Page 13 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
“Another friend you’re pulling out of your magic bag?” It blazed out of me like an accusation.
“I have a lot of magic tricks.” He winked.
Freaking winked.
“Pretty much know everyone in Moonlit Ridge,” he added like it wasn’t a big deal.
Moonlit Ridge.
It was the town we had been traveling toward.
This morning, Nelly had covered her eyes with her palm then swirled her finger over the map on her lap and pointed at it.
It was a game she loved to play. Something we tried to pretend was fun and not just a pathetic way of escaping.
The tip of her finger had landed directly on the small town.
The weather was supposed to be decent until close to midnight, so we thought we could make it there before it hit.
Not even close.
My throat thickened. “Thank you for the offer, but I can bandage it myself.”
“I’m sure you can, but don’t you think he should take a look at Finn? Just to be sure?” His brows lifted as he glanced at me.
Air huffed from my lungs.
Apparently, the guy knew exactly how to manipulate me.
Snared by the ultimate worry for my son.
I blew the air out through my nose. “Fine. You can have him come out, but after that, we won’t bother you anymore. You can give me the number to the autobody shop, and I’ll take it from there. You can go home and forget that we even exist.”
He looked between me and the road, and his wicked mouth twisted in some sort of gleeful satisfaction. “Whatever you say, Pipes. Whatever you say.”
THREE
PIPER
From where Isat on a couch in the motel’s lobby, I tried not to squint as the doctor shined a bright light into my eye.
“I don’t see any evidence of a concussion.” His voice was craggy with his age.
He’d already butterflied the wound, deeming actual stitches unnecessary.
Of course, at my insistence, he first examined Finn and my grandmother.
Both had been cleared of any injuries.
“I think you’re going to be just fine,” he continued. He clicked off the flashlight and tossed it into his medical bag.
The doctor was nothing like I’d pictured, but what I’d been picturing, I wasn’t entirely sure. Maybe someone right out of med school who had just as many tattoos as Theo.
Vicious beneath a white lab coat.
Not what had to be a seventy-year-old man with shaggy white hair.
Theo had introduced him as Dr. Reynolds, his uncle who still headed a local family medical practice here in Moonlit Ridge.
