The Bride Test(33)

From Esme T.

He accepted the call right away and brought the phone to his ear. “Hi.”

“Oh hi, it’s me. Esme. But you know that, ha? It says that on your phone,” she said with a laugh.

He shook his head. Why was she talking so fast? “Yes, I know it’s you.”

“Sorry if I woke you up. I’m not on a date.” She laughed and cleared her throat. “I just called to tell you I’ll be late. Okay, bye-bye.”

Then she hung up.

That was it? No explanation, no nothing? And why did she mention dating? He’d never imagined her with another man, but he sure as hell was now. The thought irritated the shit out of him.

Gritting his teeth, he called her back. The phone rang and rang and rang. Seriously? She’d just spoken to him. How come she’d—

“Hello?” she said over the background noise. Lots of people spoke at the same time, and was that a baby crying?

“Where are you?”

“I’ll call you back. They just said my name.”

“Wait, where are you?”

“The doctor. I’ll talk later. I have to—”

His chest squeezed tight, knocking the breath out of him. “Which doctor? Where? Why?”

“The clinic by the Asian grocery store, but I’m okay. I just hurt—I have to go. Bye.” For the second time that night, she hung up on him.

She’d hurt what? Herself? Someone else? He hurried out the door and jumped into his car.

? ? ?

Esme hugged her arms tight to her chest as a woman made soothing sounds for her wailing baby girl and walked back and forth across the waiting room. The baby’s face was red and teary from several minutes of hard crying, and it made Esme’s arms ache to hold her own girl. Jade had never gotten so sick, thankfully, but Esme had. She remembered when the fever and pain had been at their worst, she’d told Jade to keep her distance so she didn’t get sick, too, and Jade had broken down into tears.

“Don’t cry,” Esme had said.

“I’m not crying because I’m scared I’ll get sick,” her girl had replied. “I’m crying because I love you.”

Esme’s longing for her girl grew unbearable, and she would have offered to bounce this stranger’s baby if her ankle weren’t swollen to two times its regular size and propped between a pillow and an ice pack.

When Kh?i marched through the waiting room door, her whole body went stiff. Seeing a ghost would have made more sense to her. What was he doing here? Why had he come? When he crossed the room and crouched in front of her, scowling at her ankle, she had no idea what to think. Was he going to yell at her?

“What happened?” he asked. “The doctor saw you already? What did they say?”

“I twisted it on the stairs. The doctor thinks it’s sprained. He’s waiting for the X-ray.”

He lifted the ice pack away from her swollen ankle, and his frown deepened. “Can you move your foot?” When she wiggled it, he said, “Up and down? Side to side?”

A door cracked open, and a nurse called out, “Esmeralda Tran.”

Esme stood and prepared to limp to the exam room just like she had earlier, but before her injured foot could touch the ground, the earth spun. She found herself cradled in Kh?i’s arms like a heroine in a movie, and her muscles tensed.

“You don’t need to carry me. I can walk. I’m heavy.”

He rolled his eyes and followed the nurse through the halls. “You’re not heavy. You’re a tiny human.”

“I’m not ‘tiny.’” But she couldn’t put much outrage into the words. His hold on her was secure, and he wasn’t breathing heavily. He made her feel safe. And small. She loved it. Back home, her mom and grandma always asked her to get things down from the top shelf or carry the heavy packages because she was so much bigger than they were.

Kh?i didn’t think she was too big.

“You can put her there.” The nurse indicated the paper-covered exam bed. On his way out of the room, the nurse said, “Great boyfriend you’ve got. The doctor will be in shortly.”

Boyfriend. The nurse was gone before either of them could correct him, and once Kh?i set her down, she fixed her attention on the picture of bones and muscles on the wall. “Thank you for …” She waved at her ankle, which he’d carefully positioned on the exam bed.

He shrugged and sat down in a chair against the wall. “You shouldn’t walk on it for a while.”

“It’s not bad.” Now. It had hurt something awful earlier, though. She’d thought it was broken, and she’d panicked. She’d clearly failed with Kh?i. If she couldn’t work, would C? Nga send her back to Vi?t Nam early? She couldn’t go home yet. She still needed to look for her dad. Rubbing her arm uncomfortably, she asked, “Why did you come?”

He gave her a funny look. “You’re hurt.”

Things collapsed inside her heart, and she turned her face away from him and stared down at her hands in her lap. He’d come … to be with her?

What a foreign concept.

Growing up, she’d been expected to take care of herself. Her mom and grandma were always busy working, and if she was hurt or sick, it was best to grit her teeth and deal with it on her own. That was even more the case now that she had Jade. When he fussed with the ice pack and repositioned it against her ankle, she felt more cared for than she ever had.