“Yeah, I think I sprained my ankle.” He hobbled to the truck and maneuvered himself behind the wheel, then drove the short distance to where Kelly was lying. He positioned the car so she was almost next to the passenger door. All he had to do was try and get her up into the seat.
Standing behind her, he said, “I’m going to put my hands under your arms and lift you up. Once I have you up high enough, then I need you to use your good leg to help me get you into the truck. Can you do that?”
“Yeah, I can do that.” Her voice was weak and she told herself she had to stay strong. RJ needed her help to get her in the truck.
She realized he had just noticed her arm when he said, “Holy shit! What the hell happened to your arm?”
“I guess a large chunk of burning wood landed on it. I never even felt it what with the log falling and breaking my leg.”
“It…it looks like cooked meat.”
“It is, I’ll need the first-aid kit.”
“Let’s get you in the truck. We’ll get further away from the flames and fix you up.”
Together they struggled to get her in the truck, the worst part being when RJ lifted her broken leg and slid it into the vehicle. That was when she blacked out.
Chapter 12
RJ made sure Kelly was breathing, fastened her seat belt, and reclined the seat back in an attempt to make her as comfortable as possible. He couldn’t believe how brave she was. Any other woman he knew would have screamed in agony. But not his Kelly. She gritted her teeth and made some grunting and groaning noises before she passed out. He knew she’d be pissed as hell once she came to. Passing out would be a sign of weakness to her and the last thing she would allow herself to do. Making his way around the back of the truck, he got out his first aid kit from the toolbox in the bed of the truck and then got in the driver’s seat.
Worried about Kelly’s injuries, he forgot about his back until he leaned against his seat. Groaning out loud in pain, he pulled himself away and figured he’d have to drive leaning forward.
Kelly stirred and mumbled, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I just forgot about my back and leaned against the seat. Hurts like a mother-fucker again.”
With her good left arm, Kelly pulled the first aid kit onto her lap and unzipped it while RJ started to drive forward. She pulled out some gauze and antiseptic ointment.
“Hang on and I’ll help you with that in just a minute,” RJ said.
“It’s okay, I can do this. You drive.”
“You were just blacked out, Kelly. Just wait till I get down the road a bit and I’ll help you.”
“I wasn’t passed out,” she insisted. “I was just dealing with the pain from you lifting my leg to get it in the truck.”
“Yeah, right.” RJ gave up and continued driving.
He saw she was about to squeeze the ointment on her wound, but then changed her mind. Instead, she took her bottle of water and irrigated her burn, letting the water run down to the floor between her legs. Then she loosely wrapped the gauze around her arm as a preventive measure to keep any more dirt from getting in there.
RJ watched her out of the corner of his eye and saw that she was doing all right. It looked like she was able to keep the shock from settling in, but her face filled with pain as she leaned back to rest for a minute.
After a few minutes, she said, “Why don’t you pull over so I can take a look at your back and maybe put some ointment on it?”
“Not now,” he answered. “We’re only about seven or eight miles from Corbin’s Bend, but it’ll take us about forty-five minutes to get there at the speed we can travel on this road. I’m okay as long as I don’t lean back against the seat.”
The next forty minutes were spent mostly in silence. RJ hoped Kelly was asleep, not unconscious. As for him, he was exhausted as hell and every time he moved one of his arms, what was left of the back of his shirt tugged on his burns. He was pretty sure some of the edges of the burn holes were stuck to his skin by drying blood.
They were now on a graded dirt road at the far northwest end of Corbin’s Bend. It was smooth going from here, but it would be a few more miles before they had cell phone coverage. He gave Kelly’s left leg a nudge, wincing at the pulling on his back.
“Kel, wake up. We’re here.”
She moved a little, but didn’t say anything so he gave her another nudge.
“Kelly,” he spoke sharper this time. “Wake up. I need you to call the community center and find out where they are in the evacuation process.”
“Okay,’’ she murmured and blinked her eyes a few times. Then she moaned and said, “RJ, I don’t feel well.”
Her head lolled to the side and she passed out again.
“Shit! Kelly! Wake up!”
He grabbed his phone and called the community center. Jonathan answered on the first ring.
“Jonathan, it’s RJ. Listen, we’re both injured and just far enough in Corbin’s Bend to get cell coverage. How’s the evacuation going? Is anyone at the medical center?”
“We didn’t have to evacuate, the medical center is operating at full strength,” Jonathon told him. “You can go directly there. Do you need any help? I can send someone to meet you.”
“No, I’ve got it. Kelly’s passed out, but I’ll be there faster than you can send anyone to us. Is the fire contained now?”
“Yes, it is,” Jonathon replied. “We had practically everyone here at the community center when the Ranger station called and said the fire is contained. They flew a few planes over the fire and dumped lots of water or retardant on it. There’s a few small spots left they need to take care of, but we’re safe. Thank goodness! I’ll call Dr. Devon and let them know you’re on the way.”
“That sounds good,” RJ said and ended the call.
When they finally reached the clinic there was a small crowd waiting for them. Kelly’s dad, Jack, and his partner Josh, Brent and Char, and even Benjamin and Jonathan.
Dr. Devon immediately took charge and gave orders to get Kelly out of the truck and onto a gurney. An orderly wheeled her into one exam room while Josh, who was a Nurse Practitioner at the hospital, took charge of RJ and accompanied him to the emergency room where they would tend to the multitude of burns on his back.
Before long, Dr. Devon came out and told Jack his daughter needed to go to the hospital in Denver.
“The burn on her arm is critical and their burn unit can handle that better than we can here. I set her leg and braced it. She needs a cast, but I don’t want to put one on with the open wound. I want to send RJ as well. His back has multiple burns and while we’ve cleaned it up pretty well, I’d like the burn specialists to take a look.”
Brent made the phone calls necessary to get the copter ready, and RJ and Kelly were taken to the helio pad.
At the hospital, Kelly had to have surgery on her arm. She had a lot of muscle damage, but fortunately the doctors were able to repair it. She’d be fine with lots of physical therapy and time to let it heal, though the scar wouldn’t be pretty. With a little finagling, Dr. Devon managed to arrange for Kelly and RJ to share a semi private room. For two days they had nearly nonstop visitors coming to see them. Then Kelly was back in surgery to get her leg properly set. She had to have screws and an apparatus that would keep her bones aligned.
Jack went to talk to RJ while they waited for Kelly to get out of surgery.
“I want to thank you for making sure my daughter got out of that forest fire,” Jack told him.
“No thanks are necessary, she helped me at least as much as I helped her. That’s one brave girl you raised, Jack.”
“Thanks, she most definitely can hold her own and I’ll venture to guess that she can be more than a handful at times.”
“That she can, but I’m up to the challenge.”
Jack chuckled and said, “I’m going to say that remains to be seen. You do anything that she doesn’t like I can guarantee she’ll rip you a new one. And just so we’re clear, when she’s done ripping
you a new one, I’ll step on you and squash you like a bug.”
RJ knew Jack said that mostly in jest, and yet there was a little bit of truth in his statement. It was a warning, and RJ knew it.
“Understood,” he replied. “But so you understand where I’m coming from…I love Kelly. If she’ll have me, I want her to be my wife.”
Kelly was back in her room by early afternoon. All had gone well with her surgery and she was still a little groggy. Jack had left once he knew his daughter was going to be all right. She dozed on and off and was pretty sure she was dreaming when she heard a high-pitched voice as someone entered the room.
“I swear, Rhett Jefferson Butler! I just lost ten years of my life when that nice Dr. Devon called me to tell me you were hurt.”
“Hi, Ma. When are you going to start calling me RJ? You know that’s what I go by.”
“Well, what you go by is not your name. Your name is Rhett Butler and that’s what I’m going to call you for the rest of my days. Now tell me, how’s my boy doing?”
“I’m okay, just a few burns on my back, but they’re nothing that won’t heal.”
Kelly opened her eyes and saw the curtain between the two beds was drawn, but she could hear their voices. She had not been dreaming. RJ’s name was Rhett Butler! No wonder he didn’t want to go by that name. She almost laughed out loud when she thought about how he must’ve been teased in school being named after Scarlett O’Hara’s true love in Gone with the Wind.
She managed to remain quiet, sure that RJ must think she was still sleeping off the anesthesia from her surgery. His mom was insisting that he sit up and let her take a look at the burned skin on his back.
“Ma, come on. I’m okay. The doctors here know what they’re doing and I’m all bandaged up. There is no need for you to see.”
“All right,” she answered. “But I don’t know what the big deal is letting your mama see your back. I worked as a nurse for more than thirty years and who do you think it was that changed your diapers when you were a baby?”
“I know,” he replied and Kelly got the feeling they had similar conversations rather frequently by his tired sounding acceptance. “But I’m not a baby anymore. My back is fine. Now why don’t you tell me what’s going on with that new husband of yours?”
She made an unladylike snort, and said, “I’m sorry to say he’s as worthless as everybody told me he was. I can’t tell you how happy I am your daddy put everything in a trust and won’t allow anyone but a blood relative to get their hands on any of that money. Bill gambles away just about every dime he makes. If it weren’t for the trust your daddy left me, and the fact that the house is paid for, I’m not sure how we’d survive.”
“Well, Mom, you don’t have to stay with him, you know. You haven’t even been married two years, why not leave now rather than spend more of your life with the worthless son of a bitch?”
“Aw hell, wouldn’t you know I just happen to be in love with the son of a bitch. I can deal with him as long as I know my house and the money your daddy left me are safe.”
Kelly thought perhaps they were discussing personal things they wouldn’t talk about if they knew she was awake, so she gave a little moan to let them think that she was slowly waking up.
“Rhett, is your new young lady waking up?”
“Sounds like it, why don’t you take a peek behind the curtain and see if she looks all right.”
She heard the sound of the metal curtain clips slide across the rods and blinked her eyes open as though she was just waking up. She saw a pretty redhead pop her head around the curtain. The woman was maybe five feet, five inches tall and Kelly wondered how such a short woman had produced a six foot three inch man. The tall genes must have come from RJ’s father.
“Are you waking up, dear?”
Kelly nodded and said, “Yeah, I think so. Who’re you?”
Even though she knew perfectly well it was RJ’s mother, she thought she’d let them believe she hadn’t heard any of their conversation.
“I’m Rhett’s mother, Sylvie. How are you feeling? Would you like me to call for the nurse?”
“Who is Rhett?” Kelly ignored the woman’s other questions, pretending she didn’t know who Sylvie was talking about.
“Why, Rhett is the man you’ve been dating. Oh my, do you think you’re suffering from amnesia?”
“Butt out, Ma!” RJ said from the other side of the curtain. “She does not have amnesia, she knows me as RJ.”
Sylvie ignored her son, and gave Kelly a small smile and a slight shrug of her shoulder, “I don’t know what he has against his real name. His full name is Rhett Jefferson Butler. You can probably figure out that with a name like that, his mama is a huge fan of Gone with the Wind.”
“Yes, that does make sense,” Kelly said. Then she whispered, “He must have been teased about that name in school.”
“Poor boy, yes, he was. He was about twelve or thirteen when he decided to shun the name his mama gave him and started to use just his initials.”
Kelly heard RJ groan and then he gave a sigh of resignation.
Sylvie slipped into nurse mode for a few minutes putting her hand on Kelly’s forehead to check her temperature even though it was posted on the monitor she was hooked up to. Then she placed her fingers on Kelly’s wrist to check her pulse.
“I know, I know. You’re going to tell me all that information and more is on these machines you’re hooked up to. But I’m old school, and I like to feel the pulse and judge how strong it is for myself. You seem to be doing just fine,” Sylvie patted Kelly’s arm as though to give her comfort.
All Kelly could think of to say was, “Thank you. It was nice meeting you, Sylvie.”
“It was very nice meeting you as well, dear. I’m going to be staying at RJ’s house for a few days, so we’ll probably see more of each other. Did you know he’s going to be released from the hospital tomorrow morning?”
“No, I didn’t know that. I think I’m going…” Kelly’s voice drifted off as the anesthetic drugs still in her body pulled her back into sleep.
“Ma, there’s no need for you to stay with me. I’ll be just fine and when Kelly gets discharged, I want to be the one taking care of her.”
“That’s fine, Rhett. But I drove all the way up here from Farmington and I’m going to stay for at least a few days. Once Kelly is discharged and I see the two of you are doing all right on your own, then I’ll go back home.”
He could hear in her voice that there would be no dissuading her, but he had to give it one more try.
“You know, Kelly’s dad lives in Corbin’s Bend, as does her aunt and uncle. It’s not like we’re completely without friends and family.”
As soon as he said it, RJ could’ve kicked himself for telling his mom that Kelly had three close family members in Corbin’s Band. He watched her eyes widen at the implication of so many family members living in what she knew was a spanking community.
“I’ll be the first to admit I don’t understand this spanking obsession thing and how a whole community could have been built to accommodate so many people that go in for that sort of thing. I’m the first to admit that I don’t even want to know what or why you go in for that spanking stuff.” Her voice lowered into a whisper and she asked, “Are you telling me that her whole family is into that?”
With a heavy sigh, knowing his mother would gnaw on that bone until he gave her a satisfactory explanation, he said, “Not her whole family. Her uncle is one of the original founders and developers of the community. So naturally he and his wife live there. Her father moved there to be with his partner and sort of ended up developing a taste, shall we say, for the lifestyle.”
“How odd,” Sylvie said thoughtfully. “I find it all very odd.”
RJ decided to call her bluff, “Ma, I know you don’t find it at all odd. I know about the kind of relationship you and Dad had.”
Sylvie turned a beet red and stuttered a few times before she said, “I can’t
believe your father told you that.”
RJ touched her arm and said, “He didn’t. I figured it out for myself when I was about seventeen. We talked about the lifestyle briefly when I wanted to spank that sarcastic girl I was dating when I was a senior in high school. But he never talked about your relationship. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Ma.”
She gave his hand a motherly pat, and said, “Well, since the cat’s out of the bag, I will say our use of such things was strictly for when I misbehaved.”
Still embarrassed, she picked up her purse and prepared to leave. “I’ll let you get some sleep now, dear. I’m going to do some shopping and then I’ll come back tonight to collect your house key.”
He shook his head as she turned and left the room before he could voice any further protest.
True to her word, Sylvie left a few days after Kelly was released from the hospital. But those few days were a trial on both RJ and Kelly. Sylvie saw how Jack popped in every morning to check on his daughter and how Char stopped by in the early afternoon, and a few residents stopped in with casseroles and other food for the recovering pair. Venia popped in with her no-nonsense, but friendly attitude and brought along some takeout dinner from the Mexican restaurant, Endelé. Ange, the owner of a pastry shop that Sylvie swore would cause her to gain twenty pounds a week if she lived anywhere near it, stopped by with goodies for them.
Aunt Quincy, who ran the antique store in the community, came by with a big plate of her famous chocolate chip cookies. When Sylvie found out there was an antique shop right there in Corbin’s Bend, she made a point to stop in and check it out. When she got back to Kelly’s house, she regaled the girl with everything she had seen there.
“Honey, I didn’t know what she was talking about when she told me about the antique implements she carries. I asked her what the implements were used for and she says ‘for spanking, of course.’ She had plenty of ‘normal’ antiques, but I did take a look at those implements. You don’t let Rhett strike you with any of those sorts of things, do you?”
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