Promise Canyon (Virgin River #13)(60)



It was.

While Jillian, Penny and Jackie were visiting with Paige, Kelly was focused on Preacher. "I don't know how I can ever thank you for this amazing demo. Can I pay for dinner? Pay for the wine at least?"

He shook his head. "It's fun to have an expert like my stuff."

"I'm going to do something special for you," she said. "I don't know quite when or how, but I'm going to come back up here. And if you'll let me use your kitchen, I'll share my nana's vegetable soup and rhubarb pie."

He leaned his big hands on the worktable and said, "Really? How much meat in your vegetable soup?"

"All straight out of the garden, but it's thick and delicious."

"That would be great. I can't get it right without a side of beef. And I've been trying to figure out rhubarb pie for a long time."

"There are old Russian tricks. I'll show you if you promise not to publish a cookbook."

"You have nothing to worry about," he said.

When the four women were driving back to the Riordan cabins that night, Kelly said, "This place. It's a diamond in the rough."

Aiden, Sean and Luke Riordan stood outside their brother's hospital room in the Fort Hood hospital, talking with his surgeon. Patrick, their fifth brother, would have been there, as well, but he was a Navy pilot stationed on an aircraft carrier.

Colin was almost twenty-four hours postsurgical, in a deep, drug-induced sleep to control the pain. His humerus was broken in two places, his elbow all messed up, his pelvis cracked, femur fractured and he had three broken ribs. He now had a titanium rod in his femur and screws in his elbow. Ironically, the elbow was probably the worst for pain, and would be the hardest to heal healthily.

"He's suffered some burns--second-degree burns on his cheek, neck, shoulder and back, but the fractures concern me more right now. He was thrown hard onto his left side. All the bone injuries are on that side, burns on the right."

Luke just stared at his feet and shook his head. Sean asked, "Any good news in here anywhere?"

The orthopedic surgeon, who had a lazy Texas drawl, said, "He's right-handed." It sounded like He's raght handed. And then he grinned slightly. "Nah, I'm sort of kidding. Good news--no internal injuries that we're aware of. He had a clean CT scan. No skull cracks, no paralysis. Barring complications, he'll recover. Could be a slow, painful, difficult recovery, but he has an excellent chance of making a full recovery with all his limbs intact. Now I might be just a cockeyed optimist, but I think your boy could get out of this without any disabilities. If I were a bettin' man, I'd say not so much as a limp." Again with the grin. "I'm damn good with a titanium rod, if I do say so myself."

"He was burned," Sean said solemnly.

"He was pulled out of a burning Black Hawk. The extent of his scarring will take a little time to figure out, but the area affected is under twenty percent of his skin and should heal up real nice. Your boy had a head-on with a Cessna--it's a f**king miracle we're standing here talking about him. Don't tell him that," the doctor drawled. "At least not anytime soon--he's gotta be in one piss-poor mood. He's gonna feel like he's been dragged behind a truck over a rock bed."

Aiden was the first one to stick out his hand. "Thank you, Doctor."

The doctor smiled and took his hand. "My pleasure, Doctor. You have my cell number. I'm not on call, but you call me if you need anything. I'm on call for this guy."

When the surgeon walked away, the three brothers just stood in their small circle for a few moments of silence. "You two, go get something to eat," Luke said. "I'll sit with him in case he wakes up. Take your time--he's drugged out of his mind. Then one of you can take a turn while I eat."

While Sean and Aiden turned away, Luke headed back into the critical care unit. There was a chair beside the bed.

Colin's leg was immobilized, but not in a cast; his arm was not only in a cast, but also a brace that held his elbow away from his body. There were gauze bandages stained with yellow salve and some blood covering the right side of his head down to his shoulder.

And he was out cold.

Luke reached out and touched the hand that was uninjured. Colin had been awake a couple of times since surgery, and one of those times he'd become agitated, angry, maybe hallucinating. He'd started yanking at the IV and catheter, trying to pull them out; it took two nurses, Luke and Aiden to control him long enough for the dope to work its way through the IV. Luke hated that he had to be heavily drugged like this, but he hated more the thought of the damage he could do if he yanked out that catheter, or if, God forbid, he managed to get out of the bed and did worse damage to his arm, leg and ribs.

When Luke touched Colin's right hand, his one exposed eye slowly opened.

"Hey," Luke said.

Although half of Colin's face was bandaged, his scowl was unmistakable. When it came out, his voice was raspy, probably from the intubation during surgery. "I'm not done flying," he said in a threatening tone.

"Fine," Luke said. "You're done for today. Let's take this one day at a time."

"I'm flying again," Colin said, sounding as if his tongue was very thick.

"For right now the only flying you're doing is on OxyContin. For the rest, you have to heal first."

Robyn Carr's Books