Page 106 of Freak Show

One Day Later

“It’s a pretty common injury for children that have trampolines,” the surgeon said as he looked at the x-ray. “This and this.” He pointed to the spots on the upper arm right at the elbow junction. “Is the most common break with trampoline injuries. I fix thousands of these a year. Multiple a day at times.”

We were at Children’s Hospital in Dallas.

We’d walked in not ten minutes ago, and the surgeon had already seen us.

The drive to Briley felt like it took for-fucking-ever.

And when we’d finally got to the hospital where they were holding Briley until her upcoming surgery, I’d felt like a live wire with a thousand nerves exposed.

There was nothing quite like having your child away from you, seriously hurt, when you couldn’t get to them as fast as you’d like.

The usual two-and-a-half-hour drive took me less than two, and Ari had looked just as sick to her stomach the entire time.

She moved toward Trance who was leaning against the wall and allowed me to go to my girl. My girl, who’d fuckin’ cried when she’d seen me and promptly broke the rest of my heart.

My girl was tough.

But she was still my little girl.

I’d missed the holy hell out of her, too.

The last month had been torture for me, but I was glad to have her back in my arms after so long away.

“What’s the outlook here?” Ari asked. “How long will she be in a cast? It’s almost the summer, Doctor. We have swimming coming up, and Briley loves to swim.”

I’d never told her that.

But she must’ve been keeping in contact with Briley outside of me.

Which warmed my heart even more.

“She will have a waterproof cast,” he answered Ari. “Are you the mom?”

I fuckin’ wished.

“She’s my dad’s new wife.” Briley beamed, sounding fairly chipper, considering her predicament. “They just got married.”

I squeezed Briley carefully, telling her to shut up without words.

Not that I didn’t fuckin’ love that she was excited, but I also wanted her to quiet down and let the doctor talk. To ease my fears.

“Oh.” The doctor nodded. “In that case, you need to keep an eye on her when she’s swimming, but ultimately, she can do what she wants when she wants. Within reason. No jumping on the trampoline until she’s been out of the cast for six weeks. No motorsports. No trapeze or tight rope walking.”

If only the doctor knew…

Ari shot the two of us a smirk, and I couldn’t stop the responding smile from slipping free.

“If we’re okay with everything”—the doctor looked at his watch—“we can get her in here in about an hour. I need some lunch, she can visit until it’s time while you sign the papers, and then a nurse will come get you.”

Feeling my stomach lurch at the thought of my Briley having to have surgery, I nodded. “Sounds good.”

He jerked his chin so that I would follow, and I gave Trance and Ari a look to stay here with my baby.

Trance gave his nod of assurance, and then I was following the doctor out.

“I know this is going to sound super freakin’ weird but…my son’s a huge fan. Can he have your autograph?” the doc asked.