Page 6 of Guarding Colton’s Witness

There wasn’t a comb or toothpaste on the counter, so she put a little soap on her finger and rubbed her teeth. Yuck, that was nasty. She had a brush in her purse, but she wasn’t going to go and get it while Ryan was there, so she finger-combed her hair, taming it as best she could.

“That’s about as good as it’s going to get,” she told her mirror self.

Ryan was putting a new bandage on Sam’s leg when she returned to the room, and he glanced at her. “Everything looks great, and I’ll discharge him. I’m going to write a prescription for an antibiotic, and you can give him ibuprofen for pain if he needs it, but follow the instructions for children.”

“Okay.” Although she’d planned to find Sam a foster family, with his gunshot wound and the attention he needed, she didn’t trust someone else to take proper care of him. Sam would stay with her for a few days. She refused to question her motive for that decision.

“Hey, Sam,” Ryan said. “You know you now have quite a story to tell the boys at school.”

“I don’t go to school.” Sam glanced at his leg. “I wish I did so I could have some friends. I’d tell them how I got shot.”

Matti exchanged a look with Ryan, and she knew he was thinking the same thing as she. He doesn’t go to school? “Well, that’s going to change, Sam. As soon as Dr. Palmer says it’s okay, you’ll start going to school.”

“I am?” He didn’t look too happy about that.

“Yes. You ready to get out of here?”

“Am I going back to the motel with Mommy and Daddy?”

“Nope, you’re coming home with me.” She ignored the surprised glance Ryan gave her. He would have been expecting her to take Sam to a foster family.

“Really?” Sam said with hope in his voice.

“Yes, for real.” As soon as she was sure his wound wasn’t going to get infected, then she’d get busy finding him a foster home.

Chapter 4

Ryan was able to leave the hospital on time for once, and as soon as he got home, he called Matti. He told himself that he was just checking up on Sam.

“Hello, Doc,” she said on answering.

“How’d you know it was me?”

“There’s this cute little thing you can do with your phone. You can put a name to a number, and it shows up on caller ID. You can even give a number a particular ringtone. Yours is the ER theme song.”

He smiled, ridiculously pleased that she had given him his own ringtone. “Hmm, what should yours be?”

“You have to decide. It’s the rule.”

“That so? Okay, give me a sec.” He snapped his fingers. “I got it. ‘Witchy Woman.’ Perfect, don’tcha think?”

She laughed. “If you say so.”

As soon as he disconnected, he was going to program his phone’s ringtone to play her song. “How’s Sam doing?”

“Pretty good. He does keep asking when he’s going to see you again. Seems you made a friend.”

“That boy needs some friends. He seriously hasn’t been to school?”

“So he says. I’m going to check on that. He seems a little lost. I thought maybe you’d like to come to dinner. Spend some time with him. I think he’d love that.”

“Sure. What time?” He’d tried to think of excuses to see her again, so yes, he was on board with her invitation. And he really did like the little boy who needed a friend.

“Dinner will be ready in an hour. Come on over whenever. I’ll text you my address.”

“Great. And, Matilda, does this mean I can call you Matti now? I mean, one doesn’t invite one to dinner who isn’t a friend, right?” She was already Matti when he thought of her.

“You’re almost there, but not quite yet. See you when you get here.”