Page 5 of Horoscope to Love
3
ELLIS
I don't know who this woman is or why she's just walked into my house uninvited, but there is no way that if I call the police, they are going to believe a word of what I'm saying with her lying on my floor unconscious.
“Miss?” I ask, taking a step towards her but quickly remembering I'm completely naked besides the towel wrapped around my waist.
I glance around and see a laundry basket filled with clean clothes that have been sitting on my steps for the last few days waiting for me to put them away. After quickly pulling on a clean pair of jeans and shirt, I kneel next to her on the ground. Her eyes are closed. If I hadn't just watched her walk right into the post, she’d look like she was sleeping.
“Miss?” I ask again, pushing a strand of hair off her face. It’s only then that I see the cut on her forehead and the blood. "And now we are going to go see Doc."
I scoop her up in my arms and push to my feet. She stirs a bit from the movement. Her chocolate brown eyes flutter open momentarily and find me.
“I guess you saw this coming?” She asks.
“If by I watched you walk into the post, then yes, I guess I did.”
She surprises me when she chuckles. "You're funny, Madame Zodiac."
“Who?” I ask, but her eyes close again.
The drive into town doesn’t take long, and I manage to catch Doc before he closes up his office for the day.
“Doc, I need your help!” I call out as I jump out of my truck and run around to the passenger side and open the door to my very own mysterious stranger.
“What happened?” He asks, running over to us.
“She hit her head and knocked herself out,” I explain as I lift her into my arms again.
Doc pulls up one eyelid to check her pupils, but sleeping beauty swats at his hand and tries to turn her head away from him.
“We better get her inside. I’m going to need to examine her.”
I follow him inside and lay her down on one of the tables in the examination room. Rosie, Doc’s nurse, appears in the doorway. Her eyes widen in surprise before she rushes forward.
"I'm going to need you to wait out in the waiting area, Ellis," Doc says to me.
A strange urge to want to stay and make sure she's okay fills me, but I know that there is nothing I can do to help. Doc and Rosie have the situation handled. I back out the door but put my hand out to stop the door from closing.
“You’ll let me know—” I start to say, but Rosie cuts me off.
"She's in good hands. Please take a seat, and Doc will be out to talk to you as soon as we know anything."
I nod and drop my hand. The door shuts in front of me with a soft click, and I'm left with nothing to do but wait.
As I sit alone in the waiting area, I tell myself that my concern for this stranger is nothing more than concern that she was injured on my property and I was liable for it. But something deep down in my chest tells me there was something else. And I can’t quite put my finger on it.
MATILDA
My head was thumping, but when I woke up in the doctor’s office, the nurse with a kind smile assured me that was to be expected after what happened.
“What happened?” I ask, needing clarification.
“You hit your head,” she explains.
“On what?”
“Ellis said you walked into a post and knocked yourself out.”
