“Yes,” Danny said, turning his head and giving her one of those smiles that she loved. “I didn’t want you to worry.”
She grabbed a handful of the comforter as she struggled not to have a nervous breakdown. “I wasn’t worried,” Jodi said, glad that she was lying down for this conversation. She wasn’t ready to get married, not yet.
After what Jerry had put her through, was still putting her through, she was in no position to get married. She was still cleaning up the damage her last fiancé left her with. She had an insane amount of debt, barely any savings and a year before she’d be out of debt. She didn’t want to go into a marriage like that.
She didn’t want her problems to become his.
“Good,” Danny said, leaning down and kissed her cheek, “I don’t want you to worry about anything.”
“Danny, I can’t-”
“Thank God,” he said, sighing with relief as he went to answer the door while she lay there, trying to figure out how she was supposed to tell him that she couldn’t marry him.
“Aidan told me that you needed a doctor,” his father said before he could ask him what he was doing here.
For a moment, Danny considered turning his father away, but Jodi needed him. With a nod, he stepped back and gestured for his father to come in. Without another word, his father walked into the room and headed to the bed, where he suddenly stopped and stared.
“Is that, um,” his father cleared his throat just as he noticed Tinkerbelle’s beautiful skin turning bright red from the tips of her toes to the tips of her ears, “rugburn?”
“Is that Dr. Bradford?” she whispered weakly into her pillow.
“Yes,” Danny said, answering both questions at once.
“I see,” Jodi said, lifting her head as she grabbed her pillow and in one move, pulled the pillow over her head and attempted to hide.
“From this rug?” his father asked offhandedly as he glanced down at the dark green rug.
“Yes,” Danny said, leaning back against the wall, waiting for his father to fix Jodi and leave.
“You’re probably going to need a shot of antibiotics as well as a topical solution just in case,” his father said, clearly intent on acting like he wasn’t even in the room.
Like usual.
He wasn’t having that, not when it came to his Tinkerbelle. “She reacts badly to medicine,” he told his father, not at all surprised when his father didn’t bother looking at him.
“What’s her reaction?” his father asked, taking the black backpack off his shoulder and placing it on the edge of the bed next to Jodi’s dainty little feet.
Jodi mumbled something into the mattress, but since there was no way either one of them could understand her, and he doubted that she was going to pull the pillow off her head to answer them, he decided to answer for her. “She becomes disoriented and intoxicated.”
His father nodded thoughtfully as he looked over the damage done to Jodi’s poor skin while Danny did the same. He felt like such an asshole taking her like that.
“I’m afraid it’s necessary,” his father finally said with a sigh. “Jodi, I’m going to clean the abrasions now and I’m afraid that it’s going to sting.”
He wasn’t sure, but he thought she nodded. “Once your abrasions are clean, I’m going to apply a topical antibiotic, which also has a numbing agent and should give you some relief. After that, I’m going to give you a shot to make sure that you don’t develop an infection. Is that okay with you?”
The pillow on top of her head shifted slightly again. His father took that as another nod. “I’m going to get started now,” his father said with a reassuring smile as he reached into his bag and took out a kit.
Another nod had him walking past his father and around the other side of the bed where he sat down on the bed next to Jodi and took her hand in his. She squeezed his hand but didn’t say anything as his father cleaned her back, bottom, and arms.
“She’s not going to feel like doing anything for a few days, which is for the best. She should relax, stay in bed and give the abrasions a chance to heal. She should refrain from taking baths for the next two days. Showers are fine, but make sure that you apply more antibiotic afterwards.”
She groaned, long and loud beneath the safety of her pillow.
“I’m going to have some antibiotic ointment delivered later,” his father explained as he pulled out a syringe and a small vial of medicine. “For now, this should help you sleep.”
The pillow shifted from side to side and he knew that she was shaking her head because they both knew that whatever his father gave her wasn’t going to help her sleep.
“It will be fine. I promise,” his father said reassuringly as he leaned over and injected Jodi with the medicine that was guaranteed to make the next twelve hours a living hell.
