There was, however, a takeout bag.
It appeared like magic right where it needed to be just as the pain in her head came from her mouth.
There wasn’t time to feel self-conscious about it either.She couldn’t spare the time to worry about the hand that touched her back as it happened or the low rumble of the voice behind the action.
“I did the same thing,” he said. “Just don’t be like me and refuse the pain meds when they offer them the first time.”
The hand was heavy and warm and stroked a small path there on her back until the waves of nausea finally stopped. Then the warmth was gone, along with the bag. A tissue found its way to her next.
Rose wiped at her mouth and let a shaky breath out.
A doctor she hadn’t seen before took the bag she’d just gotten sick in and headed out to the hallway without another word. He was back a few moments later.
Rose took the remote attached to her bed and pressed a button to adjust the bed until she was sitting upright. She leaned back and sighed as the man mimicked the lean on the couch next to her. He met her eye when both had settled, and smiled.
“Now that you’re awake, I have some good news and some bad news.”
James Keller looked like he was the bad news. His hair was tousled, maybe wet, his face was bruised, and there was a split in his eyebrow. It was a crack above a stare that felt kind and patient and unbothered. There wasn’t an IV attached to him and he wasn’t wearing a hospital gown like Rose, but she could see he was wearing loose sweats and a baggy T-shirt. He was probably bandaged somewhere. She thought there might have been a wrap of some kind on his wrist. But she also wasn’t on her A game and the lighting wasn’t thebest. There was a lamp on in the corner and backlights around the machines, but the overhead light was off.
The clock read 3:00 a.m.
She noted James was wearing slippers, not full shoes.
Was he a patient still?
He arched an eyebrow at her obvious inspection.
She fought to focus back on what he said.
“Good news and bad news, huh?” she repeated.
He nodded.
“Are we a good news first kind of lady or a Band-Aid rip off kind of gal?”
Rose didn’t have to think on that long at all.
“Rip it off.”
James clasped his fingers together. He rested his hands on his lap, a picture of relaxation. Which made his words quite the contrast.
“The bad news is, you were right about the bomb,” he started. “I don’t know the details—I’m assuming you’ll find out more and faster than me—but from what I’ve been told it was attached beneath the passenger’s seat, and I really did trigger it by sitting on it. The sheriff came in here all hot about it and said he has some experts doing their job to figure everything out and that they’d update me when they had an update. But, again, I’m sure you’ll get more than I will, considering you’re the law. And, well, it was also your car.”
Rose had already figured that she had been right about the bomb. If only for the fact that she’d woken up in the hospital in pain. And the next morning. The blast or the fall must have knocked her out. The last thing she remembered was pulling James.
After that, not a thing.
“The good news?” She had a lot more to ask and say but that seemed to be the better to aim at.
James undid his hands to point a finger gun at her.
“The good news is, you were right about the bomb.”
It was Rose’s turn to arch her eyebrow in question.
James explained with a smile.
“Most people would have thought they were jumping to conclusions and not some character in an action movie. But you jumped and landed right on the truth.” His smile fell. He sobered a little. “Your sheriff said that if you hadn’t acted as fast as you did, there were a few separate times we both probably would have bitten the dust. So, good news that you were right, and you acted when you did. And thank you for that.”
