Page 77 of Drawing Home
The doctor asked Emma to step aside so she could get the splint finished.
Mark paced in the room. Emma shot him a look, willing him not to get into the drug thing. Not now.
After the doctor finished the splint, she told them she would be back to check on Penny in fifteen or thirty minutes.
“And then I can go home?” Penny said.
“Yes, then you can go,” the doctor said. “But you have to stop by the desk for the discharge paperwork. And, Mom, I’ll put the cast on when the swelling goes down, so I’ll need to see her again in a few days—this splint is temporary. Once she’s got the cast on, no powder and no lotion on the leg. No sticking anything inside the cast, even if it feels itchy. I’ll give you written instructions for showering.”
“How long will she be wearing the cast?” Mark asked.
“Six to eight weeks. Have you ever used crutches before?” she asked Penny. Penny shook her head. “You’ll get the hang of it.” The doctor turned to Emma and Mark. “The biggest adjustment will be inside the home. No stairs.”
“How am I going to get to my room?” Penny said.
Maybe you should have thought of that before you took drugs and went joyriding,Emma thought, surprised at the flash of anger. Now that the immediate emergency was under control, she was flooded with conflicting emotions. “I’ll be back in a minute, sweetheart,” Emma said. “I’m just going to take care of the paperwork.”
Mark followed her silently to the nurses’ station.
Her mind turned to logistics. How was Penny going to get around all summer? What would she do all day? Angus would have to help her up and down the front steps of the historical society. She wouldn’t even be able to get in and out of BuddhaBerry by herself. Now, instead of Penny helping Angus, Angus would have to babysit Penny. It wasn’t right.
Then Emma shifted the blame from Penny to herself. Maybe this was her own fault. From the way Mark was looking at her, she figured she wasn’t the only one thinking that.
She ignored him, took a clipboard full of papers from the nurse, and signed everything. Kyle must have spotted her from the waiting room across the hall because he appeared holding the handbag she hadn’t even realized she’d left behind.
“What’s he doing here?” Mark said.
“He’s a friend,” Emma said.
Mark gave Kyle the side-eye, then said, “Penny should come home with me. My rental is a single level. Penny won’t have to deal with stairs until she gets the hang of those crutches.”
Emma’s breath caught in her chest. “Don’t be ridiculous. Penny is coming home with me. We’ll figure it out.”
“There’s no need to be territorial here, Emma. I’m just trying to do what is best for Penny tonight.”
“I think I know what’s best for Penny,” Emma said.
“You’re hardly in any condition to make that call.”
“Actually,” Kyle said, stepping closer to Emma, “Windsong has everything Penny needs on the first floor. So I’ll drive you there.”
Emma smiled at him gratefully. “That’s a good idea.” She didn’t know if it was or it wasn’t—the last thing she needed tonight was to deal with Bea Winstead on top of everything else. But at least it shut down Mark’s case for taking Penny. And at that moment, all she wanted was to get her daughter out of the hospital and escape the judgmental glare of her ex-husband.
What could Bea Winstead do to her, anyway?
Chapter Thirty-Two
Bea awoke with a start to the sound of voices.
At first, she thought she’d imagined it, the patter of a dream seeping into her waking moments. But the conversation grew more distinct, and she sat up. Was she hearing what she thought she was hearing?
Kyle. And a woman.
Was he out of his mind? This was no place for his lady friends.
She put on her glasses, her silk robe, and her slippers and quietly slid open her bedroom door. From the top of the stairway landing, she heard the voices more clearly, and it was even worse than she’d thought. With her pulse racing in outrage, Bea rushed down the stairs to find Kyle and Emma Mapson in the kitchen. The woman seemed right at home and was making herself a pot of tea.
“What is going on here?” Bea said. “It’s the middle of the night!”
