Page 70 of Air Of Mystery
It was just rotten luck, Sunny told my sisters, that I’d fallen on my arm wrong and broken it. But Amanda and Estella being there? That was synchronicity. Witches helping each other. A right place, right time sort of thing.
“So, the police were called because of the domestic abuse?” Cordelia asked.
“Yes,” Sunny said. “And also, because Skye had been assaulted. Everyone showed up. The cops did their thing, andthe EMS guys took Mary and Skye both to the hospital. Right Skye?”
“It’s all kind of fuzzy,” I said, not wanting to lie to my sisters. “How is Mary?”
Sunny’s usually happy expression became serious. “All I found out was that she was stable…and getting a psych evaluation.”
I closed my eyes at that news. “That poor thing.”
“I’m more worried about Charlie,” Sunny said to Brynn. “Man, he was pissed when he found out that guy hurt Skye! I wondered if he was gonna go all in and storm the house and kick the guy’s ass...”
“Wait,what?” I asked. I hadn’t heard any of this before.
“Hey,” Brynn said. “You shouldn’t get yourself all worked up. Have a sip of water and relax. Do you need me to adjust the bed so you’re more comfortable?”
“No,” I said, taking the cup she pushed at me. “The bed’s fine.”
“Let me at least get you a pillow to rest your arm on,” Kenna said, and zipped out of the room to go and hunt one up apparently.
“So, what did Charlie—” I began but was cut off by a nurse who booted everyone out, telling them I needed to rest.
Before they left, Kenna had returned with a foam pillow for my arm, and Brynn confiscated my cell phone and told me to try and get some sleep.
“You can have the phone back tomorrow when the doctors release you,” she said over my protestations.
“That’s mean,” I complained.
“Them’s the breaks,” she said, and I winced at the bad pun.
Frustrated at not knowing the details of who had been told what, and more importantly what ultimately had happened toDon, I shut my eyes with a tired sigh. I suppose I fell asleep for a while, because now that I was awake again, it was dark outside.
Slowly, I swung my feet over the side of the bed. I desperately needed to use the toilet. It wasn’t fun trying to shuffle across the floor while simultaneously wrestling an IV pole, but I made it. I even managed to wash my good hand afterward. Then, I caught sight of my face in the mirror above the sink.
My cheekbone was purple from where Don had struck me and the eye above it was bloodshot and a bit swollen. I tugged the loose neck of the hospital gown away from my chest and squinted down. Yup, I had bruises all over my chest too. Seeing that made them start to hurt more, and with a wince, I turned away from the mirror and made my way slowly back to the bed. I’d almost made it when a nurse busted me.
Nobody mentioned that I wasn’t supposed to get up on my own...or maybe they had, but I’d been too loopy to remember. Once she helped me get resettled, I tried to make myself comfortable and thought about turning the television on to pass the time. Before I could, the door eased open, and Charlie popped his head in.
“Up for some company?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said, genuinely happy to see him.
He opened the door completely and I saw he was carrying a shopping bag and a big bouquet of fall flowers. He placed the flowers on the table beside my bed and dropped a kiss to the top of my head. “You look awful,” he said.
“You charmer,” I said and tipped my mouth up to his. “Kiss me anyway.”
Very gently he did. “Again, I’m sorry about hurting your arm earlier.”
“You didn’t know.”
He rested his forehead against mine. “Well, it was pretty horrible watching you turn ghost white and pass out from the pain. Especially knowing I was the cause of—.”
I kissed him to silence him. “You werenotthe cause of it.”
“I wish I’d have gotten there sooner. I could have kept that asshole from putting his hands on you.” He sighed and pressed a tender kiss to my forehead. “I drove so fast to get to you, after Gabriella told me that you were going back to that house alone, to help someone.”
“My hero,” I said, smiling up at him.
