Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“I’m fine,” Liza murmured. She wasn’t moving her head, but at least she was talking and coherent.
“How’s the pain?” he asked.
“Better.” But her unshed tears proved that claim was a lie.
“You know, if you wanted my attention, all you had to do was ask. Getting hit by a flying fist is a little extreme.” He forced out the joke with a grin and was rewarded with a small smile. Followed by another wince.
“What happened?” Alexa knelt, her doctor bag in her hand.
“She was hit by someone about to throw a ball at the tank,” Dare said.
Liza ran her tongue over her lips. “It was an accident,” she said.
Dare clenched his jaw at her explanation but said nothing to contradict her. He kept his mouth shut while Alexa checked Liza’s pupil dilation, asked her questions, took her blood pressure, and generally made sure she was okay.
“Can you sit up?” the doctor asked.
Liza attempted a nod but clearly regretted it. Instead, she allowed Alexa to gently lift her into a sitting position.
“Give yourself a minute,” the doctor suggested.
Though Liza still looked pale, she seemed more composed and Dare’s heart rate began to return to normal.
“I thought maybe she’d want some water?” Cara handed Dare a fresh, cold bottle.
“Thanks,” Dare said.
“Any nausea?” Alexa asked.
“No.”
“Good. Drink slowly,” Alexa warned Liza. “I’d like you to go to the hospital and get checked out. Have a CAT scan done.”
Christopher DeMarco, a paramedic Dare knew from school, stood waiting to help.
“No,” Liza said immediately.
“Okay,” Dare spoke at the same time, contradicting her.
“I don’t need a hospital. I didn’t black out. I’m sure I’ll have a nasty bump, and it’ll hurt like hell, but I’m fine. Really.”
Everything inside Dare rebelled at the thought of letting her just go home like nothing had happened. He couldn’t stop thinking about Stuart Rossman, remembering how Dare had done nothing to help him, and Stuart had died.
“If you refuse, you’ll have to sign a paper saying you declined,” Christopher said, looking none too pleased.
Alexa frowned, obviously not happy either.
Dare wasn’t about to accept her no. “What about that actress who refused treatment and died a few hours later?” he asked, pressing the issue.
“Natasha Richardson?” Alexa asked.
“That’s her. All the newspapers said she claimed to be fine after she fell. She was joking around, but by the time she went to the hospital, it was too late.”
Liza blinked into the sun and immediately looked down.
Alexa placed a hand on Liza’s shoulder. “Natasha Richardson died of an epidural hematoma due to a blunt impact to the head. In layman’s terms, you were hit by a hard fist and a harder ball.” The doctor paused for emphasis. “You need to get checked out.”
Liza sighed. “You’re taking his side because you’re friends,” she muttered. “Unfair ganging up on me.”
“She’s taking my side because I’m right,” Dare said.
“Fine, I’ll go.”
Dare hadn’t realized how tense he was until she agreed, and his muscles went slack with relief. “I’m riding with her,” he blurted out.
Liza didn’t reply, telling him the pain and stress were clearly wearing on her or else she’d probably argue.
Not that he’d let her fight him or win. He already knew her brother would be driven home to sleep off his stupor, and Liza’s parents no longer lived in town. She kept to herself like Faith had said, so she had no one to take care of her now or afterward when the pain really kicked in.
She’d go to the hospital, have those tests, and then he’d bring her home and take care of her himself.
* * *
Liza didn’t know what was worse: her brother humiliating himself in front of the entire town, her unsuccessful and equally embarrassing attempt to stop him, or the fact that Dare had witnessed the entire thing. Though she had no desire to go to the hospital, between the insistent cop and the paramedic, she’d felt cornered. And something in Dare’s voice and expression told her that her getting checked out was important to him. She couldn’t put her finger on why but she sensed it was so much more than making sure her thick skull would survive another day.
Once she’d agreed, Liza lost control of the situation and found herself taken by ambulance to University Hospital. Though Dare had said he’d go with her, he’d ended up driving his car and following so he’d be able to take her home later, another thing she’d been given no choice over.
He’d met up with her in the ER, and then they’d taken her for tests, and now she waited alone in a small cubicle for someone to tell her when she could go home.
“Is that scowl because you’re in pain?” a familiar female voice asked.
Liza glanced into Dr. Alexa Collins’s concerned green eyes.
“No, the scowl was over something else,” Liza said.
“And the pain?” the doctor asked. “Can you describe it?”