Page 50 of Shortcake
“He’s adoctor,” Enzo countered. “He can at least tell us if he thinks she needs to go to the emergency room.”
Addy groaned. “Isn’t he a foot doctor?”
Enzo threw her hands into the air. “He went to med school for as many years as the general practitioners. More actually because he went into a specialty!”
“Geez,” Addy hissed, giving me a wide-eyed look. “Calm down. I was just asking.”
“Here,” I said, tenderly pressing the ice to her jaw. “Hold still.” Addy winced as the ice met her skin.
“Sorry,” I whispered. The corners of her mouth curved just the slightest bit at my apology.
“It’s notyourfault the ice is cold.”
I lifted my brow. “But itismy fault you need the ice in the first place.”
“Maybe a little. But I don’t know, it was kind of sweet in its own brutish way. You jumping in and getting all caveman to protect your daughter.” Her smile widened and she reached up to take the ice from my hand. As she did so, our fingers brushed and paused, touching each other. Like she was holding my hand to her jaw. Cradling it.
My daughter. “Harper,” I gasped.
“She’s fine,” Addy said quickly, then indicated behind me with a tilt of her head. “She’s sitting with Haylee.”
I whipped around, finding her still at our table, cheeks red and eyes wet. The other friend who had come over to talk with us sat with her, arms around her, comforting her.
What the hell did it say about me that my first instinct was to take care of Addy when she got hit and not my own child?
I scrubbed my palm down my face. “I need to go check—”
“Of course,” Addy said quickly. But her words were cut off as three burly, muscular men burst through the front door. Two of them wore aprons with no shirts and the other was in a tight t-shirt and cargo shorts.
“Oh, shit,” Addy muttered, hopping off the stool. “Okay, who the hell called my brothers!?”
“What the fuck happened?” One of the guys boomed.
“Dad?” Harper said. Though her voice was small and trembling with fear, it echoed in the bar.
“It’s okay, sweetie,” I rushed over to her, truly unsure whether these three men were here to check on their sister or kick my ass.
Or both.
Harper stood, running to me, and meeting me halfway before I could make it back to the table. She slammed into my arms, hugging me tight. “I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I’m sorry for everything.”
Emotion clogged my throat like the shitty drainpipe at my mom’s old apartment that I had to fix with the first frost of every year. “It’s okay, sweetie. It’s okay,” I repeated over and over to her. “That was my fault. I lost my temper and saw red when I imagined what else could have happened to you with those guys last night.” I smoothed her hair and kissed her forehead. “I’msorry.”
The t-shirt clad brother pointed at me. “Didyouhit our sister?”
I shifted Harper behind me so that she was protected. “No. But I started the fight that she got caught up in.” I wasn’t going to lie and pretend that this wasn’t my fault simply because it wasn’t my fist that connected with her face.
A fourth, bookish looking guy came running into the bar.
“Oh my God,” Addy yelled. “You all need to calm down. You’re scaring off what few customers I have left. No one meant to hit me purposefully. It was an accident…” She paused, swaying like she was losing her balance, and pressed her palm to her forehead.
All of us rushed toward her as she stumbled, but I made it there first, catching her elbow and guiding her to the stool.
“I’m okay,” Addy said, shaking us off of her. “Just a little dizzy.”
The bookish looking guy, Simon I think his name was, came over, with a little flashlight in hand and looked in her eyes.
It spoke to how badly she felt, the fact that she was letting Simon examine her. If she felt fine, she would have pushed him away too and assured us all that we were overreacting. But she didn’t do any of that. She let Simon poke around while the rest of us stood idly by, holding our breath.
