Chapter 18

BEA

Two weeks later, I made my way back to the Emergency Room to see Dr. Marcus Bellamy. He had been the one to stitch me up. When I called to see if he was on duty to remove my stitches, I was promptly informed that the doctor would be too busy to handle something as mundane as suture removal. It wasn’t like he needed to be the one to do it, I just had a weird thing about follow-up care needing to be done by the same person who did the initial care.

Once I got to the hospital, I was ushered back to the triage room right away. My temperature, weight, and all the answers to the usual intrusive questions were taken before Dr. Bellamy popped his head in after a quick knock.

“Hey, I heard you were back for suture removal. Nurse Harding is going to handle that for you today, but I just wanted to take a quick look at how well everything healed up, if you don’t mind.”

“That’s fine with me.” I held my arm out for him to observe. I’d purposely worn a tank top because it was hotter than standing right next to Satan’s fire pit. It also helped so that whoever removed my stitches would have easy access to the area without worrying over keeping my sleeves out of their business.

“Looks like everything healed up nicely. Give it a couple more weeks post removal, and you can try using a good scar cream. I’ll leave a recommendation in your chart, so you can take that with you when you go. It most likely won’t completely eliminate the scar, but it will help to diminish it quicker.”

“Thank you, I appreciate that.”

It didn’t take long to have the stitches removed, and while Nurse Harding was kind and seemed to be capable, it felt incredibly weird to have each strand of the sutures removed from my skin. Then there were the tiny little holes that appeared where the threads were removed. My nurse noticed my scrunched-up face as I glared down at my arm.

“It will all heal up nicely. Those little marks won’t even be visible in a couple weeks. The jagged line for the cut will be the worst of it. Dr. Bellamy already put his recommendation for a good cream to help with that, but I will caution you to wait at least two weeks from now. Make sure everything is completely healed before you try to put any of that on your scarring.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not in the habit of ignoring doctor’s orders. Nurse’s orders either,” I tacked on, which made her smile. “I didn’t mean to make it sound as though your thoughts were any less important.”

She waved me off. “No worries. The doctor’s orders should always supersede the nurse’s” She leaned in and whispered the rest, “unless they’re wrong.” We both chuckled softly so as not to disturb anyone who might be in pain, resting, or grieving elsewhere in the ER.

“Thank you so much for getting all this done for me.”

“It’s what we’re here for.” She looked as though she debated on something before she spoke again. “I read in your file what happened and saw the footage on the news after the incident. For what it’s worth, I’m so glad that you trusted your instincts and rushed out of the way of the car and ducked when you did to avoid the knife. That must have been so scary.”

“I didn’t have a chance to be scared,” I admitted. “Not in the traditional sense, anyway. I was in fight or flight mode the whole time and it didn’t really register what I’d been through until a couple days later.”

“If you don’t mind me saying, I have a friend who is a therapist for trauma victims. If you have any problems processing on your own, or just need to open up to someone, you should contact him. You can check his credentials, he’s on staff here at the hospital as well.”

I took the card she offered and read his name aloud. “Dr. Jerry Grace.” I grinned up at Nurse Harding. “That’s an awesome name for a therapist who has to give people a little grace every day.”

“Isn’t it just?” She asked with a grin on her face. “I won’t push, but you should think about going to see him for a few sessions just to give yourself a bit of grace in working around your feelings, especially since you will have to deal with the trial soon.”

I nodded my head and tucked the card away in my purse. “Thank you again. I will give it some thought and maybe schedule an appointment. It’s hard to talk about what happened with my fiancé because he wants nothing more than to be able to get justice for what happened to me, and he feels like his hands are tied. I think in Ky’s eyes, it feels like he failed me for that reason.”

“Dr. Grace would probably make an exception to see him as well.”

“I’ll let Ky know. Thanks again.”

“My pleasure.”

I stood and went to check out. I got the order for a good scar cream and headed out to start the rest of my day. Thankfully, the ER is open at all hours, so I was able to swing by before my first shift at the daycare. Suzanne offered to give me more time before I started, considering my injuries, but I refused. It wouldn’t be worth going to work there if I had to wait even longer to get started. Then she would be down an employee, and I would be bored at home while I waited for my pride to heal - which seemed to be my most serious injury. Everyone and their mother knew about how Law had ditched me on our wedding day for another woman. How he had hired Sandra to keep Ky’s attention off me while he tried to figure out whether he wanted me or the other woman. Unfortunately for Jackie, it also came out that she was the woman he left me for.

While she was quick to offer up the fact that she turned Law down, people still harassed her for being a homewrecker. I didn’t see it that way and gave her a call to let her know that. She admitted that she had feelings for Law until he did what he did. Then, it was as if any growing feelings went right into the garbage because she couldn’t get over the fact that he would treat me that way. I understood that well enough. If he would do it to me, what made her any different, if his eyes wandered to the next best thing when it was her turn.

Suzanne leaned in as soon as I got to work so she could inspect my arm. “Well, it doesn’t look half bad. Don’t let the kids bother you about it. If you need to keep it covered while you’re here, it won’t bother me one bit.”

“It should be fine.”

“How is that man of yours handling everything, now that it was all made public?”

“Ky is always my champion. He doesn’t take shit from anyone speaking ill of me, which might end up landing him in some hot water one day.” We both giggled at that. “He’s just angry that there isn’t a way to get more justice.”

“I heard that Lawson fella took a plea deal that kept him out of prison with time served at the local jail.”

I rolled my eyes at that. “Yeah, if you want to count the whole 26 hours he spent in jail as ‘time served’ then I guess so. He did at least have to pay the maximum fine, but his parents ponied up that $10,000 fine, so it’s like he got off Scott-free.”

“Rotten. He’s going to be even worse of a scoundrel to the next woman who comes along, I bet.”

“Maybe.” That wasn’t something I wanted to let into my thoughts. It wasn’t my place to discourage other women from entering a relationship with my ex. They would have to learn on their own, just as I did. They at least had a leg up, since the case was made so public where we lived.

“What about the girl who attacked you?”

“Sandra’s day in court is coming, though her lawyers are pushing for diminished mental capacity.”

“That girl is crazier than a loon, but not in the way that she didn’t understand what she did was wrong,” Suzanne offered her opinion. I smiled and nodded my head.

“Unfortunately, I don’t get to have a say in that, but from what the district attorney shared with us, I don’t think they’ll go easy on her based on mental competency because she passed the test to be able to stand trial already. That goes a long way toward throwing out that kind of defense.”

“You know I’m hoping for a lengthy sentence, so she doesn’t ever get the chance to bother you again.”

“You and me both,” I whispered as a parent came in to drop off their child. She did a double take before I slid away and went to stow my stuff in the break room.

Just as I went to turn my cell phone off, and leave it locked up with my things, an incoming text dinged.

Ky: I hope you have an amazing first day, Sweet Bea. We can celebrate getting free of the itchy stitches and the first day at your new job later when you get home. I’ll have dinner ready, so you don’t have to worry about it.

Bea: Thanks, honey. I’m turning my phone off until break time. Can’t wait to see you later. I miss you already.

Yep, I rolled my eyes at myself. I had become a sappy, lovesick stranger. It was hard to compare my prior relationship with Law to the one I had with Ky because they were like night and day. I couldn’t say there were never any good times with Law, but everything was so different when I had my best friend at my side. I felt loved and appreciated without having to wonder if those things were true. I made sure to give it right back to my man too, even if it did make me sound like a crazy, love-sick fool.

I turned my phone off, put it in my locker, and then made my way to the toddler room where my second favorite age kids were starting to show up for the day. “Hi there, everyone. I’m Ms. Bea.”

“Bumble!” One little girl shouted while another, younger child, made a buzzing sound.

“Yes, just like a bumble bee, except I don’t sting.” I reached out and tickled the girl’s ribs before moving to the other child. My heart lit up as they both burst into a fit of giggles. The summer job was just what I needed. Working with kids was more therapy than I could have hoped for.

By the end of the day, my face hurt from smiling so darn much. I loved working with the little ones. They were the best. “Look at that beautiful smile,” Ky said in greeting when I walked through the door. “I take it everything went well for your first day?”

“God, I love that age. If it paid more, and offered the same benefits, I would work at a daycare full time with the toddlers.”

“Nah. You’d miss your little pre-teens too much.”

I poked my lip out in a mock pout and then laughed. “You’re probably right. They keep me just as entertained only in a slightly different way.”

“Come here,” he called, and I slipped my shoes off, dropped my purse on the table near the door, and made my way into the kitchen.

“It smells so good in here. Did you cook or order out?”

“Um, a mix. Your mom brought some stuff over, since she knew it was the first day we were both back to work. I had to reheat it in the oven, because she said the microwave simply would not do.”

I laughed at the way he mocked my mother because it sounded just like the tone she would use. Mom hated microwaves. She was convinced that they were the bane of existence and the root of all the world’s problems somehow. “Well, whatever she made, I can’t wait to dig in. I’m famished.”

“How did the suture removal go?” I moved closer to Ky and held my arm out. “Wow, I didn’t know the doctors added extra bling when they pulled stitches out.”

I laughed as we both glanced down at my arm. “The kids managed to put a bunch of stickers on my arm to make my boo-boo feel better. I kept them from putting the stickers on the scar, but they insisted the magic ‘feel betters’ were in the stickers and that I needed them.” I giggled as Ky grinned down at the mess the kids made of my arm earlier. “I’m paraphrasing, of course.”

“I bet you are.” He leaned in and kissed my forehead. “Come on, let’s eat and then we can go snuggle up in bed.”

“Hopefully, we can do more than just snuggle. My stitches are out now, so you don’t have an excuse anymore.” I cocked a brow up at him in challenge and my man simply grinned at me and then rubbed my belly.

“Sure, sweetheart. Didn’t want to make the stitches pull and cause you extra healing time.”

I rolled my eyes. “I would have been fine. Why did you rub my belly like that?”

“Hoping it’s lucky and we have our own little future toddler terror growing in there.”

“I told you it was next to impossible timing.”

“Our whole relationship has been next to impossible timing and here we are, Sweet Bea. You, me, and maybe our future spawn.”

My smile never wavered as we chatted through dinner and long into the night as Ky made slow, sweet love to me. He needed to be gentle the first time since my accident and I guess there was a part of me that needed that too because it felt as though we grew closer than we ever had been. As I laid there, content and snuggled up to Ky with his heartbeat in my ear, he stroked his fingers through my curls as gently as he could, so he wouldn’t catch and pull my hair.

“I’m glad the asshole took a plea.” That was not something I expected Ky to say. I glanced up at him and asked, “Why?” He shrugged and continued to play with my hair. “It’s bad enough we have to wait for a trial for Sandra. It would have been worse, especially with media coverage, if we had to wait for a separate trial for Law as well.”

“Yeah, but he got off without any real consequences.”

“Sweetheart, he suffered the worst consequence of all.”

“Yeah? How do you figure?”

“He lost you.”