That had been what I was afraid of.
Why I’d said something to Vito in the first place.
“I just don’t think he needs to know right now. Then he’ll be here on some misguided attempt to show he actually cares when he really doesn’t.” She gritted her teeth. “In the months that I’ve been working with Birdee, he’s texted her exactly two times. Once to say that he couldn’t come fix her door. And once to ask if she knew someone that Birdee had recommended to her dad’s gym.”
My teeth could literally get no closer together as I clenched my jaw.
“Let’s be honest here, Creed. She’s going to be dealing with a lot as it is. We don’t need to add him. If she wants him here, she’ll say so. But until then, if it’s up to me, we don’t involve any of them.” She looked at the door where we’d stepped off to the side. “She’s going to be wrecked. She just had something go her way for once with this job. Now this.”
I squeezed Charleigh’s shoulder. “It’ll be okay.”
Charleigh turned her aquamarine-colored eyes to me and said, “I hope you’re right.”
“Sir?”
I looked over to find the man that’d apparently been the cause of this all and said, “Yeah?”
“I just want you to know the company will pay for all of this for your fiancée,” he promised. “I’m so sorry this happened.”
I held my hand out for his and only when he took it did I say, “It’s okay, man. I know that this was an accident. Birdee will, too.”
Hershel didn’t look convinced.
Hershel started talking to Charleigh again, and I stepped away to pull out my phone to see which of the club was the closest.
Courtland was only a few minutes away, so I gave him a call as I headed in the direction of the waiting room.
“Navarro.”
“I need your help,” I said. “Something happened.”
Nineteen
I’m only responsible for what I say, not what you don’t understand.
—Birdee’s secret thoughts
Birdee
I woke up to an empty room and my head full of cotton.
I blinked several times as I stared at the white checkered ceiling.
“Ahh, you’re awake.”
I turned my head to see a nurse in navy-blue scrubs and a scrub cap on her head. She had a stethoscope around her neck which she pulled off and placed into her ears.
She placed the bell of the stethoscope against my chest and listened without talking anymore, which had me holding in my questions until she was finished.
“How’s your pain?”
I shrugged. “I don’t really feel anything.”
Except, as I said that, I lifted my arm to gesture and hissed out a breath. “Ouch.”
“Don’t move that,” she ordered. “You just woke up from surgery. Do you remember what happened?”
I blinked in surprise. “Um, not really. I…” I trailed off as I thought back to what I last remembered.
