“Well, thank you. Bridget is not a fan of doctors or hospitals, so I’m sure it took some work to calm her down and get her to stay put.”
“Not like I could move if I wanted to,” Bridget answered. “I’m pretty broken. Which reminds me, I can’t remember a lick of what the doctors said when they came in here. Can you…”
“I can figure it out if you want, keep track of it all. That way your parents don’t have to come back.”
“Thanks.” Bridget’s eyes watered again, and anger grew in the pit of her belly at the fact she couldn’t seem to go an hour without trying to cry. It was so nice to have someone who understood all the dynamics she didn’t want to be stuck with.
Eli dragged the chair over and sat in it, crossing one leg over her knee. “I suppose we’re going to be here a while.”
Bridget could have laughed, except she worried how much it would hurt. God love Eli, commanding and sturdy as always. She’d be there even if Bridget had ruined what little friendship they had left after their breakup. It hadn’t been a pleasant one by any means, but the lingering effects of it had been far worse than she’d anticipated. She missed her best friend, more than she missed her ex-girlfriend.
June made her exit after a few more minutes sitting with them, and then Bridget and Eli were left alone. It was the first time since Bridget had tried to win Eli over again at a bingo tournament—which had been a bad choice on her part. She’d apologized for it later, and they had tentatively worked toward friendship again, although Bridget mostly maintained her distance. She didn’t want to disrupt Eli’s budding relationship with Sarah. They had enough issues to contend with, being long distance.
Bridget glanced at the clock and finally to Eli. “Can you tell me what happened? I don’t remember anything and my parents were vague.”
“Oh.” Eli pressed her lips together hard. “I can tell you what I heard from the rumor mill if you want, but I wasn’t there and didn’t see anything.”
“That’ll be fine until I can get an actual accounting.”
“Okay.” Eli folded her hands together over her belly. “From what I heard, Sonny was driving his combine down the middle of ninety-six, and when I say middle, I mean middle. He was drunk.”
“He’s always drunk,” Bridget countered because they both knew it was true. Everyone in town did, but usually he wasn’t driving the combine on the highway when intoxicated. He saved that for his fields where he couldn’t do much damage.
“Yeah, I guess this time it was bad, though. You were trying to pull him over, and he turned, and well….you landed yourself here.”
“He turned into me?”
“From what I heard. I think Old Man Darwin was there, but I’m not sure.”
“You’re not sure?” Bridget gave her a hard look.
Eli shook her head. “Like I said, I wasn’t there. I didn’t drive to town to see the damage and be an onlooker. I figured they had enough issues getting life flight in there with all the rubberneckers.”
“Life flight?” Bridget’s eyes widened. That was new information to her. “They didn’t bring me by ambulance.”
“No. Helicopter.”
“But…was it really that bad?”
“Bridget, you’ve been in ICU for two days. You tell me.”
Sighing, Bridget stared down at her toes, wishing they weren’t on the edges of blurry because of her poor eyesight. It was the logical conclusion. She wasn’t in just any hospital room, she was in intensive care, where they had limited beds and only kept those near death. She didn’t want to think about it because if she did those tears would start up again.
“What did your parents say?”
“Dad said I’d ruined my career.”
Eli sighed heavily. “He’s such a fucking asshole.”
Bridget didn’t disagree, but she wouldn’t tell Eli she was right either. That was her father they were talking about, and while Eli had never been very fond of him, she’d never understood the struggle Bridget had to stand up to him. Eli was so much stronger than she was.
“What about your mom?”
“She only wanted to talk about medical stuff. She’s mad I asked them to limit how long she’s here and how often, but I’m glad I did.”
“Hey, that’s something.” Eli nodded in her direction. “I’m proud of you for that.”
The impliedat leastwas left off the statement, but it hung in the room like rotten chicken in the trash overnight. Bridget closed her eyes. “She said I’ll have to go stay with them when I get out.”