Just Good Friends (Cheap Thrills Series Book 5) Read online

  Seeing as how she wasn’t screaming anymore, it wouldn’t look good if I started. Would it?

  “Well, Miss Hadid. You have a fractured wrist and hand, a good-sized egg on your head, a mild concussion, and there are a couple of glass fragments that need to be removed from some of the wounds on your back before we stitch you back up,” the doctor informed her in an overly happy manner. “We almost had that partridge in a pear tree, but not quite.”

  Neither of us smiled at the joke.

  “Which bones?” she asked through clenched teeth, the fingers on the obviously broken arm twitching and making her groan.

  Tapping the screen of the iPad in his hand, he turned it around. “It’s really quite interesting. You’ve broken your radius here,” he pointed at a place on the screen, “and you also have a small fracture on the metacarpal bone of your middle finger, right here.”

  Without moving her head, Zuri’s eyes cut to me, and she glared even harder.

  Not sensing the tension in the room, the doctor turned it back to face him and swept his finger from one side to the other. “Now, if you look at this x-ray, you can see some small fragments of the glass. With how they’re showing up, I’d say that was some thick glass you landed on.”

  “It was meant to be, yes,” she ground out. “I loved those tables.”

  Tipping my head back to look up at the tiles of the ceiling, I did my best not to look as guilty as I felt. I’d been apologizing for the last hour after I’d picked her up and ran with her to my truck, ignoring the fact my shoulder was bleeding. For someone who was obsessive with how clean the interior of his car was, it’d been torture, but she was more important.

  I’d repeatedly told her how sorry I was the whole time we’d driven here, the entire time we’d been waiting in this room, and I’d be telling her again after we left.

  “Ah, and you as well, Mr. Evans,” he said as he turned toward me. “We’ll need to remove that piece of wood and make sure there’s nothing else in the wound, but I think stitches should fix it.”

  Yeah, the frame had a chunk that’d been glued back on it at some point with shit glue after a previous break, so when it’d hit me, the broken piece had come loose and gone into my shoulder.

  The odds of it happening the way it did were probably one in a million, yet here I was with a small piece of light blue wood sticking out of my shoulder. I hadn’t even noticed it until the doctor had pointed it out while Zuri was getting her x-rays done.

  Now that I thought about it just pulling it out would get a majority of the bullshit out of the way so he could focus on her. So, I reached up and pinched the piece of wood between my finger and thumb, giving it a sharp yank to get the job done.

  Holding it up in front of the doc, I raised an eyebrow. “Just sew me up and focus on her.”

  Looking at it, the doctor frowned as he glanced back down at his screen. “Hmm, there’s a piece missing. The piece on your x-ray is L shaped, but that one is more of an I.”

  “Ah, hell,” Zuri mumbled, looking pale as she dropped her head onto the pillow.

  Anything else she was going to say was cut off by the doctor, who was frowning still, but this time it was at my shoulder, which felt like it was on fire. “You should probably put some pressure on that to stop the bleeding.”

  That’s when I felt something moving down my arm and looked down to see red splashes on the ground under where I was standing.

  Just in case I passed out or anything happened, I held my arm up to show him the tattoo on my wrist that said I had a condition called Malignant Hyperthermia—a reaction to volatile anesthetics that affected my body temperature.

  Seeing it, he nodded and typed something on the screen. “It’s unlikely you’ll need a general anesthetic, and it’s probably also on your notes already, but just in case something happens and we have to take you into surgery, I’ll write it down again. Do you have any other allergies?”

  “No,” I sighed, looking at Zuri over his shoulder and seeing her lips twitch like she was trying to fight a smile.

  “All right, then. We’ll be back in to get started on your shoulder,” he pointed to me, then turned to look at Zuri. “And then we’ll do your back. We’ll also put a cast on your arm and take some more x-rays to make sure it’s all still in alignment afterward. Any questions?”

  Raising her non-broken hand, she asked, “Can I lie on my front?”

  Before he could answer, a familiar voice said, “I’ll help you get into a comfortable position, honey,” as my sister-in-law breezed into the room, pushing a rolling cart in front of her with packages and all the types of shit I hated looking at. Hospitals weren’t my thing.

  Of all the people.

  Looking back at me, Rose smirked. God, this was going to be hell.

  And just to make it even better, at that moment, a blonde nurse poked her head around the edge of the doorway, and dismissed Zuri and Rose with a curled upper lip, which disappeared when she saw me watching her.

  “Garrett,” she cooed. “Do you need a hand?”

  She looked familiar, but that was it. I couldn’t place where I knew her from, or even if I’d ever spoken to her.

  “I’m good, but Rose might need a hand wi—”

  “No, she doesn’t,” Rose interrupted without even looking up from what she was doing.

  “Why don’t I work on you while she deals with her?” blondie offered with a sneer, making me frown.

  Moving over to where my sister-in-law and the woman who was now glaring at me from her face down position on the bed were, I waved off the rude nurse. “Nah, I’m good, thanks.”

  “But I could—”

  “For the love of angels and demons, woman, will you give it up already,” Zuri finally snapped. “He said no.”

  Taking a step into the room with her hands on her hips, the glare the nurse shot at Zuri was lost on her, seeing as how she never turned around to look in her direction as she shot her down for me. “Look, Garrett and I go way back—”

  “No, we don’t. You look familiar, but I don’t even know who you are.”

  “I helped you when you were here looking after her,” blondie pointed at Rose, who snorted.

  That’s when it clicked. “You’re the one I was avoiding when I went into the break room and met Zuri for the first time. The annoying one who kept following me around.”

  Usually I wouldn’t be as blunt as that, but she’d been rude to Rose, been a total bitch to Zuri, and she’d made me feel like prey when I’d been here that time. Plus, I was fairly sure I was now dealing with some blood loss seeing as how the blood was seeping out from the wad of gauze I was holding over it.

  “I can’t help it that we ended up in the same places,” blondie winked. “It’s like we’ve got fate working for us.”

  “More like against you,” Zuri muttered, making Rose chuckle.

  “There’s no fate. Thanks for the offer, I appreciate it, but we’ve got people looking after us.” After all, I was a police officer, so being polite would be beneficial in the long run.

  Shooting me a tight smile, she turned on her heel and marched out of the room.

  “You did the right thing,” Zuri sighed. “Missy’s bumping uglies with two doctors and two nurses.”

  “Three nurses,” Rose corrected. “She’s back with Eileen on the third floor.”

  I was too tired for this shit, so I went and sat back down, tilting my head back to focus on anything I could in my brain that wasn’t related to what we were about to go through.

  Today wasn’t meant to turn out this way, but I needed to make a plan to help look after Zuri while she recovered, and that’s what I was best at. After all of that research and embarrassment with the women, I was going to have to abandon my list and wing it.

  So, pulling my phone out of my pocket, I shot off some texts to put things in place starting tomorrow. Oh, Zuri was going to skin my ass alive, but she’d thank me in the end.

  Or kill me!

  “W
elcome to the hotel in Arkansaaas. Such a dovey pace and dirty lace. There’s plenty of poon at the hotel in Arkansas. Any time of year, you can hump a deer!”

  From where I was sitting on a hard plastic chair in the room, I watched as Zuri drowsily strangled the song Hotel California by The Eagles. I had no idea how she was getting it so wrong, but here we were—listening to it for the thirteenth time.

  Apparently, Miss Zuri reacted to Demerol in that it made her go slightly crazy—the proof of which was now doing a random air guitar slowly as she kicked her leg around, still lying on her front as Rose taped the final dressing in place on her back.

  “They’ll be in to do her wrist in a minute, so I’ll just numb up your shoulder so that Doctor Stevens can get that last piece out of it,” she told me as she pulled a sheet over Zuri’s back to cover her up. “Hard to believe the quiet one turns into this,” she gestured with her hand as Zuri strummed her air guitar, screeching when she moved her broken hand but determined to win the ultimate air guitar hero award anyway. “Honey, stop moving that hand. It’s broken, and you doing that’ll make it hurt more and might even move the alignment of the broken bone in your hand.”

  Moving so that she was balanced on her forearms, Zuri looked at Rose like she’d committed blasphemy. “Dude, how’m I gonna win Rockstar Champion, huh? Nah gain, nah pain.”

  Covering my mouth with my hand to hide the smile, I met Rose’s eyes over her head, seeing the same smothered reaction on her face, too.

  “Well, you might end any future hopes you’ve got of winning Rockstar Champion if you do more damage to that wrist. How about resting it on this pillow,” Rose suggested, moving a pillow on the bed next to her. “We’ve had quite a lot of breaks in tonight, so Sammy, who’s our casting genius today, has been in great demand. You’re next on her list, though, so just take it easy, sing your songs, and I’ll get working on Mister Woodstuck over here.”

  Not registering what the thumb jerk in my direction meant, Zuri looked around the room. “We’re going to Woodstock? Always wanted to go to that, but I was too little.”

  “Um, I’d have thought you didn’t exist when Woodstock happened, honey,” Rose pointed out, moving around the bed to where I was waiting. “In fact, your mom was probably just about to be conceived.”

  “I’ve got sperm in my ear. It could be getting pregnant right now.”

  The outburst stopped Rose’s movements as what she’d just said sank in, but the guy in the room next door wasn’t quite as slow to understand as he burst out laughing, loud guffaws making their way through the thin wall.

  Looking confused, Zuri glanced around the room, realizing where she was—again. “Hey, I’m at work. Who needs me next?”

  The question was like an off switch for the laughing guy next door. “Wait, that’s one of the nurses?” he asked whoever was with him incredulously.

  Moving to get up, she called back, “I’m a phlegm-bot-oh-mast, man. Gimme a second, and I’ll be witcha.” Then, raising her sore hand, she added, “Gonna have to do you one-handed. Hm, I’ve never done it with my other hand. Oh well,” she shrugged and tried to push up against Rose’s hand that was now holding her down.

  “Oh, hell no. Get me out of here,” the man snapped, the sound of rustling and squeaking following him.

  “Gil, settle down. They said you weren’t allowed to move.”

  “Stop pushing me back down, woman. Did you hear her? And she wants to use the hand she doesn’t normally use for whatever it is she does. I don’t even have phlegm. I was in a car accident, damn it.”

  Just then, the door to the man’s room opened, and deep murmuring followed it. There was an exchange between whoever it was and the man, and then it all went quiet again until a male nurse stuck his head around the door and gave Rose the thumbs up.

  My laughter remained silent, as did Rose’s as she gestured for me to take my ruined t-shirt off.

  I’d just gotten the hem above my belly button when Zuri let out a squeal. “Striptease, y’all! I got my own Mageec Mike show. Take it off, take it off! Rose, get my wallet, imma make it rain.”

  This time, my laughter was loud, and I felt my cheeks burn with a blush I wasn’t used to experiencing but just kept on happening when it came to this woman.

  “Calm yourself, pretty girl,” I snickered, watching as she tried to push herself up with her bad wrist, and collapsing down when the pain registered.

  “Owie!” Holding the hand close to her face, she grimaced as she looked at the bruising and swelling before her face clouded in a scowl. “Oh shit, I broke ma nail.”

  Resuming the removal of my t-shirt when Rose jabbed me with a sharp prod in my side, I pulled it over my head and then removed my good arm before carefully maneuvering it over the injury.

  “Damn,” Rose hissed, seeing the piece of wood embedded under the skin. “That’s nasty.”

  She wasn’t wrong there. The shard was roughly an inch long and was pushing the skin up.

  “Can we just pull it out? I mean, we can see it clearly, and it’s not that big, so surely if you just grab it and give it a tug—”

  “That’s what he said,” Zuri snickered. “I always thought you’d have a big ol’ beef sausage,” she mused, pronouncing it saw-siege. “S’always the ones you never expect to have a teeny little wing wang.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with the size of my wing wang,” I growled, rising to the insult. “We’re talking about the wood—”

  “Oh, there’s wood, y’all,” she squealed this time, bursting into a fit of giggles. “And he’s nekkie.” Looking beside her, she found a box of tissues, grabbed a handful, and then launched them in the air. “Make it rain, baby. Make. It. Rain!”

  What followed after that was ninety of the most hilarious and most painful minutes of my life. I had the sliver removed from my shoulder, eleven stitches put in because Zuri told the doctor that eight was “just cheap”, a tetanus shot in my ass, and she had her wrist put in a cast, choosing red because it was her “sexy arm”.

  “I’m going to prescribe you some pain relief to take, Zuri,” the doctor told her as he wrote something down on his iPad. “Have you ever broken a bone before?”

  “Sho’ nuff, my guy. I broke my wrist when I was little, falling out of this big ass bunk bed at my grandparents' house. I woke up needing to pee bad,” she told him loudly, “and was scooting to the ladder with my knees together, so I didn’t sissy all over the bed, know what I mean? That would’ve been a bitch to clean,” she added to herself. “Anyway, got to the top of the ladder and started to go down it, but one of those surprise huge sneezes hit me on the third step. It like burst out everywhere,”—she emphasized by flinging her arms out—“and I had to grab myself to stop the pee-pee from coming out with it.”

  With a sigh, the doctor looked at me and shook his head, both of us knowing exactly where this was going.

  “I lost the grip I had on the steps with my other hand and fell back, broke my damn wrist.” She held her broken hand up in the air, then caught sight of the cast. With wide eyes, she looked between the two of us. “Holy shit, that’s the coolest magic ever. That’s exactly what happened, and I made it come back to show you.”

  “But did you pee?” I asked, and both of us leaned in slightly closer, waiting for the answer.

  “Don’t ‘member,” she shrugged. “Maybe a little.”

  Shooting her a small smile, the doctor turned to face me. “Rose will bring through the prescription for you. She insisted on getting it sorted out before y’all leave. Maybe give her one tablet to begin with,” and then he muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, “for your own sanity,” and continued, “and move it up to two if she’s still in pain.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Zuri agreed, nodding her head rapidly as she tried to get up off the bed properly. “I get terrible munchies with pain pills. It’s like I’ve been smoking the maree-jooo-han-nah all day. I just eat, eat, eat, eat, eat—”

  Clapping my h
ands, I broke the cycle. “We get it, you get cravings.”

  Looking at me wide-eyed, she said earnestly, “I put on ten pounds last time I had to take the good shit, my guy. This ain’t no joke, that stuff in there is like crack for my food whore stomach.”

  Apparently, it also made her sound more like she was from New York because her accent had slipped from her normal soft one to more of a Bronx sounding one.

  “It make you change regions, too?”

  A grin started to make its way across her mouth, but then it dropped, and she frowned instead and rubbed her stomach. “I’m hangry. Can we stop for a burger with chocolate sprinkles on it?” When we both just stared at her, she added, “With some popping candy on it and jelly beans. Do they still do popping candy?”

  Glancing at me over his shoulder, the doctor kept a straight face as he muttered, “I’m wishing you the best of luck with that. You’ve got a prescription for antibiotics for your shoulder coming, and if you need pain meds—”

  “I’ll be fine with acetaminophen and ibuprofen.”

  “Both of you steer clear of aspirin. It thins your blood and might make you bleed more. Plus, it won’t really do much for your pain.”

  As someone who hated aspirin for this very reason, that wasn’t going to be an issue for me.

  “’Pirin sucks,” Zuri agreed. “But it makes my job easier sometimes. Slippy little suckers veins are.”

  Pinching the bridge of my nose, I took a deep breath to get the patience I needed and also to stop myself from laughing.

  Once I had it, I opened my eyes to a grinning Zuri. “Okay, Yoda, let’s get our asses outta here.”

  Fortunately, Rose arrived at that moment because in the thirty seconds or so since I’d been told by the doctor that we had prescriptions, I’d forgotten we had them. Zuri was a great distraction, what can I say?

  But, in she came with two bags and a wheelchair, rubbing her pregnant stomach with the hand holding the medications. How she was still working with that bump, I had no idea.