Reggie nodded. “Man, are you smart.”
Emily beamed. Then her little face closed in on itself, and she scowled. “You’re not going to stab my mom, are you?”
Reggie coughed, but Maggie saw his smile. “Um, no. We don’t stab people, remember? We fix them up. In fact, we’re going to give your mom a ride to the hospital. You and your Uncle Doug will meet her there, okay?”
Emily nodded.
“Where’s the puppy?” Maggie asked.
Reggie answered, “He’s with a clerk at the grocery store. She’s going to hold him until you or your brother can swing by to get him.”
“I don’t have a brother.” She blinked. “How did you get Doug’s information?”
“Emily handed me your phone. She told me Uncle Doug is your emergency contact. I just assumed ‘uncle’ meant brother.”
Her head hurt, her arm throbbed, and she ached all over. “Why can’t I move my head too much?” she asked when she realized she had little movement there.
“We put you in a brace. You might have taken more damage from that hit than we can see. So we’re going to take you to the hospital and get you all checked out before you move and possibly injure yourself.” He glanced at her daughter. “Emily, how about you go with Uncle Doug while Mack drives me and your mom to the hospital? I promise to take very good care of her.”
Emily nodded. “Will you make Mommy better?”
Reggie gave her a kind smile. “I’ll do my best.”
“Okay.”
A man in uniform appeared at the back and looked inside. “We ready to go?”
“Emily said it’s okay. She’s ready to go with her uncle now.”
The man smiled. “Then let’s get going.” He helped Emily get down and handed her off to Doug, who looked worried. Then Mack said, “Buckle in and hold on. We’re rolling.”
The doors closed, and Reggie sat close.
Maggie started to feel tired again but didn’t want to scare Emily. “Reggie?” she croaked. Wait. Emily had left with Doug. Or was she still sitting next to Reggie out of sight?
He leaned close.
“Am I really okay?” she asked in a low voice, tears leaking down her cheeks, the fear of leaving Emily finally impressing on her.
Reggie grasped her good hand and squeezed. “I promise. You’ll be okay. You’re injured and you’re hurting, but you look pretty darn good for someone who was hit by a car. Trust me, I’ve seen a lot worse.”
She would have nodded, but the brace held her still. “Thank you.”
“Anytime.” He smiled again.
She looked into his eyes and saw what she needed.
Maggie closed her eyes and slept.
Chapter Three
Maggie stared at the bouquet of flowers on her nightstand, eager to get home. The flowers were beautiful and bursting with color, a gift from Doug and Benny, but she could feel each second in the hospital costing her money.
The guys had been a godsend. With Stephen out of the country, unable to care for Emily, Maggie would have been hard-pressed to find help.
She still had no idea what Doug and Benny had done with the dog Emily had spotted. She wasn’t sure that she could afford to keep a puppy, with the pet deposit and additional monthly pet fee likely more than she could handle. Especially now, Maggie thought, glaring at her arm in a splint, held in place by a sling.
Her head hurt, but painkillers made the pain tolerable. According to the doctor, she’d been fortunate that she’d had a stable, closed fracture. No need for pins or plates. No surgery. Just a splint until the swelling went down. Then she’d get a cast. But she couldn’t use her arm for a while. At the least, she was looking at a solid six to eight weeks of downtime, having broken her dominant arm, and seven to fourteen days to recover from her concussion.
Maggie’s eyes welled. So much for a fun-filled summer spent with her daughter.
Someone knocked at the door, and she hastily wiped her eyes. “Yes?”
The door opened. In walked a familiar face. The EMT from the ambulance ride, the man Emily talked about every time she visited. Reggie this, Reggie that.
He saw her and hesitated by the doorway.
“Please, come in.” Maggie pushed a button on her bed to sit up more.
The sight of Reggie in the clear light of day, looking both larger than life and better-looking than any man had a right to be, was the icing on the cake that was her life. Maggie no doubt looked like the scruffy before picture of the worst sort of makeover while this guy should have been posing on a man-of-the-month calendar.
“Reggie, right?”
He smiled. “Yeah. I hope it’s okay I stopped by. I was thinking about you and Emily and wanted to check in.”
“That’s so sweet of you.”
He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans and looked away, taking in her room and centering on her flowers. “Pretty.”
“From my best friends.” She smiled. “Please, have a seat.”
He sat and seemed even taller while sitting down. Well, maybe not taller. But now not dazed and so lost she couldn’t see straight, Maggie looked at the man and saw everything.
Behind the short-sleeve Mariners T-shirt and jeans, he had huge muscles under medium-brown skin. He was clean-shaven, his hair cropped short, his brown eyes dark and soothing.
“Emily was right. You are pretty.”
He rolled his eyes, and she laughed.
At the sound, he smiled back. “I see where she gets it from.”
“That’s right. You had the pleasure of my daughter’s inquisitive nature at the library. Doug told me you did great. Emily’s a huge fan.”
He looked relieved. “Oh, good. I have to tell you, your daughter’s a hard sell. But I think I finally convinced her I’m not out stabbing people to take them away in my murder bus.”
Maggie laughed again, pleased her head no longer pounded anytime she so much as moved. “She has a vivid imagination. And she’s on a predator kick after watching too much Animal Planet. Forgive her.”
“Nah. She’s a cutie. I like smart girls.”
Well, then you’re not going to like me much. She bit back a sigh and swallowed her disappointment. Not that she had any energy to date or could conceive of Reggie wanting to go out with a woman he’d seen at her worst.
Which made her think… Oh God. She’d been passed out for a time. Had she drooled? Had her shirt ridden up, showing her flab to the world?