Page 9 of Tacos & Toboggans
“It is, but the days can be long. Once things get into a rhythm here, I’ll have more time off than I did in Denver, though.”
“But not tonight,” she said, tapping her watch.
“Not tonight. A case arrived just as I was finishing my shift in the ER for the day. Rather than have Dr. Russel do the surgery and leave the ER unattended, I did the surgery since I was the one there when she came in.”
She clapped her hands and leaned forward. “You did AJ’s surgery!”
My hand stopped halfway to my mouth as I was about to take another bite of the taco. “I can’t talk about my work. It’s that HIPAA thing.”
A sneaky smile crossed her face. “You don’t have to tell me. Mrs. Violet stopped in earlier after she picked up Valor. She decided to grab dinner since she would have the baby all night. She told me the new doctor in town was fixing AJ’s foot.”
“Again, I can neither confirm nor deny the information you’ve presented me with here tonight.”
Her snicker told me she was aware of what I could and couldn’t say about my job. “But hypothetically speaking, as someone familiar with repairing broken bones in the foot, what is the likely course of the surgery and recovery?”
Not only was she gorgeous, but she was smart as hell and used the English language like a weapon. I had nothing but respect for her. Of course, that didn't mean I couldn’t respect her while she was lying naked in my bed. Oh, brother. Apparently, it had been way too long since I’d been with a beautiful woman. Absently, I shook my head. No, the bewitching woman before me was the reason I couldn’t get those thoughts out of my head. She was the whole package, and yet I knew she didn’t see it. Maybe that’s what made her the whole package.
“Well, hypothetically speaking, she will have a bit of a road ahead, but will likely be fine once the bone heals. That will take a few months, which I’m sure will frustrate someone her age, but she’ll be glad she had someone repair it surgically rather than simply casting it.”
“Mrs. Violet said it was super gnarly, including a tendon issue, and the bone had a malunion. I don’t know what that means.”
Rather than keep holding the taco, I set it on the plate. “A malunion just means a fracture that didn’t heal properly. For instance,” I said, grabbing a taco chip and snapping it in half. “When a doctor sets a bone, they want it to be as closely realigned as possible if they aren’t doing surgery.” I lined up the edges of the chip so that they met perfectly. “But if the bones aren’t lined up, sort of like this,” I said, moving one just a hair. “It might look healed on X-ray, but over time, it either refractures or causes pain every time the limb is used. That’s the case no matter what bone is broken.”
“We noticed AJ’s limp for months. I wasn’t letting her move around too much in the food truck because the limp was becoming more pronounced every week. I know she noticed, but she just kept denying it. Dawson told Mrs. Violet that the bone broke badly this time, and she would need pins to hold it together.
Rather than answer, I stuffed the taco in my mouth and chewed. She needed pins and a stabilizer, but it was better for Jaelyn to hear that from someone other than me.
“She must be so upset, and Holly will be beside herself. Did you hear the story? Hypothetically, of course.”
I made the so-so hand as I chewed.
“It was two years ago when AJ’s best friend Holly, Mason’s daughter,” she said, motioning to the kitchen, and I nodded. “Anyway, Holly was getting threats on social media from some boys in the next town over. They didn’t like that Holly had told them to suck eggs when they asked her and AJ out. Rather than take it on the chin like men, they started harassing and threatening her. This culminated right before Christmas when Holly was busy with her head elf duties.”
“Head elf?” I asked after I swallowed.
“She helps Santa with the sleigh every Christmas. You remember the gazebo from the other day?” she asked, and I nodded. “Once the tree is lit on the day after Thanksgiving, Santa’s sleigh parks next to it for the season. Santa sits in the sleigh every Saturday, and the kids share their wishes. Hollyhelps organize the kids and ensures everything runs smoothly.”
“Got it,” I said with a nod. “That’s cool. Not many kids her age would still do that.”
“You haven’t met Holly Hadley, but I assure you, once you do, it will all become clear. AJ didn’t want her to be alone, so instead of telling an adult what was going on, AJ started working at the sleigh to protect Holly. They were leaving the park one Saturday when the boys jumped them with a baseball bat. Holly’s arm was broken, and the bat fractured her skull. Realizing another hit to the head would kill Holly, AJ kicked out to deflect it, and the bat connected with her foot. After the beating, AJ was so disoriented that she dragged Holly from the park to the diner on a broken foot.”
“Good God, that’s brutal. They’re lucky they aren’t dead,” I said in shock and horror. “I didn't know she was a hero. And I don’t use that word lightly, having worked for the VA.”
“You’re not kidding. They both had serious concussions, and Holly needed surgery to fix her arm. Looks like AJ should have as well.”
“That just depends on what the fracture looked like initially. A doctor can’t necessarily predict a malunion, so if the alignment appears good, allowing it to heal without surgery is a suitable treatment option. Feet are particularly tricky because you don’t want to mess with them more than necessary, but you also need them to be strong and pain-free. It’s a balancing act, especially in teenagers.”
“That makes sense. I feel so bad for them. The only justice is that the boys who attacked them were caught and tried as adults. They’re serving long sentences now for attempted murder. Man, what a setback for AJ and their family. We’ll send meals over for the foreseeable future. Honor teaches full-time, and Dawson teaches part-time. He stays with Valor on his days off, and on the days that he works, Mrs. Violet babysits.”
“Mrs. Violet really gets around.”
“She’s everybody’s grandma,” I said with a chuckle. “But she’s also AJ’s aunt. AJ’s father, who passed when she was a baby, was Audrey’s nephew. Truthfully, this town would be lostwithout Audrey. She organizes the Thanksgiving and Christmas community dinners, the coat drive, and many other events throughout the year.”
“She’s one of the angels on earth that people talk about, right?” I asked, wiping my hands now that my plate was clean.
“Like you don’t know,” she agreed as she pointed at my plate. “If you’re still hungry, I have some blackberry pie left.”
“Oh, that’s hard to turn down,” I said, eyeing the pie case. “I’ll have a piece if you will.”
