Page 18 of Family Bonds- Kelsey & Van

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CAN OF WORMS

If it wasn’t for the fact that Kelsey was laughing when she said the last few words he might be offended.

Then he realized she was probably a really good judge of character based on the fact she wanted to meet someone in person and the things she looked for.

Now he just had to decide what to say.

Might as well start with the truth of his career and how he ended up here.

She didn’t need to know specifics.

“I was a detective. I told you that. I was in the position for four years. A year ago I was stabbed several times and left to die in an alley.”

She stopped the nacho from going to her mouth and stared into his eyes.

No humor or smile.

He was positive he just killed the vibe of this date.

Her hand reached out and touched his, resting there on top. “I’m so sorry. That sounds horrible and had to be extremely stressful for you and your family.”

“Yes to it all,” he said. “Though the family stress part not really. It’s only my father and me and we aren’t close.”

“I’m sorry about that too. Family is everything to me. But no reason to go into that. Do you want to talk about your injury and what happened? Obviously you didn’t die.”

“No,” he said, picking up a wing. “Or yes, I did. So they said. I was gone about a minute. I don’t remember much more than a white light.”

“It’s true about the light?” she asked.

“I guess. Could have been the moon too for all I know. I was in too much pain to analyze it.”

All he could think about was the fact he was going to die in this nasty dirty back alley.

There were dumpsters everywhere, rats behind them and homeless people looking on.

It was a bust gone wrong. He’d been jumped and should have been paying more attention.

“Someone got to you in time though,” she said.

“My partner,” he said. “He was doing CPR on me. He’d seen the stabbing and came running and firing his gun. He killed the man.”

“Good,” she said.

No one had ever said that to him either. “Guess it made it easier to not have a trial to sit through. Not that I would have been of much use. I was stabbed five times. Four in the side and abdominal region, once on my arm when I tried to block him on the first strike.”

Van always wondered if there was another way he could have gone about it.

If he could have found a way to shoot, but the gun was knocked out of his hand from behind.

She was looking at his arms and he turned his right forearm over for her to see it.

“Yikes,” she said.

“It wasn’t the worst of them, trust me. I had a lot of internal bleeding and was rushed into surgery. Spent a few weeks in the hospital. I was weak and lost a lot of blood. Then it was bed rest while my insides all healed.”

“That sounds gross at the same time it makes me want to cry for you. I don’t cry often either.”

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