“Baby?!”
“My knee popped out.”
“Out?” His face drains. “Out! Put the fuckin’ thing back in, dammit.”
“Don’t touch it!” Kit kicks out when Jimmy tries to straighten her leg. She kicks him square in the chest and shoots him back several feet until he slams into Jack’s legs. Her husband is panicking. Her brother is panicking. And Jimmy’s about to get himself knocked out.
I step forward before this turns to a bloodbath. “Benny? Help me up, baby.”
Leaping onto the boxing ring three or so feet higher than the main floor, he pushes two of the four ropes down with his foot, and lifts the other two with his hand to create a gap to move through. With his spare hand, he pulls me up and doesn’t let go until I’m steady.
I push through the small crowd – Aiden, Jon, Jimmy, Izzy, Jack – and then reach Kit and smile at the tears on her cheeks. “I take no pleasure in your pain, I promise. But it’s kinda cool to see the formidable Kit Kincaid taken down by her much smaller sister-in-law.”
“You jerkoff! She didn’t even do it. It popped out on its own.”
Laughing, I shimmy Jim out of the way and lower to my knees just by her feet. Her bad leg lies bent to the side, so she’s half sitting on her hip, her kneecap clearly sitting an inch or so higher – and an inch too far to the left – than it should be. Chest heaving, sweating, she watches me as I slide my hand along her shin. “I’m gonna help you, okay? Please don’t kick me in the chest.”
“It’s gonna hurt, ain’t it?”
“Yeah.” My palm reaches the side of her knee, forcing her to tense up. “It’ll be quick though, okay? Super duper quick, then we’ll ice it and you’ll be golden.” I turn and look for a volunteer. “Can someone bring us an ice pack? And probably pressure bandages, so we can wrap it nice and tight when we’re done?”
“I got it.” Evie still holds Nacho against her chest, but turning on her heels and swinging her hair about, she darts off toward the kitchen without another word.
“Okay.” I turn back to Kit and grin. Mocking, I tell her, “I’m a professional. You can trust me.”
“Oh, God! Did anyone ever ask Andi what she does for a living?” She swings her gaze up to Bobby. “She’s not a pro, is she?”
He doesn’t think I’m funnyat all. “Andi? You gonna bring undue pain to my wife? Because I don’t think I’ll tolerate that.”
“I promise, I got this. I’m an athletic trainer back home. I actually treat loads of shitty knees every week.”
“But are you responsible for popping them back into place?”
Bracing my hands on either side of her knee and preparing to be kicked into next week, I meet Kit’s wary eyes and yank her knee back into place. “Nope. I’m sorry!” I cringe away when her leg flies. She cries out at the sickening snap back into place, her nails scrape the canvas floor, but when the reality fights through her pain, with a heaving chest, her eyes meet mine. “It’s back in?”
“Yup.” I accept the ice pack Evie offers through the ropes, then the half a dozen brand-new bandages she obviously raided the first-aid kit for. Tearing a wide packet open and setting the metal fasteners on the floor beside my leg, I bring my hands back to her knee and slowly move the bandaging around. “It’s in now, but it’s gonna swell like a bitch. Keep it wrapped nice and tight, and maybe talk to someone about getting an MRI. Did this ever happen before?”
Pouting, now that her leg isn’t immediately painful, she leans into Bobby’s chest and shrugs. “Couple times when I was younger.”
“Surgery?”
“Nope. I just wore a brace whenever I trained.”
“Start using it again, or talk to someone about surgery, because your tendons are probably stretched to hell and back.” I bring the bandage lower, wrap a few inches below her knee, then bring it up and cover until the bandage stretches a couple inches above. “Ice it for the next three days. Fifteen minutes on, fifteen minutes off.”
Her eyes widen. “For three days? I don’t have three days to sit on my ass!”
“Seventy-two hours, princess. You may or may not be able to walk on it. Give it a go, but don’t force it. Get a set of crutches,”and just like that, Riley comes back to the forefront of my mind,“and be kind to yourself. For three days, you get to sit on your ass and order people around like the true queen you are.”