AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Well, her attitude wasn’t broken, that was for sure.
“Goldie, please, just let me look.” My chest was tight, and all I could manage were short breaths.
The pain must have been pretty bad, because she didn’t argue a second time. Instead, she pushed her wrist toward me like she was waving a white flag.
Her palms were scraped, but the blood was minimal. Gently, I turned her hand over. It didn’t look broken, but she winced when I lifted it a fraction.
The back door flung open, and all my siblings rushed out.
“Oh my gosh, Marigold!”
“Is it broken?”
“Did Liam push you?”
At all the attention, she folded in on herself, clutching her wrist to her chest again. With a growl, I glared over my shoulder. They were only causing more concern, and my shaking hands weren’t easing.
Ignoring that last comment, I mumbled, “We need to get you to the hospital.”
“The hospital? No. Absolutely not.” She shook her head and used her good hand to heave herself up. When she was upright, she leaned back against the tree. “See? I’m fine. It doesn’t even hurt that bad.”
Pressing her lips together, she held her injured arm up like she was going to wave, but there was no hiding the lightning bolt of pain that arced through her.
“Nice try.” I dug my keys out of my pocket and hit the unlock button so I could carry her out there if I had to.
“I could take her,” Calla offered.
Marigold smiled and opened her mouth, probably to accept.
“Absolutely not,” I interjected before she had the chance. “I need her to get there safely. You are not driving.”
Calla scoffed. “Rude.”
Behind her, Nathan shrugged at me, as if to say fair.
Marigold, still propped up against the tree, sniffled. When I turned, she had donned a brave face, but her eyes were rimmed red and welling with tears. She was holding her chin high and trying her best to not look scared or hurt in front of the boys. I knew that look, because I’d worn the same one many times.
I rubbed at the ache in my chest, concerned that maybe I should get checked out at the ER as well, as she wiped away a single tear. She hated crying in front of people.
I shuffled a foot over so I was standing between her and our sons, blocking their view, and leaned in close. “Let’s just get it looked at. No sense in pretending with me. I can read you like a book. Please just…do it for my sake. So I can sleep tonight, yeah?”
Yeah, I’d played on her nurturing spirit. So what? It was the best I could do under the circumstances.
She looked up at me like a sad little puppy dog. That expression chipped away at my heart. And when the fire left her eyes and was replaced by pain and humiliation, it cracked in earnest. As if that tether between us had the ability to transfer her feelings to me, I suddenly felt like I’d been wrung out like a towel. Hit with a dose of instant emotional fatigue. I would’ve done anything in that moment to see her light up again. The tiny nod she gave me and the accompanied sniffle were all the permission I needed to scoop her into my arms and pull her to my chest.
A memory surfaced. The moment I’d carried her, bridal style, over our threshold. Her laughter had poured out like sunshine when her feet bumped the doorframe. Heels in her hand and a million bobby pins in her hair, she was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen.
That moment was in complete juxtaposition to this moment. Though I was carrying her the same way, this time she was all frowns, wincing and doing all she could to put distance between us, despite being in my arms.
She gasped. “I hurt my wrist, not my leg. Put me down. I can walk.”
“Nope. That was a scary fall. No way will I put you down where you might trip on the way to the car and get hurt even worse.” And this way I could hold her and remind myself that she was okay.
Miles whimpered. “Is Mom dying?”
Dallas elbowed him. “No, stupid.”
Miles pulled in a shaky breath. “She fell really far, Dad.”
