Page 59 of Tacos & Toboggans
“I’d love that. Considering this situation, I’m sure he will have the kids.”
“Probably, but that’s fine, we don’t have to stay long. Would you ask Honor if it would be all right if we drop by tomorrow morning?”
“Not a problem, but I’d need to tell her why. Are you okay with that? Does everyone here know?”
“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “Only the administration knows. I’ve kept it under my pants, so to speak,because I find once it gets out, people tend to be three hundred times more helpful than they were the minute before they heard. That frustrates me, but I can’t keep it a secret forever.”
With a smile, I reached up and patted his face. “I’m proud of you. You can trust the people in Bells Pass to have your back.”
“And you were the one who taught me that,” he said, planting a kiss on my forehead in full view of the room. I should have grimaced, but the gesture left my heart too happy to do anything but smile. “Get your arm done, and then maybe someone can give you a ride home?” He checked his watch. “It will be one a.m. or after before I’m done. I don’t want you to stay here that entire time.”
“I’ll see how it goes,” I answered without committing. “Since Ivy and Honor have kids and need to sleep, I’d rather send them home while I stay with Audrey.”
“That’s fair, just take care of your arm before you send them off. Deal?”
With a nod, he ran a finger down my cheek and then headed to the back of the emergency room to prep for surgery. When I turned, three sets of eyes were focused directly on me, so I plastered on a smile and walked back to them.
“So glad he’s confident that Alan will be just fine,” I said, sitting next to Honor.
“What was that?” Audrey asked, waving her hand in a circle in the direction of the desk.
“Uh, nothing?” I asked, and all three of them snorted. “Geez, fine, he called up to rehab and asked them to fix my splint. He’s uncomfortable with how loose it is, and since I’m going back to work this week, he wants a new one made before I do that.” After showing them how the splint slipped around on my arm, they frowned.
“Okay, that’s loose, but he must have some serious pull to get you in this late to have it done,” Honor said.
With a shrug, I decided to be honest. “Major said they’d be here whether I went up there and gave them something to do or not, so I may as well get it done. Would you both stay withAudrey while I do this? It will only take a few minutes. Then I’ll come back down and stay with her so you two can go home.”
“I’m fine here alone,” Audrey said, patting everyone’s hands. “You should all go home and get some sleep. I’ll update you via text once he’s out of surgery.”
“We’re not leaving you here alone, Aunt Audrey,” Honor said, probably biting back an eye roll as she did bite back a yawn.
“I can’t go anywhere until Major is done, since I rode with him, so seriously, let me stay with her. Ivy, I know you have a shift in the morning, and Honor, I’m sure Valor will be up early. You have school this week, so you need your rest.”
“She’s right, dear,” Audrey said with a nod.
“But I drove Aunt Audrey here,” Honor said. “She doesn’t have a car.”
“And I don’t need one. I’m not going anywhere. The nurses will give me a chair to sleep in once Alan is in his room.”
“I’ll have Dawson bring the car over in the morning then,” Honor said, knowing her aunt well enough not to argue.
“Maybe he and Major can do that while we visit and play with Valor?” I asked Honor, who glanced at me as though I had two heads.
“Um, why?” she asked with confusion. “If Major wants to check on Alan, he can do it without bringing her car over here.”
“He kind of wants to talk to Dawson.” Although he told me I could share the information, it felt strange to reveal his private details to others. “Since he’s new to town, he doesn’t have a prosthetist, and he was hoping that Dawson could hook him up with the clinic that he works with. Major’s microprocessor knee is having issues holding a charge, so he needs someone to look at it.”
Even in the hospital, you could hear a pin drop around me.
“Major is an amputee?” Honor asked in surprise, and I nodded. “The war?” I nodded again.
“Plot twist,” Audrey said, making all four of us laugh.
“We can arrange that,” Honor said with a smile. “Dawson would bend over backward to help another vet, not to mention how Major helped AJ.”
“How do you feel about him being an amputee?” Ivy asked.
“It matters not at all to me in the respect of who he is as a person. I’d venture to say he would be someone else entirely if he hadn’t suffered that loss. I do feel terrible that he felt like he couldn’t tell anyone, me included. He’ll be relieved it’s out in the open now.”
