Summer Swing (5 page)

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, and I got a good look at the massive gory mess.

“Oh, gosh,” I said, trying not to fully react like I wanted to.

“Now you’re going to make
her
pass out,” Gage told the receptionist as he re-covered his arm. “And then you’ll have an extra patient.”

“Come on,” the woman motioned. I couldn’t tell if she was just as grossed out as I was, or if she was just
sick
of us, but his
arm definitely needed attention
and she led us to a room right away. She left us without even saying anything f
urther, but I was kind of glad because I just sat down in a chair and put my head between my
knees
.

“Sorry about that,” Gage told me.

As I was still upside down I pointed to the bed and said, “You
lie
down.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I could hear him sit down and then he asked, “Are you okay, Ellie?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just trying to think of as many creative adjectives as I can to describe your arm right now. It will add a nice touch to my diary.”

He laughed, and he was lying back on the bed when I finally sat up.

“Actually I’m trying not to think about it at all, because if I do, I’m either going to throw
up
or pass out. I’m not sure which would be
more
impressive to you.”

“Hmm, what if you throw up and then pass out?”

I scoffed. “Gee, you’re helpful—”

“
H
appy
Saturday
evening
,” a British
accent
greeted us
. A very nice-looking doctor smiled at us as he put on a set of sterile gloves, and then made his way to Gage’s arm.

“I’m Dr.
Farrell
—”

“Oh gosh,” I said, knowing he was going to take the gauze off.

I turned my body away from them just as I heard, “Oh, nice. How’d you manage that one?”

Just hearing Gage use the word “
rip
”
when he was referring to his flesh
made my stomach ch
urn. I tried not to listen to his explanation of the injury, so I plugged my ears for the rest of it.
After a few seconds someone touched my shoulder, and both the doctor and Gage were staring at me.

“Ellie, you don’t have to stay in here,” Gage told me. “Wh
y don’t you just wait out there?
”

“Okay,” I replied right away. I felt bad
as I stood to leave
, but I was sure I would pass out if I stayed.

“He’ll be just fine,” Dr.
Farrell
smiled. “Just give him a kiss for bravery and he’ll be good to go.”

I paused where I was, wondering if it would be rude to just leave without responding.

“I don’t think she’s tough enough to come near my arm,” Gage said. He gave me a quirky smile and winked at me.

“Oh, to wish a loved one comfort before he suffers through two layers of stitching?” the doctor smiled. “I’m sure she can muster something up.” He moved himself to the counter to prepare his tools and that was enough for me.

“You know where to find me,” was all I could “muster up” as I left the room.

I’m not even sure how long I was out there waiting, but I at least got in a
thirty
-minute phone conversation with my sister. She had called and just wanted to know if I’d met up with Gage yet, so I quietly sat in the corner of the waiting room
and went
over the details of our first date.

“I’m sorry, Ells,” she said for the third time. “But at least you guys have something to remember the day by, huh? I wish you would have come further north; it’s kind of dull at my hospital tonight.”

“Find out who this witchy lady is at the reception desk. She’s been giving me the evil eye all night.”

“Can s
he hear your phone conversation?
” Dawn chuckled. “You know how annoying that is.”

“Oh, I know. People don’t know how to have quiet conversations in public. But no, she can’t hear me. I’m too far away from everyone, near the elevators.”

“So what was her name again?”

“I think
it was Linda.”

“I wonder if she’s the same Linda that used to work here a year ago. She used to be on the maternity floor, but too many people complained about her. I know
that
Linda works at a different hospital now. Describe her.”

“Uh, plump, reddish-brown hair—”

“Bright
pink
lipstick?”

I laughed softly. “Yeah.”

“Yep, that’s her. If you’d had chocolate she might have let you guys go right in.”

“Sheesh, what is it with you women and chocolate?”

Dawn laughed. “What is it with you
not
liking chocolate?”

I shrugged to myself. “I don’t know.”

“So what do you think about Gage? I don’t want to pry if you don’t want to talk about it, but I just thought I’d ask…”

“Even though the
evening
hasn’t exactly been ideal, I do really like him, Dawn. He’s just… I don’t know. There’s something about him that I just really like. I don’t know what that is exactly. Maybe it’s because he’s easy to talk to. Oh gosh, and he’s got the cutest dimple on his cheek,” I found myself saying. It kind of surprised me because I sounded so immature.
Wow
, I sounded like my sister.

“Ooh, I know,” she
agreed
, and I could tell she was practically squealing with excitement that I was divulging such information. “What do you think about the rest of him? Physically I mean.”

I thought for just a second. “Well, he’s in great shape. I coul
d tell that just by hugging him—”

“You
already
hugged
him—?”

“
And even though I was trying not to look at his injury, I couldn’t help but notice his hands and arms.
Very nice.
And his smile—”

I looked up when I noticed someone
stop
right in front of me.

“What about his smile?” Dawn asked eagerly.

“Uh…it’s right in front of me,” I
murmured
. “Gotta go
.”

I hung up the phone as Gage dropped into the seat next to me.

“You’re not able to go yet?” I asked him.

“Nope. Doc wants to talk to you first. He’ll be out in a minute.”

“W
hy does he need to talk to
me
?”

“Oh, he realized he had a chance with you when you wouldn’t kiss me.”

I eyed him carefully to see if he was joking, but he didn’t seem to be.

“Well did you tell him I’m not interested?”

“Was I supposed to?”

“Uh, yeah,” I replied, as if to say “duh.”

“Oh. Well here he comes now. Do you want me to tell him you changed your mind about kissing me?”

I chuckled uncomfortably. “Is that the only thing that will resolve this?”

“Y
eah, probably.”

He had a funny look to him and I got a sneaking suspicion. I moved closer to him and put my hand against his neck so I could look into his eyes. “Gage?”

“Yeah?” he replied softly.

“Are you medicated right now?”

He was still for a second and then he lightly laughed, and that’s when Dr.
Farrell
appeared in front of
us. Out of pure insecurity I looped my arm through Gage’s good arm when we stood.

The doctor
cleared his throat slightly. “E
h, it’s Ellie,
correct
?” he asked me specifically.

My heart got nervous for a moment, unsure if Gage had just been pulling my leg or not. For extra measure, I decided to hold Gage’s hand when I nodded.

“
I put about thirty
stitches
in him—ten on the inside,
twenty-some
on top—so he’s going
to be pretty sore for a while. Especially with that tetanus shot in his
other
shoulder.
He is on some pain medication
at the moment
, so don’t let him make any life-altering de
cisions right now
,” he smiled. “Other than that
, here’s a prescription for
the pain, and try not to let him do too much with that arm for a while until it starts to heal.” He handed me the paper fo
r the prescription and added, “The
stitches
can be removed in seven to ten days. The ones inside will dissolve of course, but the ones on top will need to come out. So…do you have any questions?”

I did, but I wasn’t sure if I could remember what they were.
His accent was swirling around in my head and I didn’t like how he was looking at me. Gage had made me paranoid.
“Uh, he can play baseball, right? He starts a summer league thing next week.”

“Yes, we talked about that. His forearm might be sore for a while, but it shouldn’t interfere with his ability to play. Since the laceration was so extensive, he most likely will have some nerve damage along the surface of the skin. That’s completely normal. But in the long run
,
everything else should be okay.”

He asked if we had any more questions, and since I couldn’t think of any, he said departing words and left. I looked at Gage to see if he was ready to go, and he had a
funny
look on his face.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

He seemed puzzled for a moment, and then lifted my hand that was
still
holding his. “That’s all it took?”

“That’s all what took?”

“To deter him from asking you out?”

I scoffed. “Oh
jeez, he was not going to ask me out.”

“Yes, he totally was,” he chuckled. He began leading me to the exit when he added, “I couldn’t really lie to him when he asked if you were my girlfriend. ‘
Maybe’
sounded a little weird
. I
wanted
to lie, but it didn’t seem right, so when I explained that this was supposed to be our first date, he thought that was kind of funny. He
told me
he was going to ask you out in case you and I didn’t mesh.”

“No, he did not,” I laughed. “That’s kind of rude, isn’t it? Telling a guy he’s going to ask out his date just i
n case she wants another option?
”

Gage chuckled. “Rude?
Maybe it’s just a guy thing
. He didn’t think you were that into me, so he was betting he had a chance. But he was doing the handiwork on my arm, so I wasn’t going to argue with him.”

“You are so full of it,” I told him. “You’re just fishing for compliments. You just want me to disagree and admit that
I really am into you. Nice play
Gage, but it’s unoriginal.”

“Unoriginal? You think I’m making that up?”

“Yes, I do. I can’t imagine someone being that bold and saying something like that.
Especially when he’s probably ten years older than me.
”

“You r
eally
can’t believe that
? Guys really are that arrogant, Ellie, especially good-looking ER doctors
from England
that think the world of themselves.”

I stopped us where we were on the sidewalk and faced him. I was still holding his hand,
and I was rather enjoying it. But w
ith a smile I asked, “So if I went back in there and asked him if that’s what he said…you wouldn’t have a problem with that?”

He shrugged. “No,
if that’s what you want to do. But h
e might think you’re coming back for him and get the wrong idea.”

I kind of laughed, thinking that was just his way of keeping me from calling him on his bluff.

“I dare you,” he added
. “Go in there, tell him what I told you, and ask him if it’s true.”

Again he was trying to pull a little
reverse psychology number on me, thinking I wouldn’t do it. But I said,
“Fine, I will. Do you want to come with
me?”

“I sure do. I wouldn’t miss it.”