“Where’s your purse?”
“Living room.”
He found it and carried her out to the Lexus, ran back inside to grab his cell phone and lock the house. Now the adrenaline crash hit him and he had to focus to keep his hands from shaking as he got into the car and started it.
Leah looked pale. “Talk to me, love,” he said.
“It hurts.”
“I know it does, love.”
“I have to call Master and tell Him. I have to tell Him immediately when something happens.”
“Hey, kiddo, I was right there. Remember, I’m in charge. It’s okay. I’ll call him once we get you taken care of.”
She nodded and rested her head against the seat.
He gently slapped her thigh. “Don’t close your eyes.” They were ten minutes from the closest hospital. He didn’t know if she’d go into shock over something like this, but he wasn’t taking any chances. “Stay awake. Don’t go to sleep.”
She nodded again, but he didn’t like her pale skin tone.
At the hospital he parked, then carried Leah into the ER. The triage nurse took one look at her arm and immediately directed them back to a bed. Within five minutes Leah was being examined and sutured. At least she’d kept enough of her wits about her to drop the formal act.
Seth handled registration and insurance for her while she was being treated. Kaden had set up medical power of attorney paperwork already, but Seth never imagined he’d need it for Leah. When asked his relation to the patient, Seth took a nervous breath.
“Family caretaker,” he answered, handing over folded copies of the paperwork from his wallet. It was a term Kaden had come up with, thinking it would cause them the least amount of grief and raise the fewest eyebrows over the next several months.
Apparently, it was more than good enough for the administrator. She made copies and returned them to him without further questions. By the time he returned to Leah’s side the doctor was almost finished suturing her. She’d gouged a deep, four-inch-long gash along the meaty part of her inner arm. With a shot of pain meds to calm her, Seth asked her for more details.
“It happened so fast. I was stepping down, and I lost my balance. I was holding the pitcher in my right hand, by the handle. When it broke I still had the chunk of handle in my hand, and I think that’s what got me. Glass was bouncing all over the place.”
That made sense. “I’ll call Kaden in a few minutes. You relax. That’s an order.”
She closed her eyes and nodded.
They wanted to keep an eye on her for a little while. While her blood pressure had stabilized, it had been on the low side when he brought her in. He agreed with that and stepped outside to make the call he didn’t want to make. By this time it was after six. He knew Kaden would be out of his meetings.
“Hey, what’s up?”
Seth closed his eyes. “Do not freak out on me.”
“What?”
“I’m serious, dude. Do not freak out on me.”
“You’re freaking me out now, goddamn it! Is Leah okay?”
“She’s fine. There was an accident. It was just an accident.”
“Oh my God! What happened?”
Seth related the incident. Kaden sounded shaky. “I’ll try to get a flight home tonight.”
“No, she’s okay. Seriously. She’s fine. Once they release her I’ll get her home and put her to bed. They’ve given her pain meds. I’ve got a fucking mess to clean up in the kitchen.”
Kaden hesitated. “Are you sure it was an accident?”
“Yeah. I know it sounds coincidental, but if you’d seen the way she was freaking out—”
Kaden breathed a deep sigh of relief Seth heard on his end. “Okay. If she was upset then it probably was an accident. If it’s not an accident, if she does something on purpose, she tries to hide it and blow it off. At least, she used to.”
“No, dude, I’ll swear it was an accident. I’d asked her to mix a pitcher of sangria.”
“Aw, it was the red pitcher she broke?”
He expected a lot of comments but not that. “Yeah. How’d you know?”
“She always uses that one to make your sangria. She likes the way the orange slices look inside it. It’s one of her favorites. Damn, I’ll have to see if I can find her another one.”
Seth sat on the curb, his own stress catching up with him. “She panicked when I told her I had to take her collar off.”
“Poor thing. As soon as you can, I want to talk to her. Tell her I’m not mad at her.”
“Let me get back in there and check on her.”
She was dozing but opened her eyes when he took her hand. “Did you talk to Master?” she whispered.
He nodded. “He’s not upset. He told me to tell you he’s not mad.” She closed her eyes again, and a tear rolled down her cheek, scaring Seth. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“I’m so sorry.”
“It was an accident, Leah. Accidents happen.”
“But now He’s worried. He shouldn’t be stressed in His condition.”
Danger!
“Love”—Seth made sure to use a low, firm voice—“calm down. He’s not stressed. He was worried until I told him the whole story. He knows it was an accident.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I mean, he’s not happy you got hurt, but he’s not stressed like that. He’s okay. Shit happens.”
She nodded.
She was released a half hour later. Once they were in the car, Seth dialed Kaden and handed Leah his phone.
He watched as she closed her eyes and talked with Kade. Her left arm was bandaged, and she needed to get it checked in a couple of days. He had two prescriptions to fill for her, an antibiotic and pain meds. He pulled into a pharmacy and left Leah in the car, still talking to Kaden on the phone while he was inside waiting for the medicine.
Back home. He’d finally stopped feeling weird calling it home. It was home. It felt like home. Maybe he wasn’t at the point where he could think about it as his in terms of owning it, but he certainly felt comfortable there, like he was part of the family.
He carried her inside and laid her on the couch. “I’ll make you some dinner after I get the kitchen cleaned up,” he said.
She started to protest. He cut her off. “No. You get taken care of tonight.”
“But that’s my job!”
He whipped out his cell phone and called Kaden, then put him on the phone with her while he went to clean up the glass and heat her some leftovers. By the time he returned with her food, Kaden had apparently mollified her.
She handed Seth the phone. “Master wants to talk with You, Sir.”
“Thanks, love.” He took it to his bedroom and shut the door. “Don’t fucking tell me to give her a session tonight. I won’t do it. I don’t care what you say.”
He laughed. “No, I wasn’t going to tell you that. Pain meds zonk her out. She hates taking them. She’ll be sound asleep in an hour, I bet. Probably sleep until noon tomorrow.”
Relief! “Thank God.”
“You did good.”
“Promise me this gets easier.”
“Just follow your heart. We’ll talk more tomorrow after I get home.”
Seth returned to the kitchen, nuked himself a plate of food, and sat next to Leah on the couch. She’d picked at her food but hadn’t made much headway.
“You’d better eat.”
“I’m so sleepy.”
“I know, babe. It’s the meds they gave you.”
He finished his dinner and made her lay down with her head in his lap while they watched TV. Before long, she’d developed an unfocused stare he knew was due to the pain meds taking hold in her system.