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About what? The simple fact that his mother had avoided answering that question made him nervous. He’d learned over the years that it was usually the things she kept her own counsel on that were the most significant in the end.
“Does she know?” she asked.
“I…no.”
“Are you going to tell her?”
He blinked. “Aren’t you?”
Mrs. Roth shook her head. “This is between you two. Now I have to get back to the hospital.” She turned to go, then looked back. “When she gets home, you two need to face this…whatever it is between you.”
Cody watched her go, brow furrowed. Whatever it is? It was loathing. Wasn’t that clear? Hadn’t it been for every one of his twenty-eight years? And hers?
Some people just didn’t…mix.
*
“Everything is fine at the ranch. Stop worrying.”
Britt fidgeted, surreptitiously testing the limits of movement, trying to calculate what she could do before the pain got to be too much. The doctor’s lecture about doing too much too soon and setting back her recovery had been stern and uncompromising, and she had the feeling her mother had perhaps said something about her exceptionally stubborn daughter. And since she’d already ruined his weekend with this Sunday callout, she kept quiet and just nodded obediently.
“The doctor said you’re doing very well.”
Britt didn’t look up at her mother, afraid she would frown. She didn’t consider practically incapacitated doing very well. The only bright spots she could see were that the doctor had said her wrist was only sprained, and the ankle was a clean break of just one bone and wouldn’t require surgery; the boulder had done more soft tissue damage than anything, hence the swelling.
And at least the injuries weren’t both on the same side, so she’d be able to use a crutch to get around. Eventually, she mentally added, remembering again the warning not to rush things.
As if her thought had summoned him, the man appeared in the doorway to her room. She was surprised, since he’d seen her early this morning before signing for her release. In the brusque, cut-to-the-chase manner she actually appreciated, he didn’t waste time with niceties, but handed her something that looked like a brochure he’d printed out off the internet.
“This is what I was talking about,” he said.
She remembered, among the myriad instructions she’d been given, mostly about what not to do, that he had said someone had called him about a new technology he wanted her to consider. She’d thought he meant some therapy or something, but what she was looking at was quite different. It looked like some piece of Hollywood costuming for a science fiction film.
“It’s from a company in Fort Worth, a 3D-printed cast,” he said. “The technology is relatively new, but it has many advantages for stable fractures like yours. It eliminates any additional recasting during the healing process, since it’s adjustable and removable. It can be fastened to be immovable, like a cast, or be removable more like a splint, to allow swelling to subside. Plus it’s lighter, easier to keep clean, healthier for the skin, allows for more activities, like taking a shower. And—” he grinned at her, so startling from the usually dead-serious man “—easier to scratch an itch.”
Britt had a sudden image of her father, who had broken an arm when she’d been about ten, griping about that constantly, and finally grabbing one of her mother’s knitting needles and jamming it down inside the cast to reach the maddening itch.
“I didn’t know there even was such a thing,” she said.
“How does it work?” her mother asked.
“It requires a 3D scan of the affected body part, which takes less than a minute. You wear a temporary splint or cast while that is sent to the company, and they print it out.”
Her mother shook her head in amazement. “That they can print something like that from a computer still amazes me.”
“I haven’t used one on a patient yet because I didn’t have the proper scanning equipment, but I had planned to as soon as possible. Once I established contact with the company who produces them.” He smiled yet again, this time at Britt. “But now, thanks to your friend, I don’t have to do any of that. Everything’s in place and we can fit you as soon as the swelling is down, the end of next week if you’re careful. They’ve even promised a very rapid turnaround. Handy that you know someone who went to school with one of the primary technicians of the company.”
Her brow furrowed. Her friend? “What?”
“He’s the one who called me about it and then made all the arrangements. In fact, he’s actually loaning us the scanning equipment required. Now that’s a good friend, Britt.”
A good friend? Or a good enemy?
Because she knew who it was. Who it had to be. Cody. Who else could it be?
And suddenly she was back to yesterday, in his strong arms, allowing it, even savoring it.
He’d found her. Saved her. Held her. Carried her.
