Page 80 of Choosing My Happiness
His eyes lifted and lit up. “My Queen.”
56
Chapter 56: Jim
One minute, we were slowly cruising along, heading back home after our catch-up with another club. The next, a little pink car came dashing out of the intersection, straight into us. Time slowed down. Somehow, I ended up sliding along the road on my side, my bike continuing its momentum as it slid across the road under a truck. The truck crunched over it, despite the red lights blazing from its rear end as it slammed on the brakes. I heard a woman scream, an engine rev, then crunching metal. I managed to somehow get my feet under me and let the momentum surge me to my feet. I spun on my heel and turned back to the accident. It was carnage. Bikes and bodies lying everywhere. No little pink car anywhere to be seen.
Bear’s roar brought the scene back into real-time, along with a cacophony of voices. Keywords reassured me. Words such as accident, medic needed, police. All were being yelled into phonesas onlookers screamed, and yellow emergency lights flared up on the cars stopped around us. Sounds that didn’t reassure me was the silence among the bikes. I stumbled forward and slumped down beside Horse, raising his visor.
* * *
The beeping of machines around me brought me out of my memories. The adrenaline was wearing off, and I could feel my body start to shake as I sat next to the bed in the sectioned-off space. I closed my eyes and waited. Horse was the worst off. He took the full brunt of the car’s first hit. He was still fading in and out of consciousness.
I gripped my hands together to try and stop the tremors.
“Hey,” Daisy’s voice was extra soft as she snuck in through the curtains. I looked up at her.
“He’s alright. He’s awake. He’s just a bit confused, so he has a concussion on top of his other injuries,” she reported on Horse as she was putting a tray down on the bed. “What happened?” she asked, as she spread out the blue sheet on the table and started unpacking onto there.
I slowly stood up. “Little pink car came out of nowhere. Straight into Horse. The truck coming the other way got it all on camera,” I squeezed the words out, concentrating on keeping my eyes on her.
She sighed and turned to me, then looked me over. “You scared me,” she whimpered as she squatted in front of my chair. I did the thing I’ve been wanting to do this whole time. I opened my arms and held her. She buried her face into my chest, I felt her arms resting around my waist, and suddenly everything was alright.
We stayed like that for a while before she sniffed and stood up.
“I’ll need to clean you up. Let’s see how bad this is,” she said. She eased my kutte off my shoulders and down my arms. I hissed at the pain of the movement.
“Sorry,” she whispered, laying the kutte on the end of the bed and picking up the scissors. “This will be easier.”
I frowned. “Daiz, do you have to cut off my shirt?”
“Yes Jim, I need to fully assess the damage, and maybe your pants too.”
“There are easier ways of getting into my pants,” I groaned, slowly unfolding my body like a rusty camp chair. She grinned and reached for my belt buckle, pulling it loose.
“Jim, I don’t know if you realize, but these aren’t leaving much to the imagination anyway. They’re pretty much rags.” She grabbed the scissors again and snipped the waistband on my hip. She wasn’t really wrong. I could feel the cool air against the whole right side of my body.
“It’ll be easier for me if you’re on the bed,” Daisy murmured.
“That’s what they all say,” I groaned, letting the rest of my pants drop to the floor, and stepping out of them. “But I’ll only do it for you.”
I sank down onto the bed and slowly leaned back to lie down.
“Thank you, Jim,” Daisy whispered in my ear, before placing a kiss on my cheek. I shuffled across to roll onto my left side, so she could look at the gravel rash and scrub out the bits of dirt still embedded in my skin.
I heard her move the table over so she was in front of me. Then she pulled some gloves on, squirted the water into the dish, and added the cotton swabs to soak, before picking one up in a pair of tongs
“Which bike were you riding?” she asked.
“Mine,” I grunted as she wiped the gravel rash down.
“You mean mine?” she corrected in a soft, teasing tone.
“I mean the one I ride every fucking day, and you’ve ridden once…so yeah, I mean yours,” I conceded with a smile. “I was getting you a new one anyway.”
“Ahh,” she murmured. “So your bribery tool is bikes?”
I reached out and caught her hand. “No, my bribery tool is love and devotion. I told you before, I don’t have anything to apologize for. I don’t have secrets from you. I love you, and only you.”
