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Damn the luck! Coltrain muttered, checking her pupil reaction with a small penlight.
She s concussed as well as bruised, he murmured. I m going to need X-rays and a battery of
tests to see how badly she s hurt. But the concussion is the main thing.
J.B. felt sick. One of his men had been kicked in the head by a mean steer and dropped dead of a
massive concussion. Can t you do something now? he raged at Coltrain.
The physician gave him an odd look. It was notorious gossip locally that Tellie was crazy about J. B.
Hammock, and that J.B. paid her as little attention as possible. The white-faced man with blazing
green eyes facing him didn t seem disinterested.
What would you suggest? he asked J.B. curtly.
Wake her up!
Grange made a rough sound in his throat.
You can shut up, J.B. told him icily. You re not a doctor.
Neither are you, Grange returned with the same lack of warmth. And if you d given her a lift to
the hospital, she wouldn t need one, would she?
J.B. had already worked that out for himself. His lips compressed furiously.
Tellie groaned.
Both men moved to the examination table at the same time. Coltrain gave them angry looks and bent
to examine Tellie.
Can you hear me? he asked her softly. Tellie?
Her eyes opened, green and dazed. She blinked and winced. My head hurts.
I m not surprised, Coltrain murmured, busy with a stethoscope. Take a deep breath.
Let it out. Again.
She groaned. My head hurts, she repeated.
Okay, I ll give you something for it. But we need X-rays and an MRI, Coltrain said quietly.
Anything hurt besides your head?
Everything, she replied. What happened?
You wrecked your car, Grange said quietly.
She looked up at him. You found me?
He nodded, dark eyes concerned.
She managed a smile. Thanks. She shivered. I m wet!
It was pouring rain, Grange said, his voice soft, like his eyes. He brushed back the blood-matted
hair from her forehead, disclosing a growing dark bruise. He winced.
You re concussed, Tellie, Dr. Coltrain said. We re going to have to keep you for a day or two.
Okay?
But I ll miss graduation! she exclaimed, trying to sit up.
He gently pushed her back down. No, you won t, he said with a quizzical smile.
She blinked, glancing at J.B., who looked very worried. But it s May. I m a senior. I have a white
gown and cap. She hesitated. Was I driving Marge s car?
No. Your own, J.B. said slowly, apprehensively.
But I don t have a car, don t you remember, J.B.? she asked pleasantly. I have to drive Marge s.
She s going to help me buy a car this summer, because I m going to work at the Sav-A-Lot Grocery
Store, remember?
J.B. s indrawn breath was audible. Before the other two men could react, he pressed Tellie s small
hand closer in his own. Tellie, how old are you? he asked.
I m seventeen, you know that, she scoffed.
Coltrain whistled. J.B. turned to him, his lips parted in the preliminary to a question.
We re going to step outside and discuss how to break it to Marge, Coltrain told her gently. You
just rest. I ll send a nurse in with something for your headache, okay?
Okay, she agreed. J.B., you aren t leaving, are you? she added worriedly.
Coals of fire, he was thinking, as he assured her that he d be nearby. She relaxed and smiled as she lay
back on the examination table.
Coltrain motioned the other two men outside into the hall. Amnesia, he told J.B. at once. I m sure
it s temporary, he added quickly. It isn t uncommon with head injuries. She s very confused, and in
some pain. I ll run tests. We ll do an MRI to make sure.
The head injury would cause it? Grange asked worriedly.
J.B. had a flush along his high cheekbones. He didn t speak.
Coltrain gave him a curious look. The brain tends to try to protect itself from trauma, and not only
physical trauma. Has she had a shock of some kind? he asked J.B. pointedly.
J.B. replied with a curt jerk of his head. We had a...misunderstanding at the house, he admitted.
Grange s dark eyes flashed. Well, that explains why she wrecked the car! he accused.
J.B. glared at him. Like hell it does...!
Coltrain held up a hand. Arguing isn t going to do her any good. She s had the wreck, now we have
to deal with the consequences. I m going to admit her and start running tests.
J.B. drew a quick breath. How are we going to explain this to Tellie?
Coltrain sighed. Tell her as little as possible, right now. Once she s stabilized, we ll tell her what
we have to. But if she thinks she s seventeen, sending her to Marge s house is going to be traumatic
she ll expect the girls to be four years younger than they are, won t she?
J.B. was thinking, hard. He saw immediately a way to solve that problem and prevent Nell from
escaping at once. She can stay at the house with Nell and me, he said. She and Marge and the
girls did stay there when she was seventeen for a couple of weeks while Marge s house was being
remodeled. We can tell her that Marge and the girls are having a vacation while workmen tend to her
house. I ll make it right with Dawn and Brandi.
You and Tellie were close when she was in her teens, I recall, Coltrain recalled.
Yes, J.B. said tautly.
Coltrain chuckled, glancing at Grange. She followed him around like a puppy when she first went
to live with Marge, he told the other man. You couldn t talk to J.B. without tripping over Tellie. J.B.
was her security blanket after she lost her mother.
She was the same way with Marge, J.B. muttered.
Not to that extent, she wasn t, Coltrain argued. She thought the sun rose and set on you...
I need to go back and check on Marge, J.B. interrupted, visibly uncomfortable.
I ll stay with Tellie for a while, Grange said, moving back into the examination room before the
other two men could object.
J.B. stared after him with bridled fury, his hands deep in his pockets, his eyes smoldering.
He s got no business in there, he told Coltrain. He isn t even family!
Neither are you, the doctor reminded him.
J.B. glared at him. Are you sure she ll be all right?
As sure as I can be. He studied the other man intently. You said something to her, something that
hurt, didn t you? he asked, nodding when J.B. s high cheekbones took on a ruddy color. She s
hiding in the past, when you were less resentful of her. She ll get her memory back, but it s going to
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