“Avery, I do have an obligation to you, or at least to our child, but that’s not why I asked. The gym needs rebranding, and I like your work,” he said sincerely. “Actually, the bar and the property management businesses probably need logos, too. I think Judge already has one, but he might be interested in upgrading.”
“What do you think my man already has?” River asked as she entered the room with what I hoped was a syringe full of anti-nausea medication in her hand.
“A logo for Jackson Security.”
She laughed. “No, he has ‘Jackson’ in all capital letters on top of ‘Security’ with only the first letter capitalized, all in white. Why do you ask?”
“Avery is a graphic designer and she just showed me some of her work. I’m going to hire her to design something for the gym.”
River nodded and reached for my arm. “This is Zofran. It’s for nausea,” she said before she gave me the medicine.
“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you,” I chanted.
“That bad, huh?”
“It’s been absolutely awful. I’m having my tubes tied after this one,” I vowed.
“It’ll take about fifteen minutes for the Zofran to kick in and start working,” she explained. “Now, about this logo. I want to see what you showed Savior.”
I pointed to him. “It’s on his phone.”
Savior handed over his phone and she scrolled through my site, oohing and aahing every now and again. She tapped the screen a few times and then another phone dinged before she handed it back to Savior. “I sent the link to myself so I can show Jonah when I get home. He’ll definitely be interested.”
“Savior said you worked last night. You must be exhausted. Please don’t hang around on my account,” I told her.
She waved me off. “There have been plenty of times I didn’t leave here until three hours after my shift ended, and that was not by choice. This, I don’t mind whatsoever. Plus, he’s like family, so that makes you and your little bean family, too.”
“Well, thank you. I appreciate you staying and getting us back here so quickly. I’m starting to feel a little better.”
“Good. I’ll hang around for a little bit longer before I head home.”
“Didn’t the doctor say she was going to order some lab work?” I asked.
“She did. You have nice, juicy veins, so I pulled some blood when I started your IV to save you a stick.”
“Thank you,” I said again.
She hung around for another thirty minutes or so before she left. She also made sure to introduce us to the nurse that would be taking over for her.
Savior sat quietly in the chair in the corner of the room while I stared at the ceiling. When I couldn’t take it any longer, I said, “We have got to talk or something or else I’m going to go crazy just sitting here.”
He stood and came to sit on the edge of the bed by my feet. “What would you like to talk about?”
“I don’t care. Anything.”
“Why’d you decide to move to Devil Springs?” he asked. “I mean, why did you choose Devil Springs?”
“I wanted to live somewhere close enough to easily visit with my parents, yet far enough away that I wouldn’t know anybody in town. Devil Springs was the only place like that with good schools and low crime rates,” I said honestly.
“Why did you want to live in a town where you didn’t know anyone?”
I gave him a pointed look. “You know why.”
“Oh. The pity looks,” he said knowingly.
“You seem to know something about—”
A knock on the door interrupted me. “Hi, Mrs. Parker, I’m Dr. Cadet-Destil. I have some test results to go over with you. Sir, would you mind stepping outside for just a moment?”
