“I’ll be right back.” Tate gave me a nod as he left.
“You should date him,” Ruby mumbled.
“Ruby!”
I couldn’t believe she said that with the nurse standing right there. Before I had a chance to say anything, there was a flurry of activity and commotion at the door to the little room we were in.
“Ruby Hart?” Yet another nurse, or maybe this was an orderly, came in with a wheelchair.
“That’s me.”
“I’m here to take you to get X-rays.”
I got up and shuffled out of the way. The room was getting crowded, and I kept looking for Tate to come back. With the orderly’s help, Ruby climbed out of the bed and sat in the chair.
“Do you need me to come with you?” I asked.
“Tate said he’d come back with my stuff,” Ruby said.
“You can wait here,” the nurse said at the same time that Ruby spoke.
I nodded. Right, Tate was coming back with Ruby’s helmet and skateboard. As if I had forgotten. I hadn’t. I was very aware that Tate said he was coming back. Not only was he insanely handsome, but he was also strong. He carried Ruby as if she weighed nothing. Maybe for someone built like him, she was easy to lift. To me she was like a cinder block. There was no way I could pick her up.
The nurse stayed and arranged something before giving me an awkward smile and then leaving. And then I was all by myself, waiting for Tate and Ruby to both come back. He should have been back by now. How far away was his truck?
I sat there and played with my fingers. I was too distracted to read the romance novel I had in my purse. I didn’t have one of those smart phones with video games. We kept a small prepaid cell phone at the apartment for emergencies, but other than that, Ruby knew the phone number for the Burger Jeff, and I memorized all of her friends’ phone numbers.
I wished Tate would come back. He would distract me from the anxiety building in my middle. My worry bounced back and forth between how badly Ruby was hurt, how much this was going to cost, and what was taking him so long? I got up and stuck my head out the door. The hallway was empty. I didn’t want to go looking for him in case Ruby came back.
“Can I help you?” another nurse asked.
“I was just looking for the gentleman who was with us. He left to get something from his truck. I thought he said he would be right back.”
“You can go look to see if he’s in the lobby.” She pointed over her shoulder.
“Yeah, I don’t want to leave in case my sister comes back and the doctor comes in while I’m gone,” I admitted.
“The doctor won’t talk about a treatment plan without you there. You have time to run out and see if your friend is still here.”
I said a quick thanks and scurried to the lobby. I must have been more nervous than I had realized because when I didn’t see Tate sitting in the lobby, I felt disappointment roll over me. I wasn’t fair. He had just left without saying goodbye, without giving Ruby her skateboard back. My disappointment quickly turned into resentment and annoyance once I realized he hadn’t brought her stuff back. So much for being one of the good guys. He had stolen a kid’s skateboard. Who did that?
“Screw him,” I bit out under my breath.
With a huff, I turned to go back into the back and wait for Ruby.
“Miss Hart?”
“Yeah?” I turned to see the very first nurse I had spoken with when I had arrived approaching me. She held out Ruby’s belongings.
“That man left these for you. They’re yours, right? I got the right person?”
“My sister’s. Thanks. He didn’t say anything, did he?” I asked. What was he going to say? He realized he had a life that didn’t involve scraping skateboarders off the pavement and waiting around in hospital ER rooms with people who smell like stale French fries? No, he didn’t need to say anything, but a goodbye would have been nice.
Tucking the skateboard under my arm, I took the helmet and retreated back to Ruby’s room. I pulled on my collar and sniffed my shirt. I reeked of the kitchen at work. I should apologize to each and every nurse for stinking up the place.
Ruby was back in her room when I got there. We didn’t wait long before the doctor came in with a tablet and showed us the images of her wrist. She got lucky. It wasn’t so bad that she would need surgery, but she wasn’t going to enjoy the resetting process. They gave her a light sedative, but that didn’t stop her from yelling or from crying. And it didn’t stop me from crying for her. Fortunately, it didn’t take very long, and then Ruby was picking out a purple wrap for her cast.
“You’re all set. The nurse will give you follow-up care instructions.” The doctor stood. The accompanying nurse cleared away the scissors and the cast materials. “Keep wearing that helmet.”
He patted Ruby on the opposite shoulder and left.
I watched the nurse, anticipating her to say something, but she just smiled and told us to take care.
“Can we leave yet?” Ruby sounded exhausted. I didn’t blame her one bit. She was probably still a little wobbly from the sedative.
“As soon as they say we can.” It felt like another hour, but it was probably less than ten minutes before one of the first nurses we saw came in with a printout of instructions. “Do you have any questions?”
I read over everything before I let her leave. I had to know what kind of pain medicine Ruby could take and whom to call to make a follow-up appointment with.
“Thanks, I think we’re good,” I said once I had my answers.
As soon as she left, Ruby scrambled to get her things. She looked at the helmet in her hands and the skateboard I was holding out to her. She thought about it for a minute before putting the helmet on her head like a hat and taking the board with her good hand. She led the way back out through the ER waiting room.
“Hold on a second. I need to check on something,” I told Ruby.
She huffed and rolled her eyes. She was as ready to be out of this place as I was. She took a seat in the waiting room.
“Excuse me,” I said to the lady who had taken my insurance information. “Do you know if the hospital will let me make payments? Or if I can apply for one of those medical credit cards?”
“Yes, we can make payment arrangements.” She opened a drawer and rummaged around before handing me a folded brochure. “Here’s the information if you want to get a Care Credit account. They are very helpful, no interest if you pay it off in a year. But I think your bill has already been taken care of.”
“What?” I couldn’t have heard her right.
She focused her attention on the computer at her desk, fingers pecking away at the keyboard. “Yep, Hart, Ruby, paid in full.”
I shook my head. I didn’t understand. “How?”
She gave me a little shrug. It looked like she was happy to be able to give me such good news, and it was good news. It was fantastic news.
“It looks like someone has anonymously paid your anticipated fees.”
I deflated. Anticipated. There were always extra fees, always. I’d still owe a chunk of change. “So, I’ll get a bill after my insurance pays?”
She shook her head. “No, this says paid in full. So whoever must have paid extra.”
“Who would have done that?” I didn’t know anybody with that kind of money. There were plenty of rich people in town. I just didn’t know any of them.
“I don’t know, it says anonymous.”
How was I supposed to thank someone I didn’t know? “Thanks.”
I left her window in total shock. Laughter bubbled up the more I wrapped my thoughts around the entire idea. Someone had covered Ruby’s expenses.
“What are you so happy about?” Ruby grumbled at me as I walked back to her.
“They just told me that your hospital bill has been covered,” I told her.
“Huh?”
“Someone paid off your hospital bill.”
“I thought that’s what insurance was for. You’re always freaking out about making sure you work enough hours to qualify for it.”
It looked like I was going to have to sit down and have another ‘this is how life works’ chats with my sister. Every time she didn’t understand how something worked, that I’d had to learn the hardest way possible, I made sure to tell her. She might not remember, and she might think I was boring, but I didn’t want navigating the grown-up world to be as big of a shock for her as it was for me.
“Insurance only pays for part of it, then there are these things called a deductible and out of pocket expenses. And we have to pay that part. After we meet the deductible, the insurance will pay even more. I’ll explain later,” I said. I was tired.
“Do you think Tate could have paid it?” Ruby asked. “He drives a really nice truck.”
“I doubt it. I mean, he didn’t even bring your helmet and board back, just handed them off to the nurse. He did a very nice thing by bringing you in and making sure you got taken care of. But I doubt he would have paid off a hospital bill. That’s a lot of money.”
Anything over a hundred dollars was a lot of money in my fiscal vocabulary. Maybe he could afford a larger bill, but I doubted it.
“If you found out he paid it, would you date him?” Ruby teased.
I smacked the back of her helmet, conveniently perched on her head. “Stop it. You know I don’t date.”
If I found out Tate Bowers had paid Ruby’s hospital bill, I’d kiss him.
