Road Rage (15 page)

He browsed suggestions like,
Stand up to them, don’t show them fear
and
have a priest bless your house.
He scoffed. The internet made it sound like having a ghost was a bad thing. DG was the exact opposite of a bad thing. Besides Haley, she was the best thing in his life.

And he wanted her to leave. Was he nuts?

“It’s for her own good,” he said, wiping a hand down his face.

“For whose own good, boss?”

He looked up to see Felipe, one of the construction laborers, pulling his paper-bag lunch out of the fridge. He hadn’t heard the squeak of the trailer door.

He cleared his throat. “Uh, nobody. Just talking to myself. Ignore me.” Shit. Now he was missing things and talking to himself? Caffeine. He needed caffeine. And to put DG out of his mind until he clocked out.

“Whatever you say, boss.” Felipe shrugged and headed down the hall.

Derek rolled his chair back and stretched, willing energy into his muscles.

The trailer was a long, narrow, wood-paneled, air-conditioned haven from the California-summer heat and humidity. At one end, he had a plans desk and a work station with an outdated computer and fax machine. At the other end was a bathroom and locker room accessed by a hallway exactly as wide as a man’s shoulders. In the middle of the trailer, a kitchen counter held a coffee pot and a microwave. Across from the counter was a First-Aid station and a chipped, mustard yellow restaurant table some of the guys used for lunch when it was too hot outside.

He grabbed the ground coffee out of the fridge and started a new pot. Then he followed Felipe to the back room to get his Thermos out of his locker and use the john. His personal cell phone rang in his pocket. He looked at the display as he walked down the hall. Deidre. Good. Haley must be ready to see him. The promise of getting to hug his little girl tonight would get him through the rest of the day. He answered as he rounded the corner into the locker room.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey.”

He instantly knew something was wrong from the way her greeting wavered.

“Um, I don’t want to worry you, but Haley had an accident at soft ball camp.”

His heart did a flip-flop. “What happened? Is she okay?”

“I think her arm’s broken. I’m in the ambulance with her now. They’re taking her to Children’s Hospital.”

He heard the siren on the other end of the phone. “I’ll be right there.” He was already pounding down the stairs of the trailer and fishing his keys out of his pocket.

Deidre was silent.

His lungs filled with pressure. If she dared tell him to stay away, he would say many, many things he would probably live to regret.

“Okay,” she said on an exhale. “See you soon.” She hung up.

Normally, her easy acquiescence would make him feel like pumping his fist in victory. Not today. His little girl was hurting. He had more important things to do than gloat.

* * * *

The triage room at Children’s was quieter and more colorful than a regular ER. Not that Derek had been to the ER a lot, but most guys on a construction crew had seen the inside of one or two, and he was no exception. Primary colored curtains divided the triage bays, the nurses wore brightly patterned scrubs and a clown with a big red nose handed out balloon animals to the children.

Derek and Haley had a bay to themselves while Deidre had gone to the cafeteria to get Haley a chocolate milk. He propped a hip on the edge of the gurney while Haley gave the hairy eyeball to the clown across the room.

“Don’t let him come over here.” She tugged on his arm. “I hate clowns.”

He felt the corner of his mouth turn up. “Don’t worry. I never leave home without my trusty clown repellent.”

That earned him a weary smile.

“How’s the pain, kiddo?”

“S’okay,” she said with a shrug. “Ouch.” She winced. “I keep forgetting not to move it.” She scowled at her right arm, which was horribly swollen from wrist to elbow. He knew it was broken just from the amount of swelling. His stomach twisted into a hard knot at the thought of how much pain his little girl had to be in. But she hadn’t shed a single tear since he’d met her at the hospital. According to Deidre, the coach said she hadn’t even cried when she’d tumbled over the four-foot high fence to rob the hitter of a homerun, and landed on an old ladder the grass had grown over.

They’d given her some Children’s Tylenol to take the edge off her pain, but held off on anything stronger until determining the extent of the injury. “The worst part will be over soon,” he told her. “Look, here comes Dr. Heinz.” The short, dark-haired woman in a white coat marched up with a tablet under one arm and a cheerful smile on her face.

“Okay, Haley,” she said. “Let’s go take some pictures. Ready?”

“We can’t go without Mom,” Haley said.

“Your mom wouldn’t want us to wait on her,” he said. “Let’s go.”

“Actually,” Dr. Heinz said, “Your mom and dad both have to wait here. Only patients are allowed in radiology. But we’ll be back before you know it.” She flashed him a smile that somehow conveyed the simultaneous messages “Your kid’s in great hands” and “This isn’t up for discussion.”

“Guess I’ll wait here for your mom,” he said, taking Haley’s good hand for a second. “You okay?”

She nodded bravely, eyeing the clown, who was only one bay away, all pointy black eyebrows and creepy red mouth–he couldn’t imagine where she’d gotten her fear of clowns. “I’m ready,” she said to Dr. Heinz, leaving him to fend for himself against he of the bulbous nose and skinny-tailed balloon animals.

Deidre found him a few minutes later. “X-ray?” she asked, handing him a coffee and setting Haley’s milk on the empty chair.

He straightened and took a long, hot sip from the foam cup. “Thanks. Yeah. ’Supposed to be quick, but who knows.”

“They’re good here,” Deidre said. “Haley’ll be okay.” She said it to comfort herself as much as him.

“Yeah.” He sipped awkwardly, wondering if he was supposed to hug his ex-wife or anything. What was the protocol when divorced parents meet at the hospital for a kid emergency?

“You look like hell,” she said.

“Thanks.”

She smirked, but the look wasn’t unfriendly. “Having trouble sleeping?”

He nodded, sipping some more. The hot jolt of liquid energy was a welcome sensation in his empty pit of a stomach. He could use some lunch, too, but he’d wait to see how Haley was doing.

“You two still need to talk,” she said. “You can’t just assume she’s over what happened Sunday just because she’s dealing with this now.”

His lungs racheted tighter with every word. “I know.”

“I’m just saying. You’ll probably sleep better once you’ve gotten it off your chest.”

He couldn’t tell her why he wasn’t getting enough sleep. “Right.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Deidre kept checking her watch.

“Got somewhere to be?”

She shook her head. “Nothing’s as important as being here for Haley right now,” she said as she looked longingly at the exit.

“But…” he prodded.

She sighed. “I’ve got a showing in Meadowbrook at two. Mark said he’d take it for me, but I don’t trust him to sell the property. He’s not as familiar with it as I am, and I know it would be just perfect for this family.”

Meadowbrook was a ritzy development. He thought for a second she was being protective of her commission, but he knew better. He’d always admired her passion for her job.

“I’ll stay here if you want to go. If you leave soon, you can still make it.”

Her forehead attempted to wrinkle. “I’m a horrible mother to even consider leaving.” She gave him a shaky smile.

He might not be the most observant of men when it came to female emotions, but it didn’t take a genius to see she was worried sick about Haley. But she was also smart enough to realize she couldn’t do anything for Haley right now other than dither. And she might not have made the logical leap yet, but if they both stayed, the chances were good they’d get in a fight. Their little girl needed that like she needed a second broken arm.

“Hey,” he said, slinging an arm around her shoulder. “Come on. She’s taking this like a champ. And I’ve got it under control. Go work. Get your mind off all this for a few hours.”

“I can’t ask you to stay. This could take all afternoon. You have to get back to work, don’t you?”

“Fred can handle the site without me. I hadn’t planned on going back, anyway. I’m pretty much worthless as I am. I need a solid eight before going back to the site.” Not that he planned on getting anywhere near eight if DG made an appearance tonight. “It’s just a break,” he said. “It hurts, but it’ll be all healed up in two months. She’ll get a cool cast, and all the kids at school will sign it. This won’t even slow her down.”

Her shoulders relaxed under his arm. “I know you’re right. God, this is hard. I hate knowing she’s hurting. I wish I could take it for her, you know?”

“I know.” He gave her a friendly jostle. “Boy, do I know.”

They exchanged unsteady smiles as Dr. Heinz escorted Haley back to their bay. “Guess who’s getting admitted for the rest of the day?” the doctor said brightly.

Deidre left once Haley got her morphine IV, but only after numerous assurances from Haley that she didn’t feel any pain and from him that he didn’t mind staying. Haley had torus fractures to both her radius and ulna just below the elbow. They weren’t bad breaks–they didn’t even need to be set, but they were enough to put her in a cast for six to eight weeks. She had to stay at the hospital until after dinnertime to make sure she would handle the prescribed pain meds okay. He promised to stay with her, giving Deidre a chance to meet her client and make arrangements at work so she could stay home with Haley the rest of the week.

A nurse put Haley in a small private room with blue walls and a mural of a white whale and a ship cresting a huge wave. Moby Dick seemed a depressing motif for a kid’s room, but whatever. He supposed most kids hadn’t read the book by the time they saw the artwork. Haley watched the Disney channel on the TV set into the wall while using his phone to keep her friends posted on her drama. A bright purple cast wrapped her arm from her hand to above her elbow, and like he’d predicted, it hadn’t slowed her down one bit–she was texting one-handed and could probably get a job as a court stenographer with that speed.

“You know, if you get me my own phone, I won’t have to use yours,” she said, drawing him out of a light doze.

He sat up straighter and dragged a hand down his face. God, he was tired. “I don’t mind you using mine,” he said.

She stuck out her tongue and went back to work.

He felt his cheeks stretch in a big smile. He was proud of her for being such a trooper. And she seemed to have forgotten about his poor behavior on Sunday. In fact, since he’d arrived at the hospital, she’d shown no sign of the hurt he’d witnessed in her eyes that night. With all the stress of her broken arm, he’d almost forgotten about it, too. He was tempted to sweep it under the rug.

But–he hated to admit it–Deidre was right. They needed to talk.

He took a deep breath and shoved away the tiredness. “Hey, kiddo, I need to apologize to you for how I talked to your mom the other night. I let my temper get away from me. Can you forgive me?”

Her fingers paused then restarted. Without looking at him, she shrugged and muttered, “’S okay.”

Ah. The incident hadn’t been forgotten. Just shelved.

He knew from experience a kid’s mental shelves could hold a hell of a lot before they cracked. He’d stored away so many hurts his father had dealt him that he’d been well into his teens before he’d finally accepted his father loved getting angry more than he loved him. He never wanted Haley to believe that about him. The thought of her starting a shelf of pain with his name on it killed him.

With a finger under her chin, he made her look up. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I shouldn’t talk to anybody that way, especially your mom. She’s doing such a good job with you. I was way out of line.” Saying the words made him wonder why he always let his temper get away from him around Deidre…or know-it-all architects, or people writing checks at the grocery store, or indecisive idiots on the road.

She pulled back from his touch. Damn. How was he supposed to fix this? He couldn’t do more than apologize. Could he?