Chapter Eleven

Jensen

Every Monday, I usually do my turn of visiting the job sites to make sure we’re on time and especially on budget. I only just got back to the office after lunch and was sitting at my desk when Jessica, the nanny/cleaning lady/cook who comes in every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, called and told me Norma was there to visit and they were going to go for a walk on the beach. I didn’t think anything of it till about thirty minutes later when I heard Jessica running in yelling for me.

“Walker,” she yelled out hysterically. I flew out of my chair and ran to the front where she was standing with tears pouring down her face. “Mila.”

I stood there in place, my heart sinking to my stomach as fear seeped into my bones. “She’s next door.” Not even listening to anything else she was saying, I ran past her, my lungs burning as I prayed to every single god that I thought would listen to keep my baby safe. I was beside myself with worry, I had just walked in and saw my baby crying on an exam table, with her arm hanging lip. I didn’t know what else to do so I blamed the one person who was in front of me, Hailey. I was mean and rude, dismissing her like she didn’t just put my daughter before herself.

“I guess your daughter gets all her manners from her mother,” Crystal hisses right before she walks out the room, and Gabe whistles.

“I would think that is a direct hit,” he says and shakes his head. “You do realize that Hailey carried your daughter in here while she bled, right? She didn’t even know she was bleeding. The only thing she cared about was Mila.”

“Is that all?” I tell him, my eyes never leaving my daughter who sleeps on the examining table. Gabe turns and walks out, and I think of how this day went from okay to more fucked than I can explain.

I watch Mila as she whimpers in her sleep. As I lean my hip on the table, one of the nurses comes in with a mop and cleans up Hailey’s blood from the floor. “Oh, my gosh,” my mother says from the doorway. “Whose blood is that?” she asks. She looks like she is going to faint.

“It’s not Mila’s,” I tell her as she enters the room and comes to the table. Looking down at Mila, she wipes away tears too. “My poor baby, what happened?” she asks, looking at me.

“From what I understand, they were walking on the beach and Flounder knocked her over by accident.” At least, that is what I got from the bits and pieces everyone’s told me.

“Okay,” Crystal says as she walks back in the room, her shoes squeaking on the wet floor. “We need to take her for an X-ray.” She doesn’t look at me but smiles at my mother. “Glad we got Hailey’s blood cleaned up,” she says. My mother looks at me with her eyes going into slits as she folds her hands over her chest. “You can pick her up and carry her,” Crystal says, so I lean down and pick her up, cradling her in my arms, and follow her down the hall.

“I’ll wait here,” my mother says to us, turning to go back to the front of the office. Crystal opens the door to the X-ray room as I place Mila on the table, and her eyes flicker open.

“Poppa,” she whispers as she looks around. “Where is Hailey?”

“Hailey,” Crystal says as she brings over a blue heavy vest, “is getting stitches.” She places the vest on top of Mila. “This is heavy,” she says as she lifts her arm and sets her broken wrist on the side of her. “But it’s to make sure we only take pictures of your arm.” She smiles at her.

“Why does Hailey need stitches?” Mila asks first thing.

“Well,” Crystal says as she places a gray square under her arm, bringing the X-ray machine down over her wrist, “she cut her feet on a bottle, and it was very deep. But don’t worry, she is all better. Now see that glass over there.” She points at the plexiglass in the corner of the room. “I’m going to go in there with your dad while we take pictures.” She brushes Mila’s hair away from her face. “You are very, very brave.” She smiles at Mila then glares at me. “Go stand over there.” Her bedside manner vanishes.

I go to the corner and stand there while Crystal comes and presses a couple of buttons, then goes back and moves the machine to a different position. After taking about five different shots, she looks at them and walks back to Mila, taking the blue cover off her. “All done, Princess Mila.” I walk out and go over to her. I pick her up and carry her back to the room, where my mother sits with her legs crossed as she rocks her foot.

“Oh, there is my girl,” she says as she gets up, rushing to us and kissing Mila’s forehead.

“I fell, and Hailey got stiches on her feet,” she informs my mother, who just nods. I place Mila down on the table as my mother grabs her phone and puts on YouTube for her.

“I sent Jessica home. She drove Hailey home as well.”

“Not now, Mom, please. Just.” I beg her to drop it, so she nods. “Let’s talk later.”

“Okay, folks,” Gabe says as he walks into the room. “Hey, Auntie.” He goes to the computer, opening it and typing something as the X-rays come on the screen. “Clean break. Good news is it isn’t her growth plate, and it should heal in no time.” He turns to look at Mila. “Now, what color cast do you want? We have blue, yellow, green, pink, or camo.”

“Pink,” Mila yells. “Uncle Gabe, I’m getting ice cream with Hailey,” she says. Gabe just nods his head.

“Aren’t you the lucky one, but I think Hailey left so she could go home and rest. She got ten stiches on her foot, so I sent her home to sleep.”

Mila looks from Gabe to me. “We need to bring Hailey ice cream.”

“We’ll see, baby girl. How about we just get you fixed first?”

“Okay,” she says, happy with that while Gabe laughs and prepares to start wrapping her cast.

“It’s a waterproof cast, but try to keep it as dry as possible, and I will see her in four weeks,” Gabe says as he kisses Mila and walks out of the room.

“I don’t know about you, Mila, but I’m ready to go home and watch The Boss Baby,” my mother says, and Mila nods her head. I pick her up and carry her outside as she shows everyone her pink cast.

We make it home, and we camp out on the couch while my mother fixes everything else. Mila finally falls asleep in my arms as I’m watching The Secret Life of Pets for the second time, so I lay her down in bed. “Did you give her some Tylenol for the pain?” my mother asks me as soon as I come out of Mila’s room.

“I did,” I tell her as I sit on the couch and rub my neck. “Let’s hear it.” I look over at her as she turns off the television and turns to me.

“Jessica called me the minute she walked Mila into the room to tell me the whole story. Do you know that she ran down the beach, no shoes, over shards of glass?” She puts her hands up. “Obviously, she didn’t see the smashed bottles, but nothing would have stopped her from getting to Mila.”

I look at her, the shock seeping in. “I didn’t know all that.”

“Well, now you do. But even if you hadn’t, how dare you treat someone like that? Especially after she put your daughter’s needs in front of hers.”

“I didn’t ask her to do that,” I say, now getting up to start pacing.

“You didn’t have to. She would have done it for anyone else.”

“I don’t know what she told you, but I didn’t ask her for anything.”

“She isn’t the enemy here,” she says softly.

“What, and I am?” I place my hands on my hips. “Mila had Jessica and Norma by her; she didn’t need Hailey.”

My mother shakes her head, getting up. “Yes, and where is Norma?” she asks looking around. “Because it appears she hightailed it pretty fast.”

“Look, I don’t want to argue with you.”

“I’m not arguing with you, Jensen. I’m telling you what you did to that girl was unacceptable, and if it was my daughter, well, you can bet your ass I’d be breaking down your door.” She comes up to me, and she puts her hand on my cheek. “Stop punishing her for what Julia did.”

I roll my eyes at her. “I’m not punishing her for anything. Why do I have to like her?”

“You don’t have to do anything, but you need to let go of that chip you have on your shoulder when it comes to her.”

“Fine. I’ll be more civil,” I tell her, and she nods her head at me.

“Good. I’ll see myself out,” she says. She turns to grab her things and waves as I walk her out the door. I turn off the lights before going to Mila’s room and checking on her. Her cover already kicked off her, she’s also tossed the pillow I’d propped under her arm to the floor. My dreams are foggy all night long, the only thing staying the same is the storm brewing in the back.