Free A Mother's Gift (Love Inspired) by Arlene James, Kathryn Springer

mop up herself. Every minute she prayed.
    Please don’t let him die. Please don’t let the injury be permanent. Please let him be okay. He’s such a good man, and he’s loved You his whole life, Lord. He’s such a good father, and he’s loved me my whole life. He’s such a good husband, and my mom would be lost without him. I know. Please take care of him. This time, Lord, please, please…
    The emergency personnel were efficient, calm and authoritative. No one had to say that Sam was headed for the hospital, but Dixie was shocked when they told her that she couldn’t ride in the ambulance.
    “Policy,” one of them stated firmly as two others carried Sam to the ambulance. “Besides,” he added more gently, “we’re going to be working to staunch the flow of blood, and we’ll need all the room we have for that.”
    “Will he make it?” she wanted to know, trembling from head to toe.
    “He needs a lot of stitching up, ma’am,” was the careful answer.
    Dixie gulped and nodded, then listened attentively to the pleasant young man’s hurried directives. She wasn’t to follow too close in her car, as far too many accidents happened that way. She should park only in designated areas of the hospital parking lot and enter the emergency room through a side door, not the ambulance entrance. She should give her name and her father’s name at the front desk. They would call her back to be with him as soon as possible. Only after she’d checked in at the desk should she call anyone else. Whatever else she did, she was not to speed, drive recklessly or attempt to make calls on her cell phone while driving.
    “Don’t want to have to make a return trip for you,” the EMT said with a tight smile.
    Obediently, Dixie nodded her understanding and pulled her keys from her purse. The ambulance was well down the street, sirens blaring, before she even got her car out of the garage.
    Crying quietly, she managed to keep the ambulance in sight along the route to the hospital, whispering the same litany over and over again all the while.
    “Please, Lord. Whatever You will…whatever You need from me. Please, Lord.”

Chapter Five
     
    S am’s jaw clenched against the pain as the doctor closed the pressure bandage.
    “Too much repair to manage in here,” he said. “We’re waiting for an operating room to clear. That way we can put him under before we give it another good cleaning and stitch the wound.”
    Dixie clutched her father’s hand and asked the question they were both afraid to have answered. “Is he going to be all right?”
    “He’s lost some tissue, but the muscle doesn’t appear too badly damaged, so I don’t think he’ll lose any function. Luckily, it’s on the outside of his thigh.”
    “Luck,” Sam rasped, “has nothing to do with it.”
    “A large, ugly scar and several weeks of recovery should be the worst of it, but don’t be surprised if he has to have some physical therapy,” the doctor went on.
    Dixie heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”
    “He’s a tough old buzzard,” the younger man replied with a smile. “I’d have passed out a long time ago.”
    Sam chuckled and gasped, “And miss all the attention?”
    “You’ve got about five more minutes to enjoy it,” the doctor said, sweeping from the small, cell-like room.
    Sam moaned, muttering, “Where’s Mom? Should’ve been here by now.”
    “I’ll go check. Be right back.”
    Patting his shoulder with one hand, she clutched her cell phone with the other, intending to run out into the waiting area so she could call her mother again. Vonnie had needed to drop off Clark at a neighbor’s before she could make the dash into town. Dixie hurried from the cubicle.
     
     
    “Here you are. On your left.” The nurse accompanying Joel stepped back.
    “Thank you,” Joel said, a millisecond before a soft, curvy body collided with his.
    “Oof!”
    “Dixie!” He knew instinctively that she’d been rushing from Sam’s bedside