“No swelling on the brain?”
He looked at her, smiled, and said again, “He’s holding on, and we’re keeping an eye on it.”
“Well, if it hasn’t gotten bad by now,” she said, “chances are you won’t have to open him up.” And, with that cheerful note, she walked into Ryland’s room.
He shifted, startled, and, when he saw her, his eyebrows rose. “What’s the matter, can’t sleep?”
“Well, I slept solid when I first went to bed,” she confessed, handing over the coffee and placing hers down on the night table at his side. “And then I woke up, thinking about Garret and the one doctor saying they might need my help in case of emergency surgery. But I just spoke with the doctor outside, and, so far, that’s not the case.”
“If it would be needed, wouldn’t it have happened already?”
“Yes,” she said. “It’s more a case of the brain swelling at the moment, I think.”
She watched the wince on his face, and she nodded. “The brain is by far the biggest worry. Any internal bleeding must be abating, or they’d have gone in by now, and it’s something they can monitor.”
“Great,” Ryland muttered, as he shifted in his bed, the sheet falling to his waist. She looked away, reminded of how incredibly muscled and well-defined his build was. Granted, she had seen all that when she had cut away his clothes, but she was worried about saving him at that point. In her job as a nurse, she’d seen an awful lot of topless men in her life, and a ton of them in hospital beds, but this was the first time she’d reacted this way. Then again, she wasn’t on duty, and she was visiting somebody.
She motioned at the fresh stitches across his shoulder and more down the right side of his rib cage. “I see they did a lot of work on you.”
“Quite a bit, yeah,” he said. “Everywhere. I’m not even sure I can sit in this position very long.”
She smiled. “Your butt did take a beating.”
“Well, let’s just say, it’s not quite as nicely rounded and plump as it used to be.”
At that, she burst out laughing. “I hardly doubt anything on you was plump,” she said.
He grinned at her. “You never know.”
She just shook her head. “Pretty damn sure.” Just then she remembered her excuse for coming. She pulled out her phone and said, “By the way,” as she brought up the text message that she’d received and passed her phone to him.
He looked at it, made a small sound of delight, and said, “Now that’s more like it.” He looked at her and asked, “Is it okay if I answer?”
She nodded her reply, and he quickly typed out a response. When he handed the phone back, he said, “So I’ll be leaving here damn soon then,” with a note of satisfaction in his voice.
She looked at his heavily bruised and marked-up body and asked, “Are you sure you’re ready?”
He looked down at his most recent injuries and said, “Nothing here is major. Whereas, trying to find the trail of what went wrong is major, and the fresher the trail, the better.”
She shook her head. “You can’t go after them right now,” she said. “You’re too banged up.”
“Nothing is broken badly,” he corrected. “And the stitches will heal in a couple days, and the skin will close.”
“You look like, well, Frankenstein,” she said bluntly.
He looked at her, startled, then burst out laughing. “Thank you,” he said, with a big grin. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a compliment quite so nice.”
She rolled her eyes, crossed her arms over her chest, and said, “It’s not smart. Really. You should wait until next week. At least until the stitches come out.”
He gave her a hard look and said, “Not happening.”
“What about Garret?”
“He’s coming with me.” He stopped, looked at her, and said, “You want to come too?”
“Where to?”
“We’re heading to Perth,” he said.
She nodded. “Then I’m definitely coming because that’s home.”
“What about your stuff at the hotel?”
“I was staying with a friend,” she said. “I’ve already contacted her and let her know what happened. I used to live in Sydney and kept my sailboat there until I decided if I was staying in Perth long term or not.”
“And you don’t need anything from there?”
“I have my bag with me, so I have my basics. She’ll just pack up any of my clothing there and store it, until I go back again. Most of my things were in the boat.”
“Oh, sorry. Well, hand me your phone, and I’ll make sure there’s room for you on the helicopter.” She watched in surprise as he immediately sent out another text and shifted in bed. He looked around and said, “I need food.”
“I think breakfast is about to start,” she said. “When I walked through, getting coffee, they said fifteen minutes.”
“Good,” he said. “We could be off of here in two hours.” He looked at the clock over on the wall and said, “If not earlier.”
“You must have friends in high places.”
“That I do,” he said. “So I suggest you go pack. I don’t know if the doctor will release me to get my own breakfast though. I’m starving and don’t really want to wait until somebody decides to collect me a plate.”
“How about I get you a plate instead?”
He looked at her, assessing the offer. “I need a lot of protein, and, I mean, a lot.”
“Tell me what you want,” she said, one eyebrow up. “If I have to make two trips, I’ll make two trips.”
He grinned. “You know something? I like your style.”
“Your style isn’t too bad either, Ryland,” she said with a laugh. As soon as she heard his breakfast order, she just shook her head and said, “Most doctors would kill you for eating all that or would think your arteries would kill you.”
“Protein is very necessary to rebuild muscle,” he said. “And I’ve got to have energy to go on.”
“So you need carbs too.”
“Absolutely,” he said. Just then the doctor walked in. Ryland looked at him and said, “Any chance I can go get food?”
The doctor shook his head.
“Any chance I can go get him food?” she asked.
The two looked at the doctor expectantly. He raised his hands in surrender. “You seriously that hungry?”
“Absolutely,” he said. “I’m starving.”
“Well, that’s a good sign. I’ll do my checkup, if you want to get him a tray,” he offered.
“Done,” she replied and immediately spun on her heels and walked out the door. Now a little more familiar with the pathway, it seemed like it was half the distance to get back to the mess hall. Once there, she got a tray, two plates, and headed toward the hot breakfast selections. There she grabbed him a stack of pancakes, loaded up the eggs, sausage, bacon, and ham. Then, on the other plate, she added more bacon, ham, and sausages. She placed syrup on the side, along with butter, juice, coffee, and a glass of water. She then added several muffins, so he could have something set aside, in case he got hungry in a little while.