wasn’t prepared for.
“She can’t be alone tonight,” the paramedic said, interrupting the speeding train of my thoughts. “She mentioned her family is out of town, but I don’t know how soon someone could be here. She didn’t want to worry them if she could avoid it.”
“I’ll talk to her,” I replied.
Like she heard me, or heard the hard-edged tone of my voice, Isabel’s eyes locked onto mine.
No longer did she look apologetic or pale.
Instantly, I was transported back to the night we were in the gym, she had that same combative look in her eye.
As I approached the gurney, Isabel sat up and my daughter finally unfolded herself. Anya held out her arms to me, and I gathered her into a tight hug. Her small body clutched in my arms, I finally let out a full breath.
“Am I in trouble?” she whispered.
I smiled a little. “No. But no more climbing tall trees, okay, gingersnap?”
“Okay, daddysnap.” She leaned back to smile at me, and my stomach turned over when I saw a smudge of dirt on her cheek.
“Can you go watch some TV with Emmett while I talk to Miss Isabel?”
She nodded.
I set her down, and gave a manly nod to Emmett. “Thanks for taking good care of her, bud.”
He smiled, the color in his face looking better. “You’re welcome.”
The paramedic helped Isabel stand from the gurney, and she winced when she brought her full weight to her feet. Both medics watched her carefully as she walked toward me, but her balance seemed fine, even if her progress was slow. I snagged a chair from the patio table next to me and slid it closer to her.
She smiled gratefully, bracing her hand on the back. “I should probably get some coverage for class tomorrow, huh?”
I exhaled in a sharp burst. “I’d say so.”
“I’ll call Kelly,” she sighed. “She owes me. But I’ll be back on Monday.”
Tilting my head, I regarded her steadily. “If you’re making a call right now, it’s going to be someone in your family to see who can come back and stay with you.”
She swore. “I need to call Molly.”
“How long until she can be here?” I asked.
Isabel wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I’ll just … text her real quick.”
“How long until anyone can be here?” I amended.
She ignored me, pulling her phone out of her pocket and tapping out a text. After she hit send, I snagged it from her hand.
“Hey,” she protested.
“All good here. Sore wrist and a scratch on my forehead. No need to worry,” I read out loud. I pinned her with an incredulous look, and she set her jaw. “Are you out of your fucking mind?”
The paramedics were still within earshot, and the guy approached us immediately. “Sir, she cannot be left alone tonight. Someone has to wake her up every three to four hours, and I’d strongly advise against leaving her alone.”
With a lift of my chin, I handed her the phone back. “You have one chance to call someone over here.”
Isabel swallowed visibly but tucked her phone in her pocket. “I am not forcing them home from their jobs, or their trips because I bumped my head. I am fine. I’ll ice my wrist and take some Tylenol and set an alarm.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “You’re going to wake yourself up if you’ve got a concussion?”
She shifted on her feet. “I can ask a neighbor.”
“To stay with you all night?”
Isabel rolled her lips between her teeth and stared past me. “Mmmhmm.”
The paramedic shook his head.
“It’s fine,” I told him. “I’ll handle it.”
Isabel’s eyes narrowed. The paramedic went back to the gurney to help his partner load up their equipment.
“You can do all those things if you want to. The ice, the Tylenol, the rest,” I said evenly. She eyed me suspiciously. I leaned in until less than an inch separated our faces. “But you will do it at my house, and if you argue with me right now, I’ll load you up and drop your stubborn ass off at the hospital myself, do you understand?”
Tense silence stretched like a rubber band, and she opened her mouth to argue. I saw the heat of it in her blue, blue eyes.
“I get it,” I said before she could disagree. “I hate it when people need to take care of me.
