Chapter 3: ER 1
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Getting down myself wasn’t easy, and that was when I realized Erin was going to have to help me a lot more than I wanted to admit.
I wasn’t exactly a tall woman.
Four feet and eleven inches.
That was my glorious height.
I didn’t have big boobs either. I had what I lovingly referred to as perky lemons, barely qualifying for the smallest B cup.
Which is exactly why I always joked that, out of my ninety-five pounds, maybe twenty belonged to the rest of my body.
The other seventy-five?
My sheep-shaped bubble butt proudly claimed ownership of those.
Meanwhile, my son stood at four feet and eight inches tall and weighed ninety-two pounds.
Having a child who was almost as tall and nearly as heavy as his own mother wasn’t something people understood until they actually saw us together.
His doctors hadn’t understood it either.
Not until they watched Ethan suddenly catch up to me in height and realized why I sometimes had to be old-school with the way I disciplined him.
I never hit my child to abuse him the way my father had abused me.
Or the way my mother had when I was a teenager.
There was a difference between abuse and teaching.
Ethan didn’t always realize when he was hurting someone.
He didn’t understand that his strength could injure another person if he became overwhelmed.
My responsibility wasn’t to scare him.
It was to teach him that hurting others could never become an acceptable way of expressing himself.
No matter how much people wanted to judge my parenting from the outside, raising my own child wasn’t easy.
It never had been.
My mind drifted back to another child.
Another parking lot.
Another day that changed everything.
That child had become aggressive toward me because he was jealous Ethan had received something for being a good kid.
I hadn’t even realized jealousy was the reason until much later.
His parents had actually pressed charges against me, accusing me of abusing their son.
Fortunately, the security cameras had told the truth.
The video clearly showed their child attacking me without any reason.
Weeks later, that little boy was involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
He hadn’t been released since.
Some parents can’t accept when their child has serious medical or behavioral needs.
Instead of getting them the help they need, they fight everyone around them until they lose that child altogether.
But not Ethan.
Never Ethan.
I refused to give up on my son simply because life had decided to make ours more complicated than most.
Looking over at Erin, I spoke in the same calm, repetitive tone I always used with Ethan.
It wasn’t really for Erin.
It was for Ethan.
He needed to understand exactly what I was asking so he could feel safe enough to trust Erin, even if only for a few minutes.
Whether this accident had been Erin’s fault or not, he was helping us now.
And if I needed more help before this day was over…
Well…
He was going to help with that too.
I certainly hadn’t planned on getting into a car accident today.
“Ethan, can you go with Erin? Sit down when you get inside.”
I repeated the sentence.
Again.
And again.
On the seventh time, before Ethan had the chance to respond, I heard Erin quietly speak.
“I’m Erin,” he said gently. “Come on. Mommy is walking with us.”
I looked over at him in surprise.
Then he repeated the exact same sentence again.
And again.
Seven times.
He wasn’t mocking me.
He wasn’t questioning me.
He was copying me because he’d realized it worked.
On the seventh repetition, Ethan calmly reached for Erin’s hand and walked beside him as if nothing had happened.
Closing my eyes, I silently whispered a prayer.
Thank God for this blessing.
Watching the two of them walk toward the emergency room, I finally focused on getting myself out of the tow truck.
Each step felt like someone was driving a knife into the side Ethan had accidentally elbowed.
I pressed my hand against my ribs and forced myself to keep walking.
It hurt.
Every step hurt.
But my son was walking calmly beside someone he had met less than thirty minutes ago.
For the first time since the accident…
Something had actually gone right.
Entering the ER, I heard Erin speak, and I had to look his way because I’d never expected someone who looked so grumpy to sound genuinely scared.
“Call the cops if you want. I don’t care,” Erin said firmly. “But you’re helping these two. They were just in a car accident.”
Hearing his voice rise made Ethan slap his stomach twice before pushing himself onto his tiptoes.
The second he cried out in pain, every protective instinct in me took over.
The nurse behind the front desk immediately stood.
“Do you need a wheelchair?”
Without missing a beat, I yelled,
“Yes!”
Within seconds, everything started moving.
Erin carefully helped Ethan sit in one wheelchair while another nurse hurried over with a second one for me.
As she rolled it in front of me, I finally looked up.
That was my mistake.
Standing there was the cutest damn nurse I had ever seen.
He had his hair tied into a man bun, bright eyes, and somehow managed to make hospital scrubs look unfairly attractive.
Seriously?
Did the universe decide to throw every hot guy in Ohio into one emergency room?
The nurse stopped the second our eyes met.
His entire expression changed.
His lips barely moved.
“Mate…”
The word was so quiet I almost questioned whether I’d actually heard it.
Mate?
People up north loved using that word.
Some claimed it meant your soulmate.
Some said it casually between close friends.
Others swore it meant the one person you were destined to spend your life with.
Personally…
I thought it was just another cheesy way of flirting.
Before I could even finish rolling my eyes internally, Erin stepped between us.
“Back off, pretty boy,” he growled.
The entire waiting room seemed to pause.
“She’s injured,” he continued without taking his eyes off the nurse. “Whatever you’re thinking can wait until she’s been treated.”
The nurse’s jaw tightened.
“So can your attitude.”
For a second, I honestly thought they were about to start fighting in the middle of the emergency room.
I blinked.
Then I blinked again.
I had never been able to raise just one eyebrow.
No matter how hard I tried, both of them always went up together.
Today was no different.
Still…
Two ridiculously hot guys.
One completely screwed-up day.
I’d take that as a win.
Not that anything wonderful was actually going to happen to me.
I knew my luck better than anyone.
I had spent years believing I’d found my happily ever after.
Instead, I married a narcissistic bastard who now lived his perfect little life with his perfect little family…
A family that had never truly included Ethan and me.
As the nurse helped me transfer into the wheelchair, I heard him speak in a firm, professional tone.
“I’m a Ph.D. student training to become a physician. I don’t need the person who caused this accident telling me how to do my job or my protocols.”
His eyes shifted toward Erin.
“With that said, you can remain right here until the police arrive to collect your information. I’ll make sure the patient has every opportunity to give her statement. Excuse us.”
He reached for my wheelchair.
Erin had another idea altogether.
“She has a minor with a serious disability and was also hurt in the accident,” he replied, his voice just as firm. “If I’m holding the phone with his legal grandmother on the line, and the child’s parent gives permission, you can’t deny me the ability to assist that child.”
The nurse crossed his arms.
“I can.”
“You shouldn’t.”
“I said I can.”
“And I’m saying you’re making the wrong decision.”
The two of them stared at each other.
Neither looked interested in backing down.
Meanwhile…
I was sitting in the wheelchair wondering if I had somehow become invisible.
What was I?
Chopped liver?
Last time I checked, I was the one with the bruised ribs.
I was the one who had just been in a car accident.
I was also the one who happened to be Ethan’s mother.
Maybe…
Just maybe…
Someone could ask what I wanted before the hot mechanic and the hot nurse started measuring whose ego was bigger.
Honestly, if they were going to argue over me, the least they could do was include me in the conversation.
- Autor
