“Sorry, I’m Everly Dindak. My dad is…”
“Rob. Yeah, Joanie introduced your dad to me,” I cut her off. “I’ve never heard that name before. Everly.”
“Dad was hoping for a son and Everett means ‘brave as a wild boar’,” she tells me, putting her hand on my shoulder as she light presses against my banged up shoulder blade. “Unfortunately, Everly just means wild boar, which doesn’t sound half as good.”
“I doubt he was disappointed by having a daughter,” I reply, nearly gasping as she peels a bandage off the wound on my arm.
“I’m almost done with the hard part.” And I imagine her smile has more to do with her dad than the state of my body.
“How bad am I?”
“The X-rays showed some new hairline fractures. You were remarkably lucky in that regard. Last night you said you weren’t allergic to anything or had any health issues, is that correct?”
“Damn, I don’t remember any of that,” I tell her. “What else did I fess up to?”
“Just excessive drinking and occasional drug use.”
“Sounds right.”
“You passed out before telling me what caused all this bruising,” she asks me, her voice filled with concern as she sits beside me and lightly touches my back.
“That fucking sheriff caned me,” I reply, fisted my hands at the thought of getting even.
She sits so silently beside me that it takes me a moment to realize she’s crying, and the moment I do I carefully wrap my arm around her to pull her against my side; hoping she never knows the effort this takes right now.
“I’m sorry,” she croaks out before she starts crying harder. “Can I ask, did you find out anything about Sheriff Mills?”
“No specifics, just enough to know he’s dead,” I tell her, feeling that cold, hard rage that I know so well rising up inside of me. “There’ll be a reckoning for that. Don’t you worry.”
“I’m going to go and hit the store before meeting my friend,” she says after taking a moment to digest that news and compose herself. “Can you tell me what sizes you wear and what you like to eat? I don’t have any human food here.”
“Or human drugs?” I ask, keeping a straight face as I look forward to seeing her flustered again.
“Lidocaine can be used on humans,” she retorts, sitting up ramrod straight.
“Isn’t that topical? Come on, you can tell me, you gave me something else too, didn’t you? Am I going to grow a tail?”
“That should be the least of your worries right now. Morphine works for both, also,” she says, standing up and motioning for me to lay down again and tucking me in before quizzing me on everything from my shoe size to my favorite food. “Okay, I’ll be back in ninety minutes. I don’t trust you on your feet yet, so please just try to rest and drink more water. Do you need anything else right now?”
“Belly rubs?” I ask, wolfishly grinning at her and enjoying her blush.
“I think you’ll live,” she accentuates her words with a sigh as she turns to the door.
“Everly,” I call out to her when she’s almost through the door. “Thank you. For all you’ve done.”
“You’re welcome.” Her smile pulls at my heart and makes me hope I’ll be seeing it on a regular basis.
Everly
My God. This man.Stopping at a red light, I lean forward, placing my forehead on the steering wheel. How can he possibly get sexier every time he opens his mouth?
Now every time, he was feverish and in a shit ton of pain when I was working on him last night, but that doesn’t count.
A horn blares behind me and, yeah, the light might be green now, but it’s the crack of dawn so what’s the rush?
While I wouldn’t tell my friend what I needed when I texted him, the pause in Warner’s reply makes me think he understands why I wanted to see him at his office before it opened. Somehow, I doubt I’m the only one in this area that’s ever asked him for painkillers on the downlow; I’m probably just the last one he expected to put him in that position.
“Everly, I can’t. You know all the heat that comes with them nowadays,” he pleads with me.
