Franklin and I worked like a well-oiled machine. Grabbing our gear, we jogged toward where everyone was gathered around and pushed our way through. Kneeling over a pale-looking boy was a frantic woman while a man, presumably the boy's father, paced back and forth muttering to himself, tugging on his hair so hard that if he wasn’t careful he was going to have a bald patch.
“Step back please,” Franklin said, his voice deep and heavy with authority.
Everyone took a step back as I dropped to my knees, one hundred percent focused on the kid in front of me.
“Hi. I’m Luke, and this is my buddy, Franklin. I’m just going to take a look okay,” I tried to reassure him as Franklin kneeled on the other side.
Together we got to work. Considering what’d happened the kid was in pretty good nick. He had a broken leg, cuts and bruises, but he was going to be okay. It wasn’t until we lifted him onto the stretcher and loaded him into the back of the ambulance did the tears start to come.
“Hey now. You’re okay. We’re going to get you to the hospital. They’ll put your leg in a cast, and you’ll be as good as new,” I attempted to reassure him.
“C-c-can my mom come with me?” he pleaded with big, teary eyes. As if I could say no to that. As if anyone could.
“Absolutely,” I assured him before helping his mother, who was frantic and I was on the verge of stabbing with a syringe to help calm her down, in beside him. “Right. Everyone ready?”
“What’s going to happen to my dad?” he asked, chewing on his bottom lip.
Poor kid. He’d just been run over by a car and was more worried about his dad than himself.
Looking over to where his dad sat in the gutter, face in his hands as the cops spoke to him, my heart broke for the guy. It’d been an accident. From everything I’d seen, it was nothing more sinister than that. I couldn’t smell booze on him and even Evan, the kid lying in front of me, said he’d chased the ball across the drive at the same time his dad was backing out.
“I’m sure your dad will meet you at the hospital,” I offered, hoping I was right. I never wanted to lie to a kid, but sometimes you had to do what you had to do.
“Are we going?” Franklin called out from the front.
“Let’s roll,” I told him as I settled in next to Evan.
After getting Evan settled in the ER, I snuck down back into the rig, grabbed the crown, and headed toward oncology. Until I’d met Charlotte, I’d always assumed it to be sad, depressing, and full of sick people in oncology, I mean, fuck cancer was the worst. It didn’t discriminate and it took no prisoners. But as I prowled down the corridors, I could hear laughing and cheering and hushed conversations seeping out of the rooms. It wasn’t anything like I expected in all the very best ways.
As I passed one room, I was so caught up in my head I didn’t even see her coming when I got run into. Instinctively, I reached out and grabbed her arms steadying her as she wobbled on her feet. Once we were both back on solid ground, I looked up and realized who I was holding in my hands, and instead of letting go I pulled her close.
“Luke! What are you doing here?” Charlotte asked breathlessly.
“We just brought a kid in.”
“They okay?”
“He’ll be fine. Broken leg, bumps and bruises but he should be fine.”
“Oh, good.” The relief on Charlotte’s face was beautiful. This woman wore her heart on her sleeve and rode every emotion to the fullest.
“I just thought I’d stop by and give you … ah.” I looked around for the tiara. In our collision, it’d dropped to the floor, and the pink gemstone had fallen out making it look a little worse for wear, if it was even possible for a cheap and tacky crown to look worse. “This.” I handed it to her, and Charlotte just laughed, and I wasn’t one hundred percent sure if she was laughing at me or at the crown in her hands.
“You bought me a tiara?”
“Well,” I rubbed the back of my neck, only now realizing how stupid it was, “I heard you couldn’t very well go to a tea party without one.”
Charlotte nodded. “Yeah, someone told me that too.”
“Now you have one.”
“Now I do. Were you worried I wasn’t going to show up because I didn’t have a crown?”
“Not at all. I knew you wouldn’t let Isla down like that.” And I really did. Charlotte was genuinely a good person. There’s no way she’d let anyone down, let alone a kid unless she had to and even then, it’d probably break her heart to do it.
“I wouldn’t,” she confirmed.
“I’ve gotta run, but I’m seeing you tonight, right?” Why was I nervous? We’d just confirmed she was coming for a tea party with Isla, and it wasn’t like I wasn’t going to be there. Sometimes I was such a dumbass. Or maybe I was just a dumbass when it came to women. I mean, look at my track record. Selina wasn’t exactly my smartest decision even if I did get the best thing that's ever happened to me out of it.
