Concealed Attractions (Cedar Island Tales) (52 page)

Ben
leaned against a nearby tree,
pant
ing
, trying to catch his breath
, holding one hand against
his
aching
ribs
.

“Ben
.
”
Danni’s
voice was low when she
pulled him away. “Leave him
alone
. He
isn’t worth it
.” She
looked
at his face
. “You’re hurt. Let’s go
inside
.”

The
fury
he
’d
felt
at Steve’s words about Jimmy
gradually
subsided and
Ben
looked
down
at his hands
.
His knuckles
, now
bruised and swollen
, were burning
.
One finger
appear
ed to be
broke
n
.
He
spit out some blood
and wondered why his tongue felt too big for his mouth
.
“I think
I’ve got a loose tooth or two
.”

She reached
up to brush his hair off his forehead
and he winced
.
Her fingers came away bloodied.

Then she looked at his hands.
“Oh,
Ben
.”

His heart sank
, remembering what Joel had said last fall
about protecting his hands
.

“
We need to
get you some
ice
,
”
she
offere
d.
“Maybe we can fix things.
Your hands look bad.
”

When they
re-
entered
the cottage,
Danni
called the police and repo
rted that
they had surprised
a burglar.
The police arrived within five minutes.

Happy was in the second
squad
car
. The big dog
and his handler
immediately headed
into
the woods
. His
loud
growls told them he had found Steve
, who must have roused enough to crawl away
.
Danni
watched
from the window
as t
he police eased
Steve in
to
the
back of a
squad car
.

“I’ll
bring in a list of
what he
broke
,” she replied
to
Monty Wells, Happy’s handler
.
“I don’t know if he took anything
.”

Over the next three hours, Ben soaked his hands in ice water, and rinsed out his mouth
, spitting blood the first few times
.

“Your gums are bruised?” the dentist asked
when
Danni
insisted he call
.

“Uh-
huh,”
he
replied.

“Well,
stick to
cold fluids for the next twenty-four hours an
d no chewing on anything at all,
except maybe clear soup
.
Make it cold soup.
If your teeth still
feel
loose tomorrow, call
the office and I’ll
tak
e a look.
”

Danni
called Angela and
ask
ed her if she w
ould see Ben. “F
or a small injury to his finger
.”

When they
arrived at
her office,
Angela
pursed her lips at the damage.
Danni
begged her not to say anything to
Joe
l
.

“Don’t you think he’s going to suspect something
when
Ben
goes to work
tomorrow
?
He
’s going to have at least one black eye, and his cheek and nose are
already
swollen
.
That
broke
n finger
is going to be pretty obvious. Ben, h
ow, exactly,
are you
going to be able to do surgery when
your
left hand has a
broken
middle finger and
your
right h
and has a slice across the palm?
”
She pressed on either side of the open wound and
Ben
winced.

“
You probably have a
muscle bruise
, too,” Angela concluded.

“I
must have
slid
across a rock when I fell
off the porch
,
”
he mumbled
, finding it hard to
speak
.

“
Well,
I
can butterfly
these tissues
, but
your palm’
s going to be sore as hell
for the better part of a week.
I doubt
you
’ll be able to do much of anything
for at least a couple of days. E
ven giving shots and whatever else
you
vets do all the time
is going to be hard
.”

She
stopped her bandaging and looked at him
. “
How did this happen?”

“
There was a burglar.
In
the house
.
”
H
is words
slurred
.

“But we called the police and he’s gone now,” Danni added,
pat
ting Ben’s back and smiling back at him.

Angela
dropped
the
roll of
surgical tape
onto the table
.
“Have you been drinking
, Ben
?”

Ben
shook
his head and pointed to his mouth.

“Open up.” S
he examined the interior of his mouth.
“Aha. You got yourself good.
Y
ou
must have
bit down on your tongue
and cheek
when the
other guy hit you in the face. They’re both swollen.
You’re lucky you didn’t break the skin. The only thing I can do about that is to suggest ice cold drinks.”

“The dentist already told him that,”
Danni
offered.

“Well, I suggest you offer to file
paper
s
tomorrow
.
Joe
l
hates filing. Maybe
then
he’ll cut you some slack.”

He
nodded, not sure that was going to help. 
He thought of h
is request to stay on through the summer
. That
plan
was likely down the drain
now
if he couldn’t do the work
.
And
Julie
had asked him to let her kn
ow
how he was progressing
.
He hated to think what she was going to say
about his wrecked hands
.
First Joel and then
Julie
. He wasn’t sure who was going to be more upset.

Late that afternoon,
he
called
Joe
l
and lisped out that he wanted to talk with him before the office opened on Monday.

“
What gives
, Ben? You sound
kind of
funny
.”

“I’ll explain when I see you. Can I come over tonight?”

“
Meet me at
the boat.
I’m
gett
ing it
ready
for my first fishing trip of the
year
.
Be
here no later than
eight
.
At
nine,
I’m heading
home.
”

“
Okay
.” He turned to
Danni
, who was holding an ice pack
against his forehead
.

“
Joel
said I c
an
see him tonight—on the boat.  I m
ight as well get this over with
.
Let me see how
I
look
.”
One glance
in the mirror
t
old him all he needed to know.
Inches out from w
here Angela had stitched the cut above his eye, the skin was red and swollen, making the bandage
look
like it was hiding worse damage. He could
barely see out of that
eye, and his splinted finger
,
taped to the fingers on either side
,
hurt like the devil.

“I need
more
pain med
s
.”

Danni
gave
him a glass of cold water and handed him two
of the
pill
s
Angela had
provided
.

“
She
said you shouldn’t drive if you take th
ese
.”

“Then I guess you’ll have to
drop
me
off
.
Have you got some blank paper?”

“Next to my
laptop
. Why do you need it
?”

“I need to write something.”

“B
ut you can’t type
or write
. Not with those hands
.
Why don’t you dictate?
”
She sat
down at
the
desk
. “Go ahead.”

When he got to the
most
important se
ntence,
Danni
lifted
her
fingers from
the keys.
“No,
Ben,
you can’t
say that
. You’ll ruin
your chance
s
of
working here. It was my fault Steve
showed up
.
”
She
reached out to hold his hands.

To protect his splinted finger,
Ben
pulled
away from her.
“I have to
.  I won’t give it to h
im if he doesn’t ask
, but if he does, I
need
to
have it ready.
I’m here to perfect my skills and I can’t do that with my hands all messed up. He told me to protect them.
Maybe if I offer, he won’t kick my butt over the mountains until I’m supposed to go.”

She continued typing the letter
, and handed it to him.  With difficulty, he signed it and she folded and placed it in an envelope.

“I’ve got an hour.
I need to make a phone call. Would you mind if I asked you for some privacy for this call?”

“I’ll change my clothes and take a walk.” After climbing into jeans and an old sweatshirt, she headed for the beach
. Ben watched her go
, the
wind blowing her hair
off her shoulders
.
She still looked like a damaged soul, but at least she was functioning.

He
took
several
dee
p breaths and picked up the phone,
trying to
imagine what
Julie
would say if he couldn’t help with the twins’ college expenses
.