Page 7 of Merriment and Mayhem
She had to briefly pinch her lips together to keep her smile in check. “Knock yourself out.”
As soon as they were back on solid ground, Chen was there, opening the basket. “You mind if Miller and I check you out real quick? It won’t take a second.”
“That’s really not necessary,” she said. “I’m fine.”
Everyone was staring, neighbors all still gathered around, whispering, and Everleigh wanted nothing more than to escape back into the house with what remained of her dignity.
“You should take a look at her left hand. She’s favoring the right.”
Everleigh whipped her head around, staring at Griffin in disbelief. “Because I’m right-handed,” she argued. “Of course I’m favoring it.”
Maybe it was a little tender, andmaybeshe’d heard a teeny, tiny little pop, followed by a sharp pain near her palm when she’d first slipped and grabbed at the gutter, but she’d swallow a couple of ibuprofen and be fine in an hour or two.
“Humor me,” he said, and with a defeated sigh, Everleigh let herself be led over to the back of the engine, where she sat on the tailboard, trying not to squirm under Griffin’s watchful gaze as Miller wrapped a blood pressure cuff around her biceps, checking her vitals.
A hiss of pain slipped through her teeth when Chen palpated a particularly tender spot at the base of her index finger. Damn, that hurt.
“Sorry,” Chen said. “Can you form a fist for me?” Everleigh could. “Okay. Now, here, squeeze my hand.” Chen frowned thoughtfully. “Hmm. Grip strength’s diminished.”
“A2 pulley strain?” Miller asked.
“That’s what I’m thinking.”
Everleigh looked between them. “Is that bad?”
“Well.” Miller blew out a breath as he unwrapped the cuff from her arm. “It’s not good.”
“Great,” she muttered. “Just great.”
Exactly what she needed. An A2 ... whatever strain potentially putting her hand out of commission for God only knew how long. The hits just kept coming, first with the oven and now this. She had the entire upstairs left to pack and half a house strung with lights she’d need to figure out how to take down without a ladder and, now, with only one hand.
Chen patted Everleigh on the knee and rose from where she’d been crouched in front of her. “It’s a common injury seen among rock climbers. Tendon pulleys act as connective tissue to keep the tendon close to the bone.”
“You ever been fishing?” Miller asked, a non sequitur if Everleigh had ever heard one.
“Not in years, but I used to go with my grandfather all the time. Why?”
“Tendon pulleys are like the eyelets of a fishing rod. You know how they keep the fishing line attached to the rod?You put too much force on ’em, and that sudden stress can cause tearing, which’ll cause the tendon to pull away from the bone, a little like a bowstring.” He held up his index finger, illustrating in a way that made her stomach churn. She preferred not to think about the parts of her body hidden beneath her skin, and she definitely didn’t like to think about them tearing. “You lose grip strength, can’t bend your finger—”
“Icanbend them, though.” She winced. “It just hurts like a bitch when I do.”
Griffin reached for her hand and cradled it between both of his. “Could just be a strain.”
Everleigh studied the long, scarred fingers wrapped around hers with a frown. Letting Griffin hold her hand felt a little too close to encouraging him in his quest to ... At this point, she honestly didn’t know his endgame. Win her over, whatever that meant. He could talk about serendipity until he turned blue in the face, could claim his lines weren’t lines at all, but Everleigh was pretty sure the guy was a consummate flirt who, in all likelihood, chatted up everyone on calls from damsels in distress to little blue-haired old ladies.
Just this once, Everleigh would allow him this small liberty, but only because it was hard to deny that his hand felt nice wrapped around hers. That she couldn’t remember the last time anyone had just ... held her hand. Which was probably tragic, but nothing new there.
Captain Keegan wandered over from where she’d been chatting with Frank and his wife, Gloria. “How are we doing over here?”
“Treat and street, Cap,” Chen said. “You’ll need to see a doctor. X-rays don’t show tendons, but sometimes fractures can happen concurrent with soft-tissue injuries. They’ll want to rule that out, and they might do an MRI to confirm whetherthere’s a tear. But since it’s not a life-threatening injury, you don’t need to go to the emergency room. Unless you’d like for us to transport you—”
“No, that’s fine. I’ll just drive myself to urgent care.”
Gloria stalked across the yard, her husband right behind her. “My ears must be failing me because IknowI didn’t just hear you say you’re going to drive yourself to the doctor, did I, Everleigh?”
Her cheeks burned. “It’s fine. Really, I can—”
“Nonsense.” Gloria set her hands on her hips. “Frank and I will drive you. Won’t we, Frank?”
