Page 40 of The Do-Over
“We’ll get you out. Don’t worry.” She had a stick the width of a baseball bat, and she wedged it into the crack in the door. “Okay, here we go.”
She leaned back, using the stick as a lever, and Rob heard the screeching, groaning sound of metal bending back on itself. He gritted his teeth against it. It made his head pound even more than it already was.
“There,” Thea said. “That should be wide enough for you to climb through. Now we just need to get you unpinned from the steering wheel.”
She got down on her hands and knees and looked into the car, examining the situation.
There was something different about her, Rob realized. Something he hadn’t noticed at first. “When did you get your hair cut?” Her hair had always been long, hanging midway down her back, but now it was only to her chin.
She looked at him in confusion. “I’ve gotten my hair cut plenty of times.”
“But short like that,” he clarified. “That’s new.”
“Well, yeah, I guess it would be. Can we talk fashion later, though? We need to get you out of here,” she said. “See if you can push against that bit right there, where the wheel well is.”
He saw what she meant and nodded, bracing his foot against it. He pushed hard and felt his body shift a little.
“Okay, keep doing that.” Thea grabbed his arms and began to pull.
It wasn’t easy, but eventually Rob slid free of the wreckage of the car. Thea helped him through the open door, and he climbed out and stood on the bank of gathering snow beside her.
“I’m going to have to check you for injuries,” she told him.
“Right now? Here?”
“Yes, here. We’re not walking back to town only to find out you’ve got a cracked pelvis or something. Lie down.”
“In the snow?” When had she gotten so bossy? She had never spoken to him like this before.
In response, she took off her jacket and laid it on the snow. “Okay?” she said. “You can put your head on that.”
“No, God, that isn’t necessary.” He wasn’t going to have her standing in the cold in nothing but—were those hospital scrubs? What was that about? He picked up the jacket and handed it back to her, then put his own jacket on the snow and laid down. “Let’s make this quick, though.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She knelt beside him and moved her hands carefully—clinically—up his legs. “Does anything hurt?”
“No. I mean, a little. I think I might have bruised my kneecaps.”
She manipulated them carefully. “Yeah, it doesn’t seem like any serious damage here.”
“What are you, a doctor now?”
He was teasing, but her face hardened. “You don’t have to be a jerk, Rob, I’m trying to help you.”
“I wasn’t—I’m not trying to be a jerk.” What had he done? He searched his memory, trying to think of their last conversation. Had they had a fight? Things were murky, and he found he wasn’t quite sure.
She explored his ribs and torso. “Take a deep breath in,” she said.
He did as she’d asked.
“I wish I had my stethoscope,” Thea murmured.
“You own a stethoscope?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t bring it out with me. I don’t suppose you have yours in the car?”
He stared at her. “I don’t own a stethoscope.” Why would she think that he did?
She sat back on her heels and regarded him for a moment.
