Free Texas Bossa Nova (Texas Montgomery Mavericks Book 5) by Cynthia D’Alba Page A

but with no ice.
    Magda was no stranger to speeding. She pretty much considered posted speed limits as suggestions. Tonight, Reno paid no mind to posted speeds or wet conditions or any cop car that might roll in their path. He hit the D&R drive with the gas pedal to the floor and kept it there until he turned into the hospital parking lot. Still, the drive to Whispering Springs Hospital seemed to take a lifetime.
    They dashed into the lobby, stopping short when they found Drake Gentry, Reno’s brother-in-law, standing in the lobby.
    “I was sent to bring you up to the surgery waiting room. Come on.”
    “What’s happening? How bad is he?” Reno asked in a tone that demanded answers.
    “I can’t really tell you much. KC and I got here first. She went up and I stayed in the lobby to direct family upstairs. You’re the last one to arrive.”
    Reno’s jaw hardened. Magda suspected he was cussing himself for living so far away. The rest of the Montgomery clan could make it to the hospital in under forty-five minutes with the gas pedal floored. She’d bet her eyetooth he was feeling guilty about something he had no control over.
    Being twins, Reno and Darren were much closer than many siblings. She’d seen it in action. At meals, it was common for one to finish the sentence of the other. Disagreements were rare. She had no doubt that they would fight to the death for the other. Losing Darren would destroy Reno.
    The elevator doors opened on the second floor and Reno rushed through, hurried to find his family and get some news.
    Magda followed behind, no less anxious but giving Reno the space he appeared to need.
    As she arrived in the waiting room, she heard Dr. Caroline Graham-Montgomery say, “The break is bad, Reno. I’m not going to lie to you. He’s going to be in the hospital for a while. Luckily for him, he was wearing his seat belt so he wasn’t thrown through the truck’s windshield. However, a leg break like this is serious.”
    “So how serious? What are they doing to him in surgery?”
    “He broke both the tibia and the fibula.” She pointed to her shin. “These bones here. The one in the front is the tibia, and the one we are the most concerned with. When the eighteen-wheeler hit Darren’s truck and broke his leg, a piece of the tibia was shoved through his skin. We call it an open fracture. You following me?”
    Reno nodded. Magda didn’t like how pale his face had become and thought he looked a little unsteady on his feet.
    “Maybe he’d better sit down while you explain this,” Magda said. “I know I’m still digesting all this after being awakened from a deep sleep and making a frantic drive down.”
    “I’m fine, Magda,” he snapped.
    “Actually,” said Caroline, “I think she’s right.” She slipped her hand through her cousin-in-law’s arm and made him take a seat with the rest of the Montgomerys gathered there.
    “As I was saying, the orthopedic surgeon felt the best course of action was to take Darren to surgery to clean out the open wound. There was a lot of dirt and grease in it. The worst thing that could happen now would be an infection. We want to avoid that at all costs. Understand?”
    “Yeah. I’m with you. So what’s next? A cast?”
    “Not in this case. Since Dr. Jackson had to take him to surgery and clean out the wound, and given the severity of the break, he is doing what is called an open reduction and internal fixation. That means he’s exposing the bone and moving the fragments back into the correct alignment. Then he’ll put a metal plate along the tibia to hold those pieces in the right places. He’ll put screws in above and below the break to hold the metal plate on.”
    “And what about long term? Is he going to be crippled from this?”
    Caroline responded with a smile, the first one since she’d started explaining what was going on with Darren. Reno’s shoulders relaxed, only slightly, but Magda knew him well enough to see the comfort he took