If they could, Nettie would have.
She felt downright fragile in my arms.
“You’re kind of scrawny for being a professional athlete,” I pointed out.
Nettie’s breath hitched. “I’m small. Everyone tells me so. But I’m scrappy.”
She sniffled hard and pulled away, wiping at her eyes. “The bad thing is, Eddy is incredibly wildlife-conscious. She always prepares. Always. How does this even happen? You know that she never leaves without bear spray? Even if she’s just walking down the road.”
“She had bear spray,” Creed called as he came around the corner in time to hear Nettie’s words. “The can was empty right next to where she was attacked.”
“Fuck,” I replied.
“That’s another indication as to the bear having rabies. There’s not much that wouldn’t make a bear run from that.”
There was a commotion in the hallway beyond where we were standing, and I stepped in front of Nettie as I got a good look at the doctors and nurses surrounding a gurney.
What I saw was a mop of curly brown hair matted with blood. Then I saw the blood covering white dressings. An arm in a splint. Then the gaping open wound along Eddy’s torso. Five jagged lines right across her stomach to where I could see…
My brain refused to make any connections from that point forward.
But I knew that I would forever remember the way that she looked lying there on that gurney, face pale.
“Was that her?”
“Yeah,” I croaked.
“Did she look okay?” Nettie demanded.
Creed and I exchanged a look before I said, “She looked okay.”
That was one of the biggest lies I’d ever told in my life, and I’d told a thousand of them.
Only, this one had the power to gut me.
Thirteen
I wore this outfit yesterday, but since I’m going different places today it’s okay to wear it again.
—Eddy to Nettie
Weaver
“I have a few things for you.” Apollo popped into my line of sight.
I blinked tired eyes at him.
I’d stayed at the hospital until I’d absolutely had to leave for work.
My back was absolutely killing me from lying crossways across several hard, plastic chairs in the hospital waiting room.
And my left finger was numb fifteen minutes after prying myself out of the chairs.
“Where did you come from?” I muttered as I walked stiffly down the hospital corridor. “And how did you know where I was?”
I had to be at work in thirty minutes, and I still needed to get home to change before going.
“Here,” Apollo said as he handed me a coffee.
