Page 63 of Smitten with the Single Dad

Wyatt chuckled. “Okay, fine. See you there.”

The truck doors closed and a moment later, they were rumbling down the road toward the hospital.

“It’s weird that we were just in a vehicle that crashed and now we’re in another one,” Jake said.

“Do you think this one will crash too?” Griffon asked.

Wyatt met Vica’s eyes.

She pulled Griffon onto her lap. “I don’t think so, buddy. The firefighters are going to drive extra safe because they know how precious their cargo is.”

“You mean Dad?” he asked.

“Well, not just your dad, but you guys too. All of us.”

“That was really scary,” Griffon said, burying into Vica. “I don’t think I ever want to get into a car or truck again.”

Jake snorted. “You going to walk everywhere?”

Griffon gave his brother a sharp glare. “Or ride my bike.”

It didn’t take long for them to arrive at the hospital. Justine jumped out andheld open the door so they could wheel Wyatt in. Grayson arrived a moment later and they brought him into a room for some x-rays.

“Can we come in too?” Griffon asked.

“We’ll just be a minute, Griff,” Justine said. “But I’m here with your dad. I won’t leave his side. I promise.” She gave him a reassuring smile and he seemed to relax, settling back onto Vica’s lap in a small waiting room.

Once they wheeled Wyatt out of earshot of his kids, he met Justine’s gaze. “Give it to me straight, Doc. Am I going to live?”

She snorted and rolled her eyes. “And they say women are the dramatic ones.”

He smirked as they moved him onto the x-ray table. “Is it going to hurt? Will I ever play the flute again?”

Justine pinched his shoulder.

“Ow!”

“Good to know you still have feeling there. Now, shut up and hold still.”

He did as he was told.

Humor was, of course, a defense mechanism. Deep down, he was terrified. What if there actually was something wrong with his spine? What if he could never walk again? He wiggled his toes—or at least he thought he was wiggling his toes. It always perplexed him on television shows and in movies when a character had a spinal injury and they couldn’t tell that they weren’t wiggling their toes.

Grayson studied the scans on the screen, his brown eyes squinting. Justine glanced at them over his shoulder, but neither of them said anything.

“The suspense is killing me, guys. What’s the verdict?”

Justine hit the button for the table after a couple more minutes and Wyatt slid back out to face them. “The verdict is, you will play the flute again. You will also walk, talk, and chew gum—all at the same time too.”

Her light-brown eyes twinkled as she smiled.

Relief filled Wyatt down to the toes he wiggled with glee.

Grayson removed Wyatt’s C-collar and helped him sit up. “Easy does it,” the doctor said with his deep voice. “Just because you might not be in pain now,doesn’t mean you won’t be. You’re still in shock.”

Wyatt met his friend’s concerned gaze. Grayson was normally all big white smiles, but he wasn’t smiling right now. “It was really fucking scary, man,” Wyatt said almost under his breath as the magnitude of what his family just went through started to hit him and make his whole body shake.

Grayson nodded. “I know. But you’re all okay. We’ve got you. Just … try to relax.”

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