“Theodore Lapierre. Oh, uh…I don’t think my wife’s license has her married name. Chelsea Woodridge. Do you have any information on her condition?”
“Hold on, Mr. Lapierre.” Fingers flew across the keyboard. “She was only brought in a few minutes ago. Why don’t we get her information while you’re here?”
“I’d really—”
“They’ll need time to do an assessment.”
“Fine.”
Over the next few minutes, he rattled off Chelsea’s name, address, birth date, though he couldn’t give them much of her medical history.
“Insurance?”
Reaching for his wallet to pull out his insurance card, Theo suddenly realized Chelsea wasn’t on his insurance. That would have to be fixed, too.
“Uh, she’s not on my insurance yet.” Let her think they’d only recently been married.
“Okay, we’ll worry about payment later. Let me check what her status is.” The nurse picked up a phone. Meanwhile, Theo’s eyes flew to Kim and her partner, Pete, who rolled a gurney from the back rooms.
Pushing out of his chair, he straight-lined it to them. “Did you see Chelsea back there?”
Kim nodded, her face solemn. “We brought her in.”
“How is she?” That granola bar threatened to come back up.
“They’re still assessing.” Her gaze roamed the room, and she moved closer to the door as Pete continued outside with the gurney. Theo followed.
“No apparent broken bones. Definite head trauma. They’ll most likely do a CT scan and a few other tests.”
“Aiden said there was lots of blood.” The big hole in his chest grew to gargantuan proportions.
Kim patted his arm. “Pretty sure the airbag broke her nose. Much of the blood was probably from there. Until they get her all cleaned up, they won’t really know. Broken glass was everywhere.”
Something the size of a watermelon lodged itself in his throat, preventing him from speaking, so he simply nodded.
“Do you need me to call anyone or do anything for you?”
“No, no,” he replied, shaking his head, trying to get the bad thoughts out of his mind. “Angie’s getting Jordan for me. That’s where Chelsea was most likely heading.” What the heck had happened to cause her to crash?
Patting his arm a few times, Kim said, “You know where to find me if you need anything.”
Theo nodded his thanks, then headed for the registration desk again. When the nurse looked up and saw who it was, she shook her head. “I’m sorry, you can’t see her right now. Someone will come out and let you know as soon as they can. You can take a seat, and I’ll make sure they know you’re here.”
His “thank you” was weak as he paced the waiting room floor. The sunshine that penetrated the glass of the window did nothing to warm him. The day was gorgeous and bright, and he should be enjoying every second. Instead, he was standing here with his insides twisted into a pretzel.
Chelsea had only been back in town for about six weeks. Back in his arms for about two. The next step had been in his house, his life, and his bed. Would that happen now?
Chapter eighteen
Theshufflingofbootedfeet had Chelsea opening her eyes. As soon as she did, she slammed them shut again. The glare of the lights stabbed through her head, kicking off a bass drum solo that pounded in her ears.
“How’re you feeling, pixie?”
Theo. His deep voice reached inside her and pieced everything together again. If only she could remember what everything was. The doctors had asked quite often if she remembered what happened, and each time she dug in her memory, the events of the accident stayed hidden.
The caress of Theo’s callused finger on her cheek coaxed her eyelids open again, slightly. Enough to see his handsome face. His extremely anxious handsome face.
“Hey.” Tears filled her eyes at the emotion pouring from him. It wasn’t what she deserved. She wasn’t what he deserved. Theo should have a woman who was whole and fit to be a mother to their child.
