Swirl: The Complete Collection (BWWM Interracial Romance) (Books 1-3)

by Lexi Lewis

  Once she had pulled off from the school, and after shooting the traffic lady a bright grin, she headed towards the hospital.

  She would be early, but that would give her time to mentally prepare herself for the day. There was a snowboard competition being held up on the mountain, and she could only imagine how busy the hospital would be what with all the thrill seekers who would undoubtedly be injuring themselves.

  “I don’t know why people gotta be trying to defy gravity all over the place. Just keep your damned feet on the ground like you’re supposed to,” she muttered under her breath as she crossed the parking lot and made her way into the hospital.

  “Morning, Eve,” called Lisa, the main receptionist. “You’re early.”

  “Hey, Lisa. Yeah, which is surprising since I woke up late. Ended up getting me and the kid some McDonald’s instead of trying to cook something.”

  “I bet he loved that,” Lisa said with a smile. “My nephew is turning eleven this weekend, you know. I’m sure he’d love it if Devin came to his party.”

  Eve smiled back, but it was tight and a little wistful. Parties meant gifts and gifts meant money that she didn’t really have to spare to give to someone else’s kid. She could barely afford to give her own brother presents. But Devin and Lisa’s nephew went to the same school, so she was sure that Devin would hear about the party and want to go.

  How was she supposed to tell him he couldn’t?

  “We’ll see,” she said, turning up the brightness on her smile. “He might be going to stay with our aunt this weekend, but it might work out.”

  Lisa nodded. “Just let me know. Although I’m sure Thomas will tell him all about it at school. You know kids these days; they barely need us for anything anymore with all the technology and the internet.”

  “Right,” Eve said, laughing hollowly. Lisa was about ten years older than her, and she wondered if the woman forgot that in some ways, Eve was still a young person herself. There was something about having guardianship of a child that either made people think you were older and more responsible than you were or that you were too young and had messed up your life. At least Lisa didn’t glare at her and assume that she forgot to feed Devin or something the way the ladies at his school did. “Well, I should get on up to the fourth floor.”

  “Oh, yeah. It’s probably going to be packed today with that competition in town. A few of the doctors are on standby up on the mountain, but they’re bringing anyone with more than a few gashes down here for treatment,” Lisa said. “Have a good day, Eve, dear.”

  “You, too,” Eve said, relieved to be done with that conversation. She punched the button on the elevator to go up, and headed up to the floor she usually worked on.

  It wasn’t quite as good as being a doctor, but she usually worked with patients who were going to need surgery or long term care since the doctors had all been impressed with her bedside manner and the way she paid attention to things that were going on around her. So she got to see a lot of what went on when it came to caring for patients in critical conditions. It made her ache to be doing these things herself, to be the one giving the diagnoses and reassuring the families, but she told herself that it was better than nothing. It was better than not being a part of it at all.

  The day started off as it usually did, with her making the rounds of the patients they already had, filling out charts and fetching different doses of different things for the doctors who asked for them. She chatted with the patients she knew and with the other nurses, and before long it was time for her lunch break.

  Usually she just went down to the cafeteria for lunch. Sometimes she went out to grab something quickly, but she didn’t have the money for that after that morning’s breakfast. That was fine, though. The cafeteria food had grown on her, and she ordered a bowl of chicken soup and got a salad and a muffin to go with it.

  She was enjoying her meal and her afternoon cup of coffee when Patty, one of the older nurses came to sit beside her. From the look on her face, she could tell that she had something she wanted to say, probably some piece of gossip, so Eve waited patiently, sipping at her soup and eating her salad.

  “Have you heard?” Patty asked finally, breaking into a wide grin. She was pretty when she smiled, her skin a couple shades lighter than Eve’s own, and she kept her curly hair cut short. “There was a major accident up on the mountain this morning. They just brought the guy in.”

  Eve frowned. “And you’re happy about that, are you? I think you might need to revisit the job description, Patty?”

  Patty swatted her on the arm. “Of course I’m not happy he’s hurt, but he is, and he’s here, and he is gorgeous.”

  “Really?”

  She nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, girl. He’s one of those athletic types. I assisted when they brought him in, and he’s bruised and battered up, but it’s obvious he’s got a body. And his face. Chiseled perfection. Jawline to die for. Head of blond curls, too. Like an angel.”

  “Aren’t you married, Patty?” Eve asked, making a face. This guy did sound cute, but their job wasn’t to ogle the patients.

  “Married, not dead,” Patty said. “I can still look, and then I can tell people who are in a better position to do something about it.”

  “Me? Oh, come on. I can just see it now. Hello, sir. You’ve got a concussion and several broken ribs, but how about a date when you can walk again? Sound good?”

  Patty laughed and poked her. “You never know, Eve. You never know. Anyway, they just took him up to four, so you might get to see for yourself.”

  Okay, now that was exciting news. If he was one of the competitors, then he would be high profile, and if she hurried, she might get to help with it. Hastily, she gulped down the rest of her coffee, gave her muffin to Patty and made her way back up to the fourth floor. Patty probably thought that she just wanted to see this guy, but the job was more exciting that some cute guy any day.

  CHAPTER 3: RUDE AWAKENING

  Reese didn’t come to all at once. His senses seemed to be coming back online one after another so as not to overwhelm him all at once. He could hear a rhythmic beeping somewhere near the left side of his head, and he focused on that for a while, letting the steady pattern draw him up from the blackness that was covering everything. Wherever he was, it smelled sterile, and the antiseptic and linen scent could only mean one thing. Hospital, his still foggy brain supplied.

  The rough cotton of the sheets over his body confirmed that well enough, and when his sense of feeling came back, the pain did as well.

  Ouch. It was hard to concentrate on anything but the throbbing ache in his right side and arm and his left leg. He clenched his left hand in the rough blanket thrown over him and tried to breathe through it.

  It wasn’t like this was the first time he had woken up like this, after all. He was in a dangerous line of work that usually resulted in him ending up in the hospital for various lengths of time, though he had never taken a fall like that before.

  Once he had figured out how to breathe through the pain, he opened one eye and then the other slowly, blinking against the harsh glare of the light. He was in a smallish, room, the bed elevated so that he could see everything around him. Standard hospital set up, and the door to the room was closed, so he couldn’t see anything else. Everything was that industrial shade of white that was supposed to signify cleanliness, but it all seemed so face. Hospitals always put him on edge because places like this were where people went to die, and no matter how hard they tried to make it seem healthy and inviting, nothing good ever came from such stark whiteness, and the heavy feel of sickness and death would always be there. His body wasn’t splinted or wrapped in bandages yet, so he could only imagine that he hadn’t been here very long yet. If he tried very hard not to move anything other than his head and neck, then it didn’t hurt so much, and he could avoid crying out.

  Reese wanted the doctor to come in and tell him how bad it was already. He could only imagine that he was out of any
other winter competitions, but the spring would bring the BMX shows, and he had to be in those if he wanted to continue to move on with his career. Probably he’d be down for a month at the most and then spend all of February and early March training and getting himself back in shape.

  Having a plan was good. It gave him something else to focus on other than wondering just how bad off he was.

  It was so rare for him to mess up like that, and when he tried to think back over the events that had led to him falling, it was all just hazy and foggy and it made his head hurt. Things had been going so well, just like they had always gone in practice, and he couldn’t imagine what had gone wrong.

  His strap had come undone or something, but would that have been enough to send him falling like that? He’d finished more complicated runs than that with board malfunctions before. Sometimes boards broke or bent or straps snapped in the middle of tricks, but he’d always managed to avoid taking a spill like the one he had that day.

  Reese’s head protested the heavy thinking, and he sighed, pressing himself back against the pillows and closing his eyes once more. It wouldn’t do any good to get all worked up about things before he even knew what he was looking at here in terms of injuries. So he took a deep breath, ignoring the way it made his side protest, and tried to relax.

  He felt like he had dozed off again, because he jolted a little at the sound of the door opening and then hissed in pain when it jarred his body.

  “Good afternoon, Mr. Abbot,” the doctor said as he walked in. “Sorry about that, we’ll get your limbs in slings and wrapped up as soon as possible.”

  “No worries,” Reese said, voice tight from the pain.

  “I’m Dr. Smith, and I’ll be taking care of you for the duration of your stay with us. Right now we’re just waiting for the results of your x-rays.”

  “Great. That’s the part I’ve been waiting for. How long do you think it will take?”

  “It shouldn’t be more than half an hour. We’ve been on standby since the completion was being held so close to here. We’ll get your leg and arm taken care of and then your…agent I believe, would like to speak with you.”

  Reese nodded. “Yeah, okay. You can send him in whenever you’re done.”

  The doctor nodded and made a note on his chart. “Alright, then. I’m also going to start you on a low dose of morphine for the pain. It shouldn’t make you pass out, though you might get a little drowsy. Please let me or one of the nurses know if you feel like you’re having a negative reaction to it.”

  “Will do.”

  He nodded again. “Very good. I’ll send a nurse in to get started on that, and I’ll be back when I’ve got your x-ray results.” He withdrew from the room, closing the door behind him, but the room was only empty for another couple of minutes before the nurse came bustling in.

  She was one of those severe, no nonsense looking women who didn’t make small talk. All she did was swab his arm and hook him up to an IV, her hands moving quickly and skillfully as she worked.

  The morphine did its job well, and Reese could feel it working, sliding through his body in a warm wash that drove away the worst of the pain, leaving a dull ache behind that was much easier to ignore than the sharp stabbing feeling from before. It made it easier to deal with the way she moved his arm and leg as she put them in their slings. The pain from that threatened to overwhelm the painkiller coursing through his veins, but having the limbs mostly immobile ended up helping a lot.

  He let out a slow breath when the nurse left after pointing out the call button on the side of the bed, and slumped back against the pillows. The morphine made him feel fuzzy, and he was pretty sure he could go back to sleep if he tried, but the door was opening again, and Paul was coming in.

  Paul Spencer had been his agent and friend since Reese had transitioned from riding and racing in his neighborhood park to competing in big time tournaments. He handled all of the publicity and offers from sponsors, and in general, made it so that Reese could concentrate the sport and not the business side of things.

  He was a tall man with a shaved head and a close cropped beard, about five years older than Reese. His head glinted in the florescent overhead light, and Reese grinned. Alright, so maybe the morphine was affecting him more than he’d thought at first.

  “Hey,” Paul said. “You gave us a serious scare, man. Don’t do crap like that.”

  “Wasn’t like I meant to,” Reese pointed out, blinking up at him. “I don’t even know what happened up there. One minute I was soaring, next minute I was crashing. Sucked.”

  “Yeah, I know. It looked like you just fell out of the air. Nearly gave me a goddamned heart attack. Has the doctor said anything about your condition yet?”

  Reese shrugged his good shoulder. “Not really. He’s waiting on the x-ray results to come back first. How bad did I do?”

  Paul sighed and shook his head. “It’s not pretty. I mean, they talked about just disqualifying you since it’s not like you’ll be participating in the rest of the competition.”

  “Goddammit,” Reese swore. “This was supposed to be a turning point, Paul. I was supposed to wow the crowd and get people’s attention.”

  “On the bright side, you definitely got their attention,” Paul offered with a weak smile.

  Reese snorted. “Yeah,” he said glumly. “Not in the way I wanted, though. Man. This is gonna set me back so much. I’ve gotta qualify for the spring games, or I may as well just hang it up now. If I go that long out of the circuit, no one’s going to even be thinking about me anymore.”

  “Just calm down,” Paul said, holding his hands up in a placating manner. “Wait and see what the doctor has to say before you go counting yourself out of the games. It might be better than you think. Knowing you, it won’t take any time to get back into shape and on your bike.”

  He let out a low breath and nodded. Paul was right. Getting agitated before he even knew anything was just going to be a waste of time. “Okay, okay. Ugh. Okay. I hate the hospital.”

  “Yeah, I know. But some people have sent stuff to liven up your room if you want it.”

  “What, already? I’ve only been here for like an hour, right? How did they…”

  Paul laughed. “This hospital has a rather extensive gift shop, and they’ve already been utilizing it. I told the nurses to let me talk to you before they started bringing the stuff in, but I can have them unload it in here if you want.”

  Reese couldn’t help but chuckle. It was nice to know that there were still people out there who were pulling for him, even though he’d let them down. Apparently, he’d let himself down more than anything else. “Sure,” he said. “Maybe not all of it, though. Maybe just some flowers or something so it doesn’t get too crowded in here.”

  “Good idea. We want the lovely nurses to be able to work.”

  Reese rolled his eyes. “Please don’t start perving on the nurses, Paul. I need them to like me so they’ll take care of me and get me out of here sooner rather than later. That’s not going to happen if you’re trying to get into their scrubs.”

  “I’m not perving!” Paul insisted. “I’m just saying. Some of them making the uniform look damned good. This one who was in the elevator with me coming up? Perfect body. Curves just like I like ‘em.”

  “Get out,” Reese said, laughing. “Bring in the flowers and go take a cold shower back at the hotel or something. Ugh, the hotel. I forgot about that. We were supposed to check out at the end of the week.”

  “I’ll take care of it. Your parents called and said we could stay with them for as long as we need to, and they’re actually on their way over here now.”

  Great. That was just what he needed. Reese loved his parents, but they were exhausting sometimes. They lived about an hour’s drive away from here, and he had been planning to stop in to see them before he left. They never came to his competitions because his father claimed that watching him defy gravity gave him a heart attack every time he saw it, and his moth
er mostly didn’t care about the things he did since he had dropped out of school to pursue his passion.

  “Guess it’s too late to tell them to turn around,” Reese mumbled under his breath with a sigh.

  “Probably. But hey, c’mon. They’re your parents and they just want to make sure you’re alright.”

  “Could have done that with a phone call. But whatever.”

  Paul gave him a sympathetic smile. “Here, I’ll have them bring the flowers in and then you can spend time reading about how much the teenage girls love you.”

  If Reese had something to throw at him, he would have.

  The next couple of hours or so were a hive of motion and noise. Nurses brought in large bouquets of flowers, setting them on the available surfaces and putting some on the floor. Even though he had just been hurt that morning, there as already a pile of cards and letters from his fans, telling him they hoped he was alright and wishing him a speedy recovery. Reese actually did read every letter he got sent because he remembered the days when he would watch the games on TV and wish that he could be part of them. And now that he was, he wanted to feel connected to his fans.

  His parents came in, and his father scolded him for being reckless while his mother looked disinterested in the whole affair. Same old. His parents had always been like that. His father got worked up, and his mother pretended not to care. He caught a hint of worry in her eyes when he shifted and winced as it jostled his leg, but neither of them mentioned it.