“What?” she grumbled.
“You just look smaller than usual in that hospital bed,” I muttered.
She scoffed. “You act like I’m small. I’m not. Charleigh’s small.”
“Charleigh is fun-sized. You’re small,” I pointed out. “Then again, pretty much everyone seems short to me that’s not five-nine or over.”
I took the seat beside her bed and leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees.
“I’ll just have to agree to disagree with you then.” She twisted her head so that she could see me without moving her body. “Do you know what happened after…”
After she’d damn near lost her entire body weight in blood?
“From what I understand, after you passed out, Hershel put a tourniquet on your arm to keep any more blood from spurting out. They got you to the hospital pretty fast. It was really quite lucky you happened to be near the county hospital in Jawbone. I think the response time was something like two minutes. They got you into the ER quickly, and then the general surgeon took you up all within about fifteen minutes of your arrival. Though, they did have to drain the blood bank of O-negative blood.”
“Damn,” she said. “I guess that’s not something they’ll know all that fast, is it?”
“No,” I answered truthfully. “What’s your blood type?”
“To be honest, I don’t know.” She scrunched up her nose in embarrassment.
“I can answer that for you.” Medina hurried in with an armload of blankets. She tossed two to me, and then took one with her which she promptly laid over the length of Birdee. “You’re O positive.”
“That’s good to know.” She paused. “Though hopefully I don’t ever have to utilize that knowledge.”
Nurse Medina patted Birdee’s arm. “Do you want another blanket? Or is one enough?”
“Um, one more,” Birdee answered.
Medina did the same with a second blanket, then placed both of her hands on her hips. “Now that you’re situated, I’m going to get another surgery patient settled. If you need anything, hit that buzzer by your hand right there.”
She breezed out of the room before Birdee could reply.
“I like her,” Birdee said as she closed her eyes.
I did, too.
She was no-nonsense, and I liked that about a woman.
“I hate being in the hospital.” She yawned, but kept her eyes closed. “It’s so loud and impossible to sleep.”
But she totally negated her words in the next second as she dropped off into sleep, and didn’t wake back up until Charleigh arrived forty minutes later.
Twenty-One
I am not the bigger person. I will curse your bloodline.
—Birdee’s secret thoughts
Birdee
Two days later, I was all but bouncing on the balls of my feet as I waited for Charleigh to pull around in her car.
I officially had three weeks of paid vacation ahead of me, and the explicit orders to stay at home and not go anywhere at all. To take it easy and let someone else do the heavy lifting for once.
Which was a joke, because a support system, I didn’t have.
Charleigh pulled up in her car, and she started to get out, but Medina waved her off. “I got her. You stay there. No reason for both of us to be freezing.”
