Page 32 of All For You
“Stay with me, okay? Where’s your first aid kit?”
“In the upper cabinet, next to the sink.”
“Okay. I’m going to help get you cleaned up, and we’ll see if we need to go to the ER.”
I winced at that thought. The closest ER was an hour away. That was the downfall of owning a rural farm. Accidents happened, and unless it was during business hours, there usually wasn’t anyone close by to treat farmers.
He pulled his hand away, and I pouted, missing his touch.
“All right, pretty girl, let’s see what a mess this demonic cow caused, shall we?”
As he began tugging at the medical tape, I explained how the cow hated me, and his chuckle was like a numbing salve. I focused on it instead of the throbbing in my arm.
With the tape free, he held my arm up to unravel the gauze. I cracked open my eyes and immediately closed them when I noticed red painting across all the white material like I was the freaking Queen of Hearts fromAlice in Wonderland.
“Damn, cricket,” he mumbled, and I felt his fingers trace around the skin. It heated under his touch, and luckily not from infection, but from my reaction to him. “This is pretty deep. I think we need to go to the ER.”
“Too far away,” I whispered. “I’ll be fine. Just put a couple of bandages on it.”
“It’s going to leave a nasty scar if I do that. Is there a farm medic I can call?”
There was, but he was out of town, expecting a grandchild at any moment.
“Not really.”
“What does that even mean, cricket? Look, I’m going to call your dad.”
“No!” I jolted and immediately regretted it. If my dad thought I couldn’t handle the farm, he’d take on my hours, which would defeat the purpose of his retirement. And Mom would throw a fit. “Please don’t. Just… wrap it up, and I’ll grab some liquid stitches at the pharmacy tomorrow.”
“Pretty sure it will be too late by then.”
Silence grew around us. The only sounds were my deep panting to keep from passing out and Owen’s steady breaths.
I heard shuffling, then I felt his hand caress the side of my head. For someone who used to torment me, he sure was attentive.
“Sit tight, cricket. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“I make no promises.” I smiled and opened my glassy eyes to watch him smile in return.
I tried my best to stay awake by listening to Owen’s soft murmurs in the other room. I wasn’t sure who he was speaking with, but he wasn’t gone long.
“All right. First, we’re going to work on stopping the bleeding, which seems to have slowed a lot. Then I’ll start cleaning it, okay?”
“Yeah,” I replied, licking my lips nervously. “I’m usually not so bad with blood. Guess it’s different when it’s my own.”
Chuckling, he confessed he was the same way. “You were smart to keep it above your heart. I think we’ll get this stopped quickly. I’m going to wrap it up again and apply some pressure. Do you want something to hold on to while I do that?”
“Your balls,” I joked through gritted teeth as he wrapped clean gauze around my arm.
I felt every tug and pinch as he tightened it around the wound, doing his best to stop the bleeding.
“I’m such a wimp,” I whimpered.
“You’re perfect, cricket. Now, tell me something about you no one knows.”
“We already did this. I told you I wanted to travel.”
“No. Something personal. Something that no one would ever guess about you.”
