Summer Swing Read Online Free PDF Page A

that for him.”
    “Uh-oh.”
    “She complained that he didn’t have any mirrors in the house besides the little one in the bathroom. Wyatt t old her that mirrors were girly , so Dawn got him that one to prove they could actually be ‘manly.’ ”
    “Yep, that manly thing did some serious damage.”
    I glanced across the car to his arm. “So did you really see bone? Wait , don’t answer that . Okay, so did you?”
    He smiled at me and then slig htly nodded his head. “Yeah, it’s pretty deep.” We were both quiet for a few seconds until he said, “I feel a little underdressed.” He looked over the gray slacks and button-up blouse I was wearing, and then looked down at his own attire, which consisted of jeans and a t-shirt.
    “Oh, I haven’t even changed from work yet,” I explained. “I was just heading home when you c alled. Normally I’d be in jeans too. But the blood on your pants is probably overdoing the casualness of the look.”
    He laughed and looked down at the left side of his jeans. “I didn’t have a chance to change, either. When you’re bleeding to death your pants are the last thing on your mind.”
    “So you really were bleeding to death , huh ?” I smirked.
    “Possibly. I kind of feel a little light-headed. Is that a bad sign?”
    “ Yes ,” I said emphatically, looking him over.
    “What if I’m not sure it’s just your presence that’s making me dizzy? How do I tell the difference?”
    I slowly smiled as I directed the car to the emergency entrance . “I don’t know. I guess you’ll have to get this arm thing taken care of first, and then you’ll have a chance to figure it out later.” I stopped the car at the sliding doors.
    “Good, I have something to live for,” he said as he got out of the car.

 
     
     
     
    Chapter Three
     
     
     
    I quickly found a parking space (well, as quickly as it took to find a space at the very far end of the parking lot) and made my way into the emergency room. Gage was filling out paperwork when I spotted him on the opposite side of the room.
    “First things first,” he said as I sat down beside him.
    “Are you feeling okay?” I asked. “You really don’t look so hot.”
    “I go from ‘pretty’ to ‘not-so-hot’ in a matter of minutes?”
    “Gage, do you feel okay?”
    “Uh, no not really…”
    I made him stand up with me and took the clipboard from him and his insurance card. I walked him up to the front desk and said, “He really needs to be taken care of.”
    The woman stationed there barely looked up at me. “He can wait in line like the rest of ‘em, honey.”
    I took a slow breath to keep myself composed. “Blood takes priority the last time I checked, and he’s gonna pass out if he doesn’t lie down. And don’t call me ‘honey’,” I added.
    She finally looked up at me. “Is the paperwork even completed?” she asked smugly.
    I glanced at the form in my hand and began adding a few things to finish it up. All it needed was the date and a description of how the injury occurred . “Sign,” I told Gage. He did what I asked and I set the clipboard on the counter. “All done,” I told her.
    She slowly took the forms and glanced them over. “You forgot to circle where the injury is,” she smiled, pointing to a diagram of a body on the paper and handing it back to me.
    “You know, if this were my parents’ hospital, we’d be treated a lot friendlier than this ,” I told her, circling the dang left forearm of the diagram. “People there are treated as guests, not nuisances. Maybe I should just let him pass out on the floor and he can bleed all over the place.”
    She looked a little bit apologetic, but I decided that wasn’t good enough. I actually took a wad of the gauze off of Gage’s arm to prove a point, and I probably shouldn’t have. All I wanted to do was show her how much blood there was—I could already see that it was starting to soak through—but the blood soaked section came off too,