Chapter Nineteen
“You’ve got a lucky boy. Someone knew how to keep him alive,” the doctor said. He had gray hair and appeared close to retirement, wearing faded green scrubs and standing on the other side of Ryan’s hospital bed. He scribbled something in a chart and then glanced down at Ryan, frowning. “That was a very stupid thing to do, young man, scaring your parents like that, running off on a horse. You’re lucky they found you.”
Ryan’s head was wrapped in bandages. He had thirty-six stitches across his hairline, a gash on the back of his head, and a concussion, though only one broken rib that had punctured his lung.
The doctor looked over at Joe. “You should go home and get some sleep. Your boy’s going to be fine,” he said.
The fact was that Joe didn’t think he could leave Ryan’s
