Page 159 of Fierce-Colson

While they waited to see Holly’s next move, while the few texts went back and forth and even one phone call between Bella and her mother, Marly had been supportive and in his corner.

He hadn’t seen one sign from Bella that she wanted more than those few texts or calls, but he’d seen the hopefulness at times too.

Not so much at a relationship with Holly, but just one in general with someone who could be her mother.

And those signs, those looks, they were mostly aimed at Marly.

He was two feet from the room Bella was in, when he remembered her phone was in his car, so he ran back out, moved his car off to the side, then returned with her phone.

The doctor was just coming in the same time as he was.

“Hi, I’m Dr. Susan Richards,” she said. “Looks like we’ve got an injury here.”

He shook her hand. “Colson Ryder. This is my sister, Bella.”

“Sister? Not parent?”

“Colson is like my dad,” Bella said.

“I’ve got legal guardianship.” Which he was realizing was more of a headache in a situation like this. They even said they were most likely going to want to see that documentation, but let it go for now. He figured since Bella was under his insurance that was good enough.

Dr. Richards did an exam, looked in Bella’s eyes, asked her a bunch of questions, then returned to her ankle.

He only had to glance at it once to know the answer, he didn’t need to see it now, nor did he want Bella to.

“No signs of a concussion. You most likely ache from the fall itself. The shock of it. But I’m going to send you down for X-rays, maybe an MRI. I’m positive it’s broken.”

Bella’s bottom lip came out. “It’s fine,” he said. “I broke my arm when I was ten. And look, I’m normal now.”

“You’re hardly normal,” Bella said, then sniffled.

“Still got that sense of humor. Go on,” he said to the doctor.

“She might need surgery. I’m going to have the orthopedist on duty look and we’ll go from there.”

“How long will I be here?” Bella asked, running an arm under her nose. “I’m hungry.”

“You could be here for a while,” Dr. Richards said. “And until I know one way or another about surgery, sorry, no food or water. We’ll get an IV set up for fluids though.”

“IV?” Bella screeched.

“She doesn’t like needles,” he said, blowing out a breath.

All he could remember was the last blood test she had, where he had to all but promise her the moon and the sun to get through it.

“We’ll hold off for now,” Dr. Richards said. “Until we know more. How is that?”

“Thanks,” he said.

“It hurts though, can I have something?” Fresh tears were rolling down his sister’s cheek.

“Right now, we’ll give you two Tylenol,” Dr. Richards said. “It can’t be more until we know the imaging results.”

The doctor nodded to the nurse to get it and Colson pulled her phone out of his pocket and handed it over. He’d felt it vibrate multiple times and assumed her friends were texting her.

“Here you go. Try not to post too much, but I know you need to take your mind off of things.”

She reached for her phone and quickly scanned through. “Marly texted me. She said she’ll be here after her meeting.”