Page 104 of Tempting as Sin
“Would I have seen you in anything?”
“Depends how high-minded your tastes are, I reckon,” Rafe managed to say.
He opened his eyes. The doctor was peering at him more closely, then laughing. Wonderful. “Hang on,” he said. “You’re The Beast. What’s his name. I heard you were living up here. My wife told me.”
Rafe closed his eyes again. He could feel it coming.
“I don’t have a problem,” the doctor said.“Youhave a problem.” Yeah, it had come. “And, hey,” the bloke added, sounding absolutely delighted, the bastard. “Right now? That’s pretty much true.”
Eventually, he was in a regular hospital bed, the IV still in his arm, dripping antibiotics into a vein. “Dirty things, bear claws,” the doctor had said cheerfully when the nurse had been giving Rafe a tetanus shot that hurt heaps less than anything else. “All sorts of germs in there.”
“How about Lily?” Rafe had asked. “Is she admitted as well?”
“Yeah, she’s here overnight, too. I put about thirty stitches into her hand, even though she didn’t get as much of it. We want to be careful with those pathogens all the same. Looks like you took the brunt, though. Was that intentional?”
“Yeah,” Rafe said.
“Huh. Well, good job. I guess quick reactions come with the territory, although you don’t usually do your own stunts, I imagine.”
“Not quite like today, no,” Rafe said. “How about Bailey? The little girl we were with?”
A nurse answered that one. “She’s out in the lobby. Your…wife?”
“Girlfriend,” Rafe said, and wished it sounded better. More permanent. Somewhat like “wife,” in fact.
“She called a friend,” the nurse said, “and the friend came to sit with the little girl. There was also a young man who said he was your assistant. Do you have an assistant?”
“Yeah,” Rafe said.
“Up here with you and everything,” the nurse said. “Wow. I wishIhad an assistant. Sounds nice.”
“It is,” Rafe said, and wondered why everybody had to talk so much. He was going to have to pose for selfies, he could tell.
“Anyway,” the nurse said, “he took the dog. I guess there was a dog. That was lucky. Dogs tend to be helpful around bears. Unless, of course, they stir up the bear and leave you to deal with it. That can happen, too. Looks like you have the right kind of dog.”
“I do,” Rafe said, not bothering to correct her. Chuck was a shared dog, after all.
Now, he lay, alone at last, in a narrow bed that looked out on the mountains, and wished Lily were with him. In a few minutes, he’d get out of bed and go find her. They’d given him something for the pain, finally, and it was making him fuzzy. He’d just close his eyes for a minute until it passed, and then he’d go find her.
He woke with a jolt. Somebody was there. He turned his head, and it was Bailey, sitting in a too-large recliner beside his bed, her backpack in her lap.
“Hi,” he said. Still fuzzy. “How are you?”
“OK,” Bailey said. “I visited Lily, and she said I should visit you. She says she’s going to escape in a little while and come find you, except that she needs another hospital gown to do it, because the one she’s in shows her rear end. How come they don’t give you something that covers your rear end?”
“A question for the ages,” Rafe said.
“Oh.” Bailey considered that. “Hailey’s sitting with her now, anyway. She says she’ll find her another hospital gown. So she’s coming soon.”
“Good,” Rafe said. “But I’m happy to see you, too. You were very brave today. Good on ya, mate. That’s Aussie. It means ‘Good job.’”
“Not really,” Bailey said. “I didn’t even know it was a bear. I was just like the baby elephant. When elephants are in danger, they put the little ones in the middle, and the other elephants make a circle around them and defend them, so a lion or somebody can’t get them. Elephants don’t have sharp teeth like lions or grizzly bears, but they have tusks, and they have big, strong feet to stomp the lions. The lions usually go away, like the bear did.”
Rafe closed his eyes again and smiled. “Well, good. You made a very good baby elephant. You kept quiet, and when you had to run, you ran. And Chuck was a hero as well.”
“You said Chuck had protectiveness,” Bailey said. “Because he’s maybe part wolfhound, and he’s part German Shepherd. German Shepherds are very protective, and wolfhounds are very brave, because they hunt wolves. I didn’t think he did have wolfhound, but maybe he does.”
“Could be,” Rafe said. “Could be you’ll have to admit I’m right. That’ll be a blow.”
