Conard County Witness by Lee Rachel

Author:Lee, Rachel [Lee, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-12-08T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

“Jess?”

“In my bedroom. Come on back.”

Lacy had run upstairs to clean up a bit and returned downstairs to discover what Jess was planning.

She walked down the hallway toward the warm glow of light falling through an open door. When she stepped in, she caught her breath.

Jess had shed his pants and was sitting on the edge of the bed in a T-shirt and running shorts. For the first time she saw his artificial leg and the socket that ran up most of the way to his groin. It brought home the severity of his injury in a way that little else had, and filled her instantly with pain for him, and amazement that such a leg existed. Contradictory feelings that held her still while she absorbed them.

“Shocking?” he asked, a crooked smile on his mouth.

“No. Surprising. I’ve never seen a prosthetic before.”

“Curious?”

“Very. Do you mind?” Of course she was curious. And now that he was willing to show her, she wanted to know everything about it and what it meant to him.

He shook his head. “If I was ever modest, life took it out of me. I was about to remove it for a while, let it charge. But I warn you, my stump isn’t pretty.”

“Well, at least something about you isn’t. That’s a relief.” The tartness of her voice astonished her, but it drew a surprised laugh from him.

“So you think I’m pretty?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

“More like gorgeous.”

“Not nearly as gorgeous as you,” he said frankly.

He might have pumped all the air out of the room. She froze, and he watched her with gentle amusement. “It’s okay, Lacy. My pouncing days are over.”

“Too bad,” she muttered honestly, making him laugh again.

“Come sit beside me. You can see it all and satisfy your curiosity.”

She felt a flicker of shame, as if she were prying into someone’s extremely personal secrets, but noticed that he didn’t seem disturbed. He’d called her back here, after all.

All of a sudden she was more curious about why he’d wanted her to see this. Three steps brought her to the bed, and she sat beside him.

“This is it,” he said, rapping his fingers lightly on the black socket on his thigh, then holding his whole leg up. From the socket emerged the metal parts, a joint that appeared to be a knee. The whole ran down to an ankle with a metal band around it, then to a plastic foot.

“Okay,” he said, pointing, “this is the socket that holds the whole thing on. The knee that usually bends just as I want it to now that I’ve learned to manipulate it. There’s a shock absorber in the ankle along with the joint. That plastic foot is so that I can wear regular shoes and socks. It’s not necessary, but people stare a whole lot less.”

She looked openly because he seemed to want her to and strove for humor. “Not going for the Terminator effect, huh?”

He chuckled. “Well, I could. Who knows, it might wow the kids when they come to the clinic.

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