Page 59 of Saving the Rain
What was I gonna do? Ask him to stay? I’m not an idiot; that’s a laughable idea. This kind of thing we’ve just stumbled into isn’t some kind of budding romance to get excited about. Not some sweetly hopeful chemistry between two people who start dreaming of a future together.
It’s the kind of thunderclap that leaves you shell-shocked, with ringing in your ears, and your life dramatically and irrevocably altered.
Life has to go back to normal... or at least, something approaching what thenew normallooks like for Kayce Wilder from here on out.
Chapter 24
“Mr. Rainer?”
“Just call me Raine.” I pull my face away from my hands, muttering my reply. The nurse who called my name peers at me over thick-rimmed glasses. Tonight has dragged on for what feels like forever. I’m itching to get the fuck away from the glare of these fluorescent lights and cloying scent of disinfectant.
All it does is remind me.Digs up too much dirt from my past.
She beckons me to the desk with a wave of a file clutched in her hand. Hopefully, it’s Kayce’s goddamn discharge paperwork. His fractured wrist is currently being set in plaster while I wait out here amongst the rows of plastic chairs.
When I reach the counter and hover, keeping my hands shoved in my pockets, she taps away on her computer, then lifts one eyebrow at me. How the woman can type so fast without looking at those letters on the keyboard, I have no idea.
“Do you need me to sign something for Kayce?” I ask. Hoping to hell she’s not gonna push those Coke bottle glasses up her nose and tell me there’s some extra horrific surcharge we have to pay. More dollars heaped on top of how much this is already gonna cost.
“Are you his next of kin?” She stops typing and glances at the computer screen for a moment, before turning back my way.
“No.” My head aches. I’m fucking starved. Let us just get the hell outta here, please, and thank you.
She narrows an unreadable gaze on me, clicking a couple of things with her mouse, while a phone rings in the background. I’m not quite sure what this is about, but she clicks again and then turns to fully face me. This time, she takes her glasses off and gives them a quick polish with the hem of her scrubs.
“The home address listed on Kayce’s file...” She pops the frames back on her face and studies me through the lenses. “There has been a history of similar injuries—of a young man sustaining repeated broken bones while living at the same address.” Her voice is soft to match her brown eyes.
My jaw tightens, and inside my pocket, I let my fingertips run over the ridged metal of my keys for a moment. I push the pad of my index finger down against the pointed end.
What she’s insinuating might be uttered in hushed tones in a bustling hospital emergency room, but it might as well be a foghorn sounding right beside my face with enough impact to burst my eardrum. The message is delivered loud and goddamn clear.
I shake my head and clear my throat. “The kid does rodeo. He fell off a horse.”
The nurse adjusts her weight, continuing to assess me with a long look and I stare right back. I don’t recognize her, and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t know my face either. But my name is on that computer. My files are there. All my patient history from the times it was bad enough to demand medical attention.
Eventually, she exhales and reaches for the paperwork that had been waved my way before. Pushing it across the counter toward me, she picks up a pen and uses it to tap a location on the page. It’s a full A4 sheet. A chaotic cluster of fine print. Kayce’s details, and endless jargon. The sort of form I always struggle to fill out because the letters all jump around and jumble themselves out of order in front of my eyes.
“He doesn’t have a valid emergency contact. The phone number listed goes dead.” She tilts her head to one side, flicking her gaze up to my hair that hangs in front of my eyes and down to my faded t-shirt.
“Fine. Put mine down.” I fist the ballpoint and write my cell number.
Filling in the tiny, blank box his mom has abandoned responsibility for with my details instead.
“Raine?” Tessa’s voice jerks me out of the memory I’d been lost in. The sound of her calling out makes my head fly up, focusing away from the point on the saddle in front of me. A spot that I’d let my eyes drift to while my mind wandered to another place and time so many years ago.
Mist knows the way back to the barn and hardly needs any guidance to know where to go around this ranch. When I saddled him up earlier, he looked at me with equal parts distaste that he’s been cooped up, unable to get out as often as he’d like during the time I’ve been away, and sheer joy to be heading out for a proper ride at last.
I swing out of the saddle and lead him over to where Tessa waits outside her office. She’s all wide grins and a rounded belly that seems to have grown rapidly since I last saw her.
“We missed your bright smile.”
That earns her a scowl, and my eyebrows furrow together.
“Yep, that’s the one, right there.” She props her hands against the middle of her back and stretches a little. “You’re looking radiant as always, my favorite grump. Staying atop a mountain with your brother has obviously done you a world of good.”
“Stepbrother,” I mutter. An immediate prickling feeling races up the back of my neck. A flutter of worry makes itself known. Does she know something? Have suspicions? Small towns are magnets for gossip and rumor, the kind that spread like wildfire.
As Mist’s hooves clop in rhythm at my side, I have to fucking shake myself internally. There’s no possible way she could know shit, so what the hell am I even concerned about?