Page 59 of Guarding Colton’s Witness

Matti sighed. What happened to the little boy who was afraid to rock the boat lest he got sent away? She was glad he was gaining confidence and learning to speak up for himself. Really, she was, but now was not the time.

“Doc has an appointment he has to go to, and he has to talk to his boss, so he can’t stay here. He wants us to go with him.” She handed him his shoes. “Put these on. We don’t want to make him late.”

“What if the mean man sees us?” His bottom lip trembled.

She kneeled in front of him. “Listen to me, Sam. It’s going to be okay. Doc and I will be with you, and a policeman is going to follow us.” After their fear yesterday that someone might be following them, Wyatt had decided a patrol car should follow behind them when they needed to go somewhere. “Maybe we can get Doc to take us for ice cream after his appointment.”

“I like ice cream.”

“Me, too. Put on your shoes so we can go.”

She left him to finish getting dressed and went to run a brush through her hair. Not that it would do much good. In five minutes, it would be as messy as ever. She hadn’t told Ryan how worried she was about his eye and how afraid she was that he’d have permanent damage. Hopefully, it wasn’t as bad as it looked. If it was, she’d feel even guiltier than she already did for bringing him into this mess she found herself in. He didn’t blame her, she knew that, but that didn’t make her feel any better.

* * *

“What did he say?” she asked when they were back in the car after Ryan’s eye appointment. Please let it be good news.

“No permanent damage. I told him I held a black belt in jujitsu and got this in a match but that I won.” He grinned. “He was duly impressed.”

Amused, she just chuckled as she shook her head. That was her outside face, though, the one she let him see. Inside, her relief that his eye wasn’t permanently damaged was so overwhelming that tears threatened to embarrassingly streak down her cheeks. She was driving because of his wrist and eye, and she blinked her eyes clear, then turned the key to start the car.

Sam tapped the back of Ryan’s seat with his foot. “Can we get ice cream now?”

“We have to make one more stop, then ice cream,” Ryan said.

“Will it take long?”

“No, buddy. I just have to stop by the hospital and talk to my boss for a few minutes.”

“I don’t like the hospital.”

Matti leaned around the seat so she could see him. “That’s where Doc works, remember?”

“Doc made me feel better.”

“That’s right.” As they drove to the hospital, she noticed that Ryan kept checking the side mirror. “Do you see anything?” she quietly asked.

“Other than the patrol car following us, no, but I don’t really know what to watch for. I should have signed up for spy school instead of medical school.” He grinned and winked at her with his good eye.

He could have lost his eye, and it was beyond her how he could still find amusement in that.

* * *

“What did Dr. Schwartz say?” she asked after they returned home and Sam was involved in a Disney movie on TV and not paying attention to them.

“She told me to get out of her emergency room and not come back until I could see out of both eyes.”

“Are you in trouble?”

“No, not at all. Being out for a week will have the other doctors working some extra hours, but that’s no different from when one of us takes a vacation. We deal.”

“I was worried—”

“Hey.” He stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. “No more worrying. Everything’s fine, and I’m glad I can spend another week with you. If I had to go back to work tomorrow, I’d spend my day worrying about you and Sam.”

“I have an idea. As of this minute, let’s both just stop worrying.” Not that it would be easy, but she’d try.

“Great idea. Let’s have some dinner, then maybe crash in front of the TV with Sam. We can let the Disney Channel entertain him while we catnap.”