The Marine's Secret Daughter by Carrie Nichols

Author:Carrie Nichols [Nichols, Carrie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-11-16T19:24:56+00:00

Chapter Seven

“Get back on the stretcher and I’ll pull these off the rest of the way,” she ordered in a brusque tone and squared her shoulders. How had she missed these scars that night in the motel room?

He did as she asked and she took the jeans and folded them as neatly as possible, setting them on top of the small table next to the rack of pamphlets on spotting the symptoms of strokes.

She cleared her throat, but a doctor stepping around the curtain prevented her from asking about the scars. The young doctor had a stethoscope looped around his neck and held a clipboard. He pulled a small black stool up to the stretcher, and sat down.

After introducing himself and glancing at the chart, he said, “They tell me you took the short way off the roof.”

Riley huffed out a laugh, and then winced. The doctor made a note on his chart.

“You could say that,” Riley said.

The doctor took down Riley’s medical history and then did his evaluation. “Are you allergic to any medications?”

“No.”

“I’m going to order something for pain and get pictures of those ribs and your wrist, and we’ll take it from there.”

After the doctor left, Meg stood up and refolded his jeans and torn T-shirt, smoothing and rearranging them on the table. Riley touched her arm and her motions stilled.

“I’m okay,” he whispered.

She tucked her chin. “It’s all my fault. I—”

“Stop it.” He squeezed her arm. “I should have—”

A nurse stepped around the curtain.

“Okay, Sergeant Cooper, I’m going to give you an injection for pain before we get you over to Radiology.” She placed a couple of syringes and two vials of medicine on the silver stand beside the stretcher and entered more information into the computer, once again asking him to verify his name and vital stats. After explaining the medications, the nurse lowered his waistband and gave him the shot in the hip. “Now...” She put a Band-Aid over the site, adjusted his gown and pulled a sheet over his hips. “Let’s get you over to Radiology.” She looked at Meg as she brought the rails up on the stretcher. “You can wait here, if you like. He’ll be back in about ten or fifteen minutes.”

Meg glanced around the room while she waited for Riley. She wrung her hands and hoped this would turn out to be one of those incidents that in time would become an amusing anecdote.

Amusing or not, she’d begun pacing by the time they wheeled Riley back. The assistant arranged the stretcher back into its original position, engaged the brake and left with a smile and a “someone will be right with you.”

He reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her close. “What’s wrong?”

“How can you even ask that? I’ve been worried about you.”

He put his arm around her and pressed her forehead against his hard, albeit bruised, chest. “I’m fine.”

She pulled back to look him in the eyes. “Did they tell you that?”

“I don’t need anyone to tell me how I feel.

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