Page 19 of A Convenient Ring to Claim Her

“And stepped in front of him. Why would you do that?”

“I didn’t do it on purpose! I had the signal to walk. The cars were stopped. I thought it was fine.” The cyclist had been riding into the sun. He hadn’t slowed, believing he could make the turn ahead of the oncoming cars.

He’d been very apologetic when he had stood over her, blood pouring from his chin and knee. He was probably in an adjacent bed, getting bandages hastily slapped over his scrapes, same as they’d given her.

“You’re conscious, at least.” Micah sounded...

Oh, she didn’t want to imagine he sounded relieved or worried or as though he cared one wit.

You no longer have my trust or respect.

Funny how learning she didn’t even have that had made her realize she had always yearned for even more.

“Do you have any sense of the severity of your injuries? The nurse said your shoulder appears to be dislocated. Did you hit your head? Anything broken?”

“No. Just my shoulder.” And, “appear”? She’d felt it dislocate as the two-hundred-pound man had slammed into her. The impact had knocked her off her feet and the screaming pain had kept her from softening her tumble across the pavement. That had added various scrapes that the nurse had already sprayed with antiseptic and covered. By tomorrow, she would have more bruises than freckles, but she hadn’t hit her head or fractured anything that she knew of, so that was something.

“I don’t suppose you’ve called Eden.” He set her shattered phone on the table beside her, then took his own phone from his pristine jacket.

“Don’t,” she said flatly. “I’ll call her later.”

He scowled. “She’ll want to know you’re in hospital, Quinn.”

“She’ll think she has to drop everything and come, but she’s busy trying to put her company back on the rails while starting her marriage in a new city. There’s nothing she can do anyway. They’ll take an X-ray, treat me like a heretic at an Inquisition while they put it back, then wrap it and tell me to be more careful next time.”

“This has happened before?” His restless gaze flickered from her cheekbone to the ice pack on the front of her shoulder, down to her limp hand resting on the blanket across her stomach, and ended at the tent of her feet.

“Why are you here?” she asked with annoyance that was a mask for the pain of knowing he hated her.

“To see how badly you’re hurt. Obviously.”

“I’ll live. You can go.”

His gaze clashed into hers with the force of a full-on electric storm, making her breath hitch, but the nurse came back with a rake of the curtain.

“I’ll take you for your X-ray now.” She set a wheelchair by the bed and lowered the rail.

This was going to be a nightmare, one she would rather Micah didn’t witness, but she didn’t have the breath to say so. With the nurse’s help, Quinn very gingerly sat up, blinking as the pain intensified.

Micah stepped forward, reaching out, but she warned him with one raised finger not to touch her. Her eyes were watering and her whole body was shaking by the time she eased herself into the wheelchair.

“I’ll wait here,” he said grimly as the nurse turned her chair.

“Don’t bother.” She meant it. She couldn’t take him right now, acting like he cared when he didn’t. Thank God she had this horrific injury to explain the way her lip was quivering.

By the time she returned to her bed, the drugs were doing their job. She was indifferent to the physical agony and emotional angst of existence. She wasn’t indifferent to him, though. To her shame, she was relieved he was still here, even though he radiated the energy of a caged tiger.

“You’re shaking,” he noted as the nurse got her on the bed and under the sheet.

“I’m cold.” They’d helped her change into a hospital gown before the X-ray. None of it had been fun.

“It’s shock. I’ll fetch a warmed blanket,” the nurse murmured.

Micah removed his jacket and draped it over her. Now the smell of his aftershave was filling her nostrils. She closed her eyes against all the memories his scent evoked—like losing her virginity to him.

She pushed at the jacket. “Don’t you have to put this on and be somewhere?” She was seconds away from a full breakdown, she really was.

“I told my aunt that something came up. And I texted Eden that you were here and I would keep her updated. I haven’t heard back, but when she sees it, she’ll want to know how you’re doing.”

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