“Yeah. I think I was close to unconsciousness when Venezio grabbed me and got me warm.”
Salvatore made a clicking sound. “Open up,” he demanded, then pressed a thermometer under my tongue. “No talking until that beeps,” he commanded as he brought over a rolling tray and seat and moved in at my feet.
He poked at my feet but I felt nothing.
With that, he peeled off my socks and got to work.
“What’s that saying?” he asked when the thermometer beeped.
“Ninety-seven point eight.”
“Alright. Good. Nothing to worry about there. But I want you to stay warm for the next few days, okay? Your body has been through a lot.”
“Am I going to be able to walk?” I asked, thinking of the charity, of all the work that still needed to be done.
Salvatore moved his head side to side. “I don’t want you to be walking. As much as possible, you need to be on your ass. But I get that you’re going to need to get to the bathroom and such. So I might be able to create a makeshift cushion situation at the edges of this.”
He glanced up at me, a ghost of a smirk on his lips. “Know when a woman has her gears turning when I see it. I know Christmas is a few days away. You got shit to buy, to wrap, to bake. And I’m telling you that you gotta let someone else make Christmas this year if you have any hopes of avoiding a serious infection here.”
“I don’t have anyone else to make Christmas,” I said, my belly twisting.
“What are you talking about? You’ve got Venezio.”
My heart swooped at that. And I didn’t realize until that moment how much I wanted that to be true. That he wouldn’t just disappear once this was all over.
“Sweetheart,” Salvatore said, waiting until I glanced down at him. “You have Venezio.”
He said it with so much certainty that I started to believe him.
“Maybe I can rent a wheelchair or scooter to stay off my feet,” I said.
“That’s a woman for you.”
“What?” I asked, brows scrunched.
“Listen, I tell a man he needs to stay off his feet, he plants himself on his ass and lets himself be taken care of. I tell a woman to stay off her feet and she finds a way to still doall the thingswhile not being on her feet.”
“That’s not inaccurate,” I agreed, giving him a little smile. “How bad is it?”
“About as bad as I was expecting. The skin is still attached, sort of. And it’s really important you don’t try to remove that. If it comes off, it comes off. But don’t help it along. It works as a sort of natural bandage for now. That’s good. I am going to be checking on these feet every few days, though.”
“I could go to my doctor if—”
“I will be checking on your feet every few days,” he cut me off with a warm look in his eyes. “And Venezio will be in charge of changing the bandages once or twice a day.”
“I don’t know if Venezio will—”
“Don’t know if I will do what?” Venezio asked, coming back into the room.
His face looked a little cleaned up, but the bruises were getting worse as time settled them in.
“This pretty girl here isn’t sure you’re up for the job of changing her bandages.”
“That’s not what—”
“And she’s also worried she won’t be able to stay off her feet with all the things she has to do for Christmas.”
“I got no problem changing the bandages,” Venezio said, walking toward my feet to check out the damage. His face gave nothing away.
