I groaned but didn’t actually form words.
“You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to . . .” He reached out and squeezed my hand. “Do you know where you are?”
Pain shot through my neck as I nodded.
“Do you remember what happened?”
“Yeah,” I said with a weak voice, thinking back to the parking garage. “Did they catch him?” My jaw throbbed, and I lifted my hand to touch it.
“Be gentle,” he warned, “you’re pretty banged up. And that’s going to take a while to heal.”
I followed his eyes down to my left hand, which was wrapped over and over like a club. “It’s broken?”
He nodded. “Yeah, but they can’t cast it until the swelling goes down a bit. They think you covered your face with it and he kicked it. The good news is it probably saved you from a bunch of broken bones in your face.”
“My face hurts,” I said through clenched teeth. “Are they sure nothing is broken?”
“Yeah, they did a bunch of X-rays yesterday and a couple more again last night, just to be thorough.”
“Wait, it’s tomorrow?” I tried to sit up, but pain crashed through my body like lightning.
“Dani, slow down.” My dad scooted closer up the bed. “You’re not going anywhere for a while. And yes . . . the attack was yesterday. As brutal as Jerry made it sound, you’re actually in pretty good shape. You have a broken hand, a couple of broken ribs, a pretty good cut under your eye, and your face is going to be bruised for a few weeks, but it could have been so much worse.” Dad’s voice broke and his eyes dropped toward the bed. My father was not an emotional man, but seeing his only child in a hospital bed was obviously opening the floodgates.
“I’ll be okay, Dad. I’m glad that you’re here. Wait—when did you get here?”
“Late last night. Andy called me from the hospital, and I got on the first available flight out of California. He had a car waiting for me at the airport.” Once again my dad got misty-eyed. “He’s a good one, Dani.”
I was just about to ask where he was, but I was interrupted.
“Knock, knock,” a cheerful female voice said loudly as she knocked on the door. Seconds later a young doctor dressed in blue scrubs and a white lab coat sailed into the room and smiled at my dad. She froze, and her mouth fell open when she turned to me. “Oooh, you’re awake.”
“Yeah, for just a couple of minutes, though,” my dad said as he stood and backed away from the bed.
“No problem.” She walked up next to me and gave me a warm smile. “I’m Dr. Morris, welcome back.”
“Thanks.” I tried to smile at her, but any movement of my face hurt.
“How’s that feeling?” she motioned toward my jaw.
I grimaced. “Sore.”
“Yeah.” She nodded, giving me a crooked, sympathetic smile. “You’re going to be that way for several days. The pain should get better sooner, but the bruising will take a little more time. Concealer will be your best friend,” she added with a laugh. “Anyway, I’m going to check you out here real quick, and then I’ll leave you guys alone, okay?”
I nodded as she gently pushed and poked around my jawline, shined a bright light in my eyes, and listened to my chest.
She cringed as she gently removed the bandage under my eye. “Sorry if this hurts, I just want to take a quick look.” She leaned in close and peered down her nose at me. “Looks great. The plastic surgeon did a fantastic job of lining everything up just perfect. The scar will be minimal, and if you want to have more work done on that after it’s all healed, it should disappear easily.”
She placed the bandage back down and patted my leg, offering up another comforting smile. “Okay, I’m going to let the nurses know you’re awake, and I think you’re due for some pain meds, so I’ll tell them to get that, too. I’ll be back around in a little while, okay?”
“Thank you,” I muttered as she left the room.
Dad stretched his neck to the left, following her movements until she closed the door behind her. He looked at me and wiggled his eyebrows up and down.
“No.” I started to shake my head but stopped when it throbbed. “Dating my doctor is off-limits, even if I’ve only known she existed for six whole minutes.”
He let out a hearty laugh. “Can’t blame a guy for tryin’.”
I rolled my eyes. “So where’s Andy, anyway?”
“He’s at a hotel next door. He sat here all night, sleeping in that chair.” He pointed to the tiny, blue, fake-leather chair in the corner of the room. “When I got here, he looked awful. I told him to go home and get some rest, but he refused to go that far. Left me with strict instructions to call him the instant you woke up.”