Leave a Mark Read Online Free

his patient would be happy with his sewing skills.
     

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    WREN WAITED IN the carpool line. Her stomach started to hurt. Mamaw Gigi was late, and Mamaw Gigi was never late.
    She looked over her shoulder back at the entrance to Myrtle Place Elementary and wondered if she should go tell her teacher, Mrs. Gibson. Would Mrs. Gibson still be in the classroom? Could she walk back there all by herself?
    “Hey, sugar.”
    Wren jumped, and Darryl laughed at her from the driver’s seat of Mamaw’s station wagon.
    “Where’s Mamaw?” Wren asked, peering into the empty car through the open window.
    Darryl winked at her. “Your mamaw took a spill and hurt her elbow.”
    Wren’s heart started to thump hard against her chest. Mamaw was hurt?
    “Now, don’t go all scaredy-cat on me, sugar. She and your Papaw are getting her patched up at the hospital, and I told them I could pick you up from school.”
    “Mamaw’s at the hospital?” Wren’s lip began to tremble, and Darryl pushed open the passenger door.
    “She’ll be fine, sugar. Elbows are easy to fix. Climb on up here, and we’ll go get some ice cream.”
    Wren eyed the front seat. “Mamaw doesn’t let me sit in the front. She says the back is safer for little girls.”
    Darryl nodded. “Well, she’s right about that, but I thought you were a big girl. Hop up here. What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?”
    Wren didn’t move. “Where’s Laurie?”
    A frown started to fold onto his forehead, but he shook it off with a smile. “Your mama is sleeping off some medicine she took. Now, you need to get in this car if you want some ice cream… unless you’re planning to walk home tonight.”
    Wren’s eyes got big. Walk home? She’d get lost or kidnapped. She scrambled into the front seat and put on her seatbelt.
    “Now, that’s a good girl. A big girl… What did you say your favorite flavor was?”
    Ten minutes later, Wren sat in the front seat with rocky road in a sugar cone. Mamaw usually made her get it in a cup because cones dripped, but Darryl had said it was a good thing Mamaw wasn’t around today.
    Wren licked the side of her cone and thought that she’d always want Mamaw around, but she was happy to get a cone.
    Darryl sat next to her, sipping a milkshake.
    “Mmm-mmm,” he said, drinking his shake and tilting his seat back. “This sure is good. It relaxes me.”
    Wren nodded and slurped a marshmallow out of her ice cream. “Marshmallows relax me,” she said. She leaned back against her seat and sighed.
    Darryl held his milkshake with one hand and put the other in his lap. A minute later, he began rubbing his fingers up and down the zipper of his jeans. Wren stopped licking her ice cream.
    “Yep, this sure is relaxing,” he said, moving his hand back and forth. “You ever try this?”
    Wren shook her head, her face getting hot. “I’m ready to go home now.”
    “We’re in no rush, sugar. Uh-oh. Look at that,” Darryl said, pointing to her lap. Ice cream had dripped down her cone and dotted her school pants. “Let me wipe that up for you.”
     

     
    WREN WOKE UP in a semi-private hospital room next to a snoring woman. Her throat burned, and her eyes felt greasy, but she was alive.
    She raised her right hand to her face to wipe her eyes, and the sight of an IV lock taped to her wrist surprised her.
    “Good thing needles don’t freak me out.” Her voice came out scratchy and raw, and she cleared her throat, wishing for some water.
    She knew better than to try to sit up on her own. Although her limbs felt heavy and drugged, she was still aware of pain in her middle. Wren glanced around and found the controls along the railing, and she inclined the head of the bed until her chest was just higher than her belly.
    Even under blankets and a hospital gown, her stomach looked… puffy.
    She lifted the neck of the gown and took a tentative peek. The Lady Gouldian Finch that soared across her chest made her smile. Even if things