Page 5 of The Candle Palace (Jamison Valley 6)
“Perfect.” Luna pulled the blanket on her lap up higher, snuggling into her pillow. “My very own rainbow.”
“How are you feeling?” I asked, sitting on the edge of her bed.
“I’m sore. Physical therapy has been hard this week. My leg . . .”
“I know.” I placed my hand on hers.
She didn’t need to finish explaining. Her leg had sustained the worst of the burns, not only from the heat of the fire, but from the number of cuts and scrapes in the accident itself. She’d been unable to walk until the burns and grafts had healed and was now going through physical therapy to rebuild her strength.
It was just one of the hurdles she’d jumped since coming here months ago. Her right hand would never be the same again. Her fingers had been burned and crushed. Luckily, she was left-handed. But there were things she was teaching herself to do again, like holding a fork in her right hand so she could cut a piece of chicken with her left.
She was trying so hard to do the things most people took for granted.
“Want me to fill you in on all the gossip?” she asked, a smile pulling at her lips.
“I’ve been waiting all week. I hope you have some good stuff.”
As she started in on her stories, I took her vitals and recorded them in the hospital’s system. Then I resumed my spot on her bed as she spent twenty minutes telling me how the man in room 508 was still getting caught stealing his neighbor’s dinner dessert off the cafeteria cart. She was certain the woman who worked in the gift shop was in love with her physical therapist based on the dreamy stares and finger waves she was constantly throwing his direction. And she told me how Dr. Vernon had mentioned on more than one occasion he was looking forward to when I came back from vacation.
That one gave me pause, but I didn’t let on to Luna. Dr. Vernon was a great doctor and necessary to her recovery. He’d taught me a lot since I’d started here and I had a lot of respect for him. There was just . . . something. A change in his recent behavior that made me uneasy. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
Lately, he’d become friendlier. Not a bad thing, but it was almost too friendly. Too forward. I was anxious when he was in the same room. I kept one eye on him, not trusting he wouldn’t move too close when I wasn’t watching.
Or maybe he’d been that way all along and I was only now clueing in. He was the only doctor I worked with frequently who I didn’t call by his first name.
“You’ve been busy keeping up on everyone.”
She shrugged. “It doesn’t take me long to get my work done for school and then there’s nothing else to do until Mom and Dad come here after work.”
Luna had become the gossip queen of this unit and the physical therapy center on the first floor. She might have been missing high school and bored throughout the day, but she’d found a way to entertain herself and the rest of us with her stories.
“You’ll be back to school and normal soon enough. Then you’ll wish you had boring days.”
“Gonna miss me?” she asked.
“So much. No matter how long I work here, I’ll always consider this your room. You better keep in touch after you go home.”
“Duh.” She rolled her eyes again. “We’re friends.”
I squeezed her hand, then stood from the bed. “I’d better get back to work. They should be here with your breakfast soon. If you have any trouble, just call for me. And I’ll be back in a little while to help you to the shower and then we’ll get you all greased up.”
“Can we add the eucalyptus oil today?”
“Did it irritate you at all while I was gone?”
She shook her head. “No.?
?
“Then yes.”
We’d been mixing some essential oils in with her lotion treatments. Her scars would always show, but her mom had hoped the oils might lessen them some. Luna was at the stage in her recovery where the skin had healed and the grafts had taken. Soon she’d be able to go home, but for now, she had a bit of time left here for rehab.
I’d check her vitals and monitor her sites for any swelling. But mostly, I would be applying special creams to her skin and making sure she was comfortable.
I smiled over my shoulder. “See you in a bit.”
“Wait,” Luna called. I turned as she hesitated over her array of tea lights, picking a yellow one. “I, um . . . have a new neighbor.”
