the right moment (Sea Breeze: The Next Generation #6)

Chapter 35

Chapter thirty-five

Daisy

The next day I stood in the hallway taking a little boy's weight and height. He was in for a check-up, and he'd made his mother stay outside in the waiting room. He'd distinctly told her that he was a "big boy" now and didn't need his mommy going into his doctor's appointments with him. It had made me smile. Now, he sat on a table swinging his legs over the edge. I placed the pad on his arm that took his blood pressure and he watched as I read the number.

"Am I gonna have to give blood?" He asked in an unsure tone. I unsnapped the band and placed it on the shelf with the rest of the instruments that were placed there until they were needed.

"Yes, sir." He nodded slowly and took a deep breath.

"I'm gonna be tough this time. I'm not even gonna cry." I smiled and ruffled his hair lightly before grabbing my clipboard and heading towards the door. When I looked back at him, he was whispering to himself as if giving himself a small pep-talk.

"I have complete faith in you, and remember, if you don't cry then you get something from our treasure chest." I winked at him and his eyes lit up with excitement. I told him to sit tight until the doctor came and I left the room. I'd been on my feet constantly today and taking patients left and right. I wanted to keep my mind busy and one of the best ways to do so was by keeping my body moving. If I let myself have any downtime I'd think about last night and I'd feel guilty again. Coming to work and seeing Dr. Rayon the first thing when I'd got here hadn't helped much either. I hadn't texted Corey since last night and I didn't plan to. I was trying to think of what to say because keeping something like this from him was not an option. It wasn't fair to him. It wasn't fair to me. It wasn't fair to anyone.

"Daisy, your brother's out back." I set my clipboard down in a spot where I'd remember it and made my way towards the back entrance of the building. The backdoor swung open and Jimmy was pacing like he was a mad man.

"Jimmy, what's..."

"Let me see your arm," he said frantically. He pulled up my right arm and studied it carefully. I pulled it from his grasp and held up my other one. His eyes looking closely where my "wound" had been before.

"If you're looking for what I think you're looking for then it's this one." The bruise from the drunken stranger had healed already. It had been gone for about a week or so now. His fingers traced just below where it had been and he looked up at me with dark eyes. He was pissed.

"Why. Didn't. You. Fucking. Tell. Me." He placed my arm gently at my side and rested both hands on my shoulders. His grip was firm on me and normally would have pulled away, but instead I let him hang onto to me. He didn't need me to pull away. He needed me to stand still as he regained his composure, and judging by the way he was breathing and the clenching and unclenching of his hands, he was trying really hard not to lose it.

"Because I didn't see the point. It was just a small bruise and I'm fine." I hoped that he couldn't hear the exaggeration in my voice. I was lying. Again. I seemed to be doing a lot of that these days.

"Bullshit! Reagan told me what happened. Why the hell were you outside in the back parking lot of Live Bay at night? You know there's no lights back there. You know that door locks automatically behind you when you shut it. What the hell, Daisy? Have you lost you ever-loving mind?" That made me mad. He was treating me like a child or like I was stupid. He always treated me like this when something major happened. And I was getting really tired of it.

"Actually, I didn't know that the door locked, and I didn't know that there was a crazy guy back there. It wasn't my fault. Did Reagan neglect to tell you that nothing happened? Why did he tell you anyway?" I'd known that for him to find out Reagan had to of told him. He was the only other person besides Corey who knew about that night. It made me wonder what else Reagan had told my brother.