Chapter 158 Agonizing Wait
Everybody jumped into action when Emily and Byron returned and told the others what happened.
Emily was halfway into the house when she heard Angie saying, “I have just the thing in the old tool shed, an old drilling rod. Come on.”
After she called the ambulance, Emily came outside to see Byron and his cousin Rowland carrying the big rusty iron rod between them as they hurried back to the scene of the accident.
Emily and the other guests arrived just in time to see Byron stick the long lever under the tractor. His whole body tensed as he strained to lift the machine, and everyone else rushed in to help push it up. Slowly, the tractor was moved upright again.
But there was little cause for celebration as Mateo’s leg looked badly broken.
“I was told not to move him,” Emily said, “the paramedics will secure the broken bones when they get here.”
It was an agonizing wait for the ambulance. When the paramedics arrived, they put temporary splints on the broken bones and carried Mateo to the van in a stretcher.
Katie looked the most devastated out of anybody as Mateo was carried away. “This is all my fault,” she sobbed.
“No,” Emily said, “it was an accident. It could have happened to anyone at anytime.”
“But I made fun of him,” Katie insisted, “He was probably upset, and that was why he went off to work on the tractor all by himself.”
“I can see why you might want to blame yourself,” Emily said, “but it’s not your fault.”
“I’m going to the hospital,” Katie said, “I guess I’ll meet you there.”
Emily and Byron drove to the hospital together, and Byron was too stunned to talk much. They faced another agonizing wait as it took some time for a doctor to become available. The emergency room was filled with many other people in dire need of help.
Mateo was assigned a bed, while his friends and family sat in the hospital waiting room.
Byron shook his head sadly and said, “This is all my fault. I should have watched over him.”
“It’s not,” Emily replied, putting one arm around him, “You didn’t know he would go off on his own.”
“Teddy is probably going to blame me,” Byron replied, “I let this happen.”
“Then I did too,” Emily said, “I’m a responsible adult, and I didn’t notice he was gone either until it was too late…”
“I just hope he’s okay,” Byron murmured.
Katie found them and settled down to wait as long as it took to hear news. About an hour later, a doctor approached. She was an older woman with greying blond hair.
“Matteo is going to be fine,” she said, “His injuries are not life-threatening.”
“What about his leg?” Byron asked. “Will he be able to recover full range of motion?”
“That we’ll have to see,” the doctor said calmly, “The leg was broken in two places, and there is some tissue damage that will take some time to heal. But in a best-case scenario he could make a full recovery.”
Emily felt like she could breathe easier, though Byron and Katie still looked too shocked to feel relieved.
“Can we see him?” Byron asked.
“It’s better to let him sleep,” said the doctor, “but you’re welcome to come in anytime tomorrow.”
The next morning, they returned to the hospital to see Mateo. It was actually the day of their one-year wedding anniversary, but Emily didn’t want to mention it in such a trying time.
Byron tried to appear normal if not optimistic, but she could tell he was despondent about Mateo’s injury. She was worried about it too since not regaining full mobility in his leg might put a halt to the young man’s plan of becoming a chef.
Two surprising things awaited them in Mateo’s hospital room. One was that Katie had already got there before them. She was sitting by the bed and chatting with Mateo in a cheerful way. Another was that Katie and Mateo were holding hands and laughing together.
As soon as Emily and Byron entered, Katie withdrew her hand, looking a little self-conscious, but Mateo smiled and greeted them.
“How are you feeling?” Byron said.
“I feel like an idiot,” Mateo replied, covering his face with both his arms in a caricature of shame. “I should have known better than to go off alone, and then I made a silly mistake running the tractor on an incline…”
“Don’t you go blaming yourself too,” Emily said, “I have my hands full trying to convince everyone else that it wasn’t their fault.”
“It’s nobody’s fault,” Mateo agreed, “Byron, I heard you rescued me using a giant lever. That was awesome!”
“It’s nothing,” Byron muttered.
“It was about time he put those muscles to good use,” Emily said, poking her husband’s arm.
Later, when Emily saw Katie at work, she tried to find out more about what seemed like a fresh new relationship with Mateo. They chatted, snacking on cookies in the lunch room while no one else was around.
“Okay, I like him,” Katie said, “I couldn’t believe he wasn’t mad at me for making fun of him that day, which led to the accident. He did say it made him frustrated because he thought it meant I only saw him as a friend. That was why he went off by himself. I felt terrible, and I still feel guilty about it. But he’s completely forgiven me!”
“Of course he had, he’s crazy about you.”
“I’m just relieved that he’s alive. I had been afraid to admit that I had feelings for him before, but when it’s a life and death situation, it kind of forces you to confront these things.”
“Katie, I’m really happy for you,” Emily said. “You never know who might be ‘the one’.”
Before she had met Byron, Emily only wanted a man who was normal and not insane. Now that she had someone slightly insane but who loved her so strongly, she wouldn’t have traded him for the world. Maybe Katie’s expectations of dating someone rich led her instead to a guy who was kind-hearted and loveable.
