I clenched my good hand. “Crushed wrist, no exercising, my leave date for basic training getting pushed back, and now no car. Could things get any worse? We should sue that jerk who hit me.”
“Grace, it was an accident. Our insurance will take care of the medical bills,” my dad replied.
I grumbled a few choice words under my breath.
“What was that?” my dad asked, his brow furrowing and his lips forming a straight line.
“Sorry, sir.”
“In regards to your car, once the insurance handles the claim, we’ll be able to get a replacement, so don’t worry about that, Speedy. It will probably be a few weeks once you’re cleared to drive anyways.”
I was going to have to take the bus, wasn’t I? That wasnotthe way I wanted to start the last few months of my senior year! “So itcanget worse.”
As soon as the words left my lips, I thought about my brother Emmett.
It can always get worse…
My chest tightened, and I drew in a hiccupped breath as Emmett’s image flashed before my eyes. His smile. His bright eyes.
If only my big brother were here. He’d find a way to make me smile. He was always so good at that.
“I’m supposed to start school on Monday. How am I going to get there? You’ll be at work and Mom will be busy with the kids.” The thought of showing up to my new school on the bus with a bunch of freshmen was beyond humiliating.
“Well, I do have a possible solution for that issue. You know the young man who hit you?”
My jaw clenched. “Yes.”
“His mother is a surgeon here at the hospital. She feels terrible.”
“Wait, when did you talk to her?” I asked, mortified.
“Right after we got here. She had just finished a knee scope when you and her son Ryan came in.”
The last thing I wanted to do was listen to Dad talk about the kid who hit meorhis mom.
“Her son has a concussion and won’t be able to drive for a while.”
A small ping of guilt ricocheted in my abdomen, but it was quickly replaced with anger. Anger over the accident. Anger because my wrist was seriously messed up. And, if I was honest, anger over Emmett being gone.
“But,” my dad continued, “his friend Brodie, who stays with Preach’s family, will be driving him to school, and they’ve offered to pick you up along the way. Isn’t that nice?”
“Let me get this straight. First, I have to do community service hours each day after school with the guy who crushed my wrist. And now you want me to drive to and from school every day with him, too?” I was in a waking nightmare right now.
“Gracie, it was an accident, and his family is offering to help ours out while you recover.”
“No way, I’ll take the bus.”
Chapter Five
Preach
“This is cruel and unusual punishment,” I said as I shifted in the passenger-side seat.
“Suck it up, buttercup.” Wind backhanded my gut as he drove my banged-up Jeep onto Main Street. “Picking up the girl you hit who most definitely hates you…could be worse.”
“You do remember that I also have to do community service with her every day, too, right?” I settled into the leather seat and rested my head back. It was still aching pretty good.
“At least your Jeep is still drivable.” Brodie shrugged.