Old Dog, New Tricks by Vivienne Savage

Author:Vivienne Savage [Savage, Vivienne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Payne & Taylor

14

Lyle

The four days in the hospital never gave us any time alone. There was always a nurse in the room or some intern doctor in-the-know about us. He smelled like a reptile of some sort. Maybe a snake. I hated snakes. But I only saw Jules a few times in and out because she had decided not to tax me too soon.

Then it was off home, where Mama fussed over me like I was a toddler again. She’d cleaned out the office and made it a proper bedroom, claiming my ‘nice friends’ had helped with the heavy lifting. I guessed that meant Taylor and Ian. Russ, too, judging from all the fixed up woodwork. Why they bothered with me I still didn’t know, but I had to admit it was nice to sleep in a real fucking bed and not on a lumpy, ancient couch.

Healing of the surgical site progressed as normal, the bone gradually bonding to whatever she’d installed in me. I had trouble describing the sensations to her, like a blanket of pain wrapped around my stump, each point of agony impossible to differentiate from the last. Although I couldn’t feel the forearm itself, I felt the raw, open wound she’d made to connect the prosthetic to my body.

My new arm wasn’t useful for anything yet, just a lot of dead weight in a sling. Pretty dead weight though, sleek and matte black like a thing out of a science fiction movie. Julia had promised she was working on a synthetic skin covering so I wouldn’t always draw attention, but I kind of liked it. I couldn’t stop looking at it and wondering how it would feel to have sensation in my fingers again.

She hadn’t lied when she said it would hurt, that there were times I’d want to quit, but we were beyond that point now and in a whole new league. There’d be no removing this thing unless it was killing me.

With that grim thought in mind, I wondered if it would. If I’d made the mother of all fuckups by inviting this thing into my life.

Nah. Because accepting it had brought Jules to me. I’d rather die and take those memories with me than return to the loneliness I had before.

There were moments of pain so excruciating I shook, but I kept those from Mama. At first, I’d even tried to hide it from Julia, too, not that it had a chance in hell of working. She saw right through it, forced me to take a Tramadol, and tucked me into bed again. Then she tattled on me, told Mama to stick to the pain guideline she’d drawn out, and to call her back if I didn’t take my meds.

By the weekend, I was more than ready to head out to the clinic, nervous and anxious as all hell. Not just about my arm, but seeing her again. It seemed like a dream now. She’d only dropped in once a day to check on me at home.

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