Finding Family...and Forever? by Southwick Teresa

Author:Southwick, Teresa
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-06-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Justin headed down the hall toward room one where Emma’s father waited. If the man had walked himself into the clinic, chances were good the injury wasn’t too serious. Hopefully, that was the case because the last thing she needed was more conflict.

He stopped at the closed door and took the chart from the plastic holder on the wall. Voices, one male the other female, drifted to him as he flipped through the pages and scanned Mr. Crawford’s medical history. Adam Stone’s notes indicated he had regular physicals and was a generally healthy man who exercised and took care of himself.

He knocked once on the door and heard a deep voice say, “Come in.”

Alan was sitting on the exam table, a wet white towel draped over his left forearm. He was wearing a short-sleeved green-collared shirt with an embroidered grizzly bear on the left front. His worn blue jeans showed dark splotches that could be oil, but it didn’t appear that any clothing had adhered to the wound.

“Hi, Justin.”

“Alan. I’d shake your hand and ask how you are, but rumor has it there was an accident.”

“Hot grease.” Michelle’s chin quivered as she stood beside her husband, worry evident in her eyes.

A feature that she’d passed on to Emma. No wonder Maggie had noticed the resemblance. He was surprised he hadn’t seen it before. Probably because he hadn’t been looking for it. Now he saw the similarity in the curve of her cheek, lip and brow lines, the shape of the forehead. And their eyes were the same warm shade of brown shot with specks of gold. She was still a very attractive woman and in twenty-five or thirty years this is what Emma would look like.

“Justin?” Alan’s voice was a mixture of pain-laced tension with a dash of teasing. “Should I be worried?”

“Sorry, Alan.” Justin pushed all thoughts aside and focused his concentration on the patient. “Let’s take a look and see what we’ve got.”

After sliding on a pair of disposable gloves, Justin lifted the towel to look at the wound. The area from just above the wrist almost to the elbow was bright red. So far there was no blistering and he gently touched the area. The patient hissed out a breath.

“Sorry.” Justin met the other man’s gaze. “Believe it or not, pain is a good sign.”

“Oh?” Beads of perspiration popped out on the other man’s forehead. “Obviously I’m still breathing, but on every other level it just plain sucks.”

“Pain is an indicator that it’s a second-degree burn and only two layers of skin are affected. No pain would mean that it’s third-degree trauma and all layers of skin destroyed. That type of injury can’t heal without surgical intervention and recovery is more than twice as long. Scarring is usually severe.”

“So I’m lucky.” He smiled at his wife, who nodded.

“I’ll need to reevaluate this in a couple of days to make sure, but all signs point to you being very fortunate.”

“If it turns out to be

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