Chapter 4

I studiedthe stunning young man in front of me. He had an anxious vibe but seemed to be stubborn, too. His compact body reminded me of a swimmer’s physique, with his toned legs encased in skinny jeans. Although, he seemed a little too slim for his frame. There was just something about him that made me want to take care of him. His shoulder-length brown hair was shaggy and fell unevenly around his face. Freckles dotted his nose and cheeks, and while I hadn’t seen him smile, somehow I knew it would light up his face.

He had such delicate facial features, and he looked so young. How old was he? But it was his eyes that hooked me. They were a deep piercing blue that seemed to change color in the light. The irises were an intense dark aqua that didn’t seem real. Were they contacts? His gaze, however, held a wealth of trepidation as he stared back at me. Were the pain and caution I was seeing because of his ankle or was there more beneath the surface? Seeing him fall earlier had taken a few years off my life, and guilt swarmed in my gut that I’d startled him so badly. What a great welcome to town this was for him.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen someone when I was opening before five like this. It was probably when the tractor repair shop next door was still running, and Da opened with Sal, side by side. I hadn’t seen anyone around this early since Seb and I had taken over, and it had been a shock to see this beautiful boy go down as I was getting ready for the day. I hadn’t even had my coffee yet, so it was no wonder I was so flabbergasted. If only Theo hadn’t had to go into the city for training, he would’ve been on the open shift with me. He would’ve known exactly what to do and jumped into action, letting his EMT training take over. Groaning, I thought about the shit he would give me for how I’d fumbled my way through the situation. He would have a laundry list of suggestions about what I could’ve done better, but it was okay. Good old Doc was on his way and would be able to put my mind at ease.

As if thinking about him had conjured him, there was a light rapping on the break room doorjamb. Doc strode in with his medical bag in hand. “I see you have my new patient,” he greeted jovially, sending Bodhi a kind smile as he pushed his silver-framed glasses up his nose. He brought another chair over by Bodhi’s head and introduced himself.

“Hi, there. I’m Doctor Don or just Doc, and I’ve been the town doctor here going on thirty-five years.” He smiled down at Bodhi.

“Hi, I’m Bodhi,” he replied hesitantly, looking between me and Doc.

I took it upon myself to try and make Bodhi feel more at ease as I shuffled my metal chair closer to the couch and rested a hand on his outstretched leg. “Doc here has treated just about everyone in town and even delivered all my brothers and me.”

“I sure did, way back in the day,” he added jokingly and ran his hand over his thick, nearly white hair. “Patched you and your brothers up a time or five, too, if you recall. Let’s just say there was a time during their younger years when it wasn’t a surprise for me to be called to the Papadakis household twice a day. You boys would stress your poor mama out something fierce, with all your daredevil stunts and dangerous antics.” He sent Bodhi a conspiratorial smirk from his aged round face. “But enough about the past. Let’s tend to the patient we have here, shall we?”

Bodhi seemed to have relaxed as we’d talked, so I picked up the makeshift ice pack and stood to take it to the sink. With a look at Doc, I said, “Well, you know what happened from what I mentioned on the phone, but it’s his ankle that’s worrying me. Do you think we’ll need X-rays?”

“Let’s take a look.” Doc stepped over to manipulate Bodhi’s leg and test out his ankle like doctors do when checking for a sprain. While Doc poked and prodded Bodhi’s ankle, he lay there, solemn and stoic, as if this was nothing new for him. He did flinch from time to time, but other than that, I would’ve thought he’d zoned out. When Doc indicated he would like to take Bodhi’s shoe off, I had to tap his shoulder to get his attention.

With a mumbled “Sure.” From Bodhi, Doc did his best to loosen the shoe and take it off as delicately as possible, without moving Bodhi’s foot or ankle too much. Carefully, he peeled back his sock, and once it was off, you could tell something wasn’t right. The top of his foot was swelling and there was a large discoloration under the skin, in line with his middle and fourth toes, like something had tried to crush his foot.

“Well, fuck,” Bodhi breathed out as he glanced down at his injury. Tears welled in his eyes, and he seemed to deflate. He looked just about done with the world at this point.

“It’ll be okay. We’ll get you patched up.” I patted his shoulder and gently grazed his neck with my thumb. He shivered as he turned his head to look at me, lips quirking up in a tiny smile before glancing back at Doc and his foot.

“I’m afraid we’ll need to get that foot X-rayed. It looks like your ankle is badly sprained, but you might have cracked the top of your foot on the way down. You’ll need to go to the hospital.” Doc sighed.

With a small smile, Doc left the room to give us some privacy. I crouched down next to Bodhi. “You sure there’s no one I can call for you?” I asked hesitantly.

He just shook his head quickly, still looking down at his swelling foot. As silent tears started to slide down his face, all I wanted to do was wrap him in my arms and take away his pain. He appeared so beaten down that I knew I needed to help him in any way I could. With that dilemma resolved, I lifted his chin and ducked down to meet his gaze.

“It’s okay, I can take you to the ER.” He started to shake his head and pull away, but I held firm. “It’s no trouble. After all, I was the one who startled you in the first place. Please let me help make sure you’re okay.”

He studied my face like he was trying to figure me out. “I can’t let you do that. It was an accident. I’ll be fine.”

Bodhi broke eye contact and wrapped his arms around his middle, like he was trying to hold himself together. A serious look crossed his face as he sat there stiffly, still radiating anxiety. “Ah.... I.... Um.” Bodhi took a deep breath like he was bracing for something and tried again. “How much does Doc charge? Can he accept cash?” He didn’t wait for me to answer. “Depending on how much it is, I can pay. Or maybe I can pay half in cash, then maybe work off the rest somehow. I could do something. If I use half now, then I should have enough left to survive on and work off the rest and still have a buffer, or maybe I could—” He was talking so fast and quiet the words became strung together and almost inaudible. It started to sound more like internal mutterings he probably didn’t mean to say out loud. He was looking paler, and his breathing had also quickened. I worried he would start hyperventilating.

Gently, I placed my hand on his knee to get his attention. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. Yes, it was an accident, but it happened in front of my business, and I really need to make sure you’re okay. Please let me take care of you.” I made sure to keep my voice calm as I spoke.

He snapped his head up to look at me. What did I say? His eyes captivated me as he stared like he hadn’t seen me before. Weird.

He eventually sighed out “Okay.” while lying his head back down. Standing, I patted his shoulder. “I just need to make a quick call, and then we can go, okay?”

He simply nodded as I left the room.

I walked through to the office and checked over the books for the day, then called Seb because he would need to come in early. I would have to wrangle Lyric into coming in, too. After the talk we’d had yesterday, I hoped he would be okay to jump in and help me out. I groaned as Seb picked up before I was ready.

“Jeez, what’s up with that greeting? You called me, jackass,” Seb said with a chuckle, thankfully sounding a lot more awake than I would’ve thought for this early in the morning on his day off.

“I need a favor,” I said, right off the bat, since there was no point beating around the bush.

“Shoot.”

“Could you come in and work a full day for me today? There was an accident this morning, and I’ve got to go to the hospital.”

“What the fuck, bro!” Seb bellowed. “Fuck man, are you all right? What happened? Do you need me to drive you?”

I snickered at his stressed rambling. I wasn’t the only brother not cut out to respond to an emergency.

“Relax, I’m fine.”

He huffed at me through the phone. “But you said hospital. I’m on my way,” he breathed out. I could hear him grabbing his keys, and then I caught the sound of the door slamming through the phone.

“Hold up a sec and listen! I really am fine. I’m not the one who needs to go to the hospital. It’s someone else who I need to take, since they can’t drive.”

“Oh, okay. Jeez, warn a guy next time. You really could have phrased that differently. I almost had a heart attack.” An indignant sniff reached my ear.

“I’m really sorry, bro. Let’s just say it’s been an eventful morning.” Relief washed through me. My brothers would always be there if I needed them. “So, you’re okay coming in on your day off? I was going to give Lyric a call next and get him to come help you, too.”

“Of course, man. I’m already on my way. I’ll be there in five. Good luck trying to wake sleeping beauty. You know what a bear he is in the morning.” Seb ended the call on a laugh.

Chuckling, I shook my head and called Lyric, knowing full well Seb was probably right and I would have to wake him up. He wouldn’t be happy about it.

The phone rang and rang, until finally a clearly sleepy “Hello?” was rasped out.

“Good morning, Sunshine. Late night?” I asked, knowing full well it probably was. “Wake up! Wake up!” I singsonged to ensure he was still listening to me. “I need you to come in and help Seb with the morning rush.”

All I could hear was groaning until finally a drawn-out “Why?” battered my eardrum. “Wait, why do you need help? You should be opening.”

“Don’t have time to explain now, but I’ll have Seb fill you in. I’m totally fine, I promise. I just need you here by eight on the dot and no later,” I said, talking over my brother’s many questions.

“Okay? But if you need me there at eight, why’d you have to wake me now!?”

“Sorry. I just needed to tell you now, since I won’t have time later and need to make sure our customers are covered before I leave.”

“Okay, okay,” he grumbled. “I’m awake now, so I’ll come over after I pay a visit to my lovely Kaydence for coffee,” Lyric said dreamily. He really did love coffee.

“Thanks, bro. I appreciate it.”

“All right. See you later then,” he said, then ended the call.

Sighing, I turned to head back into the break room, where I came face-to-face with Doc in the doorway. I gestured him inside.

“How’s the patient?” I asked worriedly.

Doc smiled as if to reassure me. “He seems okay. I just wanted to check in with you and go over what happened again because he just has that look, you know? Has he told you anything about himself? Do you know when he arrived or what he’s doing in town?”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. He hasn’t told me anything, other than his name. The Greyhound bus came through yesterday, so that must’ve been him. Do you think something else has happened to him?” I asked, getting anxious. What could’ve happened? Come to think of it, why was he in town? New people rarely came to Hope’s Ridge. Great, now I felt even guiltier since I’d probably ruined his time here.

Doc was looking at me questioningly.

“Sorry, what?”

“I asked if you could go through what you saw when he fell. He seems to be favoring his wrist, and he’s wincing when he tries to shift, move, or even take a deep breath.” Doc looked worried, glancing back in the direction of the break room.

I went over everything I’d seen again in as much detail as I could. When I’d finished, Doc was shaking his head and scratching the gray scruff on his chin.

“I think we might need to talk to him. Do you want to come with me or do you think it might go better if I approach him as a doctor only?”

“You’re a doc, Doc, but I’d like to come. We can ask him if he’s comfortable with me in the room as you check him over again.” We walked together into the break room.

Bodhi hadn’t moved from the couch but was picking at the bandage I’d placed on his palm. He glanced up as we came in, waiting expectantly.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” I asked with a worried grimace.

A soft smile crossed his face. “No, I mean with your call?”

“Oh right, yes. All good. My brothers are on their way in to take over so I can get you to the hospital.”

Doc shuffled farther into the room, and we both turned to look at him. “Bodhi, are you okay if I ask you a few questions and take a look at your arm?” Doc gestured to the bandage he was playing with. “Would you like Atticus, here, to step out or are you okay for him to stay?” Doc had a grandfatherly vibe that often put his patients at ease. We waited for Bodhi to speak.

“It’s fine.” His gaze shifted over to me. “You can stay.”

With that declaration, I took the seat by the end of the couch.

Doc had taken the other chair. He got his stethoscope out of his medical bag and hung it around his neck. He carefully peeled the bandage off Bodhi’s hand while gently pushing up the sleeve of his hoodie. Glancing at his wrist, I could see from here it was swelling, too, and there was a band of murky yellow bruising that seemed to go farther up his arm, disappearing under his sleeve. Trying not to react to what I was seeing, I waited for Doc to ask questions as he examined the graze.

“What happened here, Bodhi?” Doc asked gently, moving Bodhi’s wrist carefully back and forth.

Bodhi’s eyes were downcast. “I fell.” His attention shot to me. “You saw me fall,” he said with defiance in his gaze. He seemed used to evading questions.

“This looks like some old bruising here,” Doc responded, gently tapping the healing marks.

“Yeah, I fell a while ago, then fell on it again today. It’s nothing,” he added, trying to pull away from Doc.

“Okay,” Doc said hesitantly, sending me a knowing look. “I would like to have your wrist X-rayed, too. They’ll probably ask you what happened again, so I’m sorry, but you’ll have to go through this all again when you get to the hospital.” Doc moved on, knowing there was no point pushing too much more. “I can call the head of the ER. We did our residencies together back in the day, so at least they’ll know you’re coming.” With that final comment, he patted Bodhi’s shoulder and left the room just as Seb came crashing in. We both looked up in alarm as Seb filled the doorway with his larger-than-life physique. Bodhi shrank in on himself as Seb came into the room.

I rose to greet him with a hug.

“You really are okay,” he said with relief. “So, who do we have here?” He turned toward Bodhi. “You must be the injured party I’ve heard nothing about.” He winked in Bodhi’s direction and elbowed me to introduce him.

“This is Bodhi—” I waved my hand at Bodhi. “—and this is my brother Sebastian, or Seb, as we call him.”

“The best-looking brother,” Seb added with his patented look at me dashing smile. Bodhi sat frozen as Seb approached and took Doc’s seat by the couch. Seb was the tallest and bulkiest of us. He and I did look similar; although, his nearly black hair was long and wavy. His beard was also longer and thicker than mine. Bodhi’s reaction seemed to be about more than just Seb’s presence. He’d been tensed up since my brother was in the doorway. Was he scared of Seb?

Punching my brother on the shoulder, I growled. “Leave him alone, jackass.” I gestured for Seb to follow me out so I could explain everything and get going as soon as possible. “Just give me a sec,” I said over my shoulder to a stoic and frozen Bodhi as I pushed Seb through to the office and closed the door behind us.

“He’s just your type. An injured stray,” Seb said, waggling his eyebrows.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I flicked my hair out of my eyes and ignored his comment. “Just come on. I need to go through the day’s customers with you real quick. Oh, and sleeping beauty agreed to come in, so keep an eye out for him.”

Seb chuckled, gathering his thick hair up into his customary bun, ready to get to work. I went through the schedule and told him about the accident and how Bodhi was injured. I also made a note to investigate getting that storm drain fixed and the garage door greased. Seb offered to make a few calls.

What a way to start the day.