“How’s everyone feeling?”
Cassie pulled on a baseball cap and squinted at the sun. “Hungover. Ugh. I was out too late.”
Gina grinned. “Didn’t you have a hot date with that new guy? How did it go?”
“The parts I remember were great.” Cassie sighed. “He’s really sweet. He owns a pool-cleaning business and he’s been divorced for two years. No kids.”
“I sense a third date in the making,” DeeDee crowed. “And we all know what that means.”
Cassie and Gina shared a high five. “Sex!” they yelled together. “Woo-hoo!”
“You’re all in a mood,” Zennie teased, thinking her night of yoga, movies on demand and herbal tea had very little in common with how her friends had spent their Saturday evening.
“One of us is going to get some,” Gina said. “Hey, you passed three dates with Clark before it all ended. Did you do the deed?”
“I don’t keep to a calendar.”
DeeDee put her hands on her hips. “Zennie isn’t like us. She doesn’t allow herself to be ruled by her base nature. We should admire and emulate her.”
“I’d rather get laid,” Gina admitted. “I’m in a dry spell and I’m running out of batteries.”
They all laughed and headed for the trailhead.
The first mile was on relatively flat ground where they could run abreast. Conversation flowed easily. Most of the talk was about who was dating and who wanted to be. Cassie filled them in on every detail of her date, including the heavy petting before she’d gone home.
“What about you, Zennie?” Gina asked. “What’s new with you?”
Zennie thought briefly of her Friday afternoon procedure but knew it was too soon to bring that up. “I spent yesterday morning at my mom’s house,” she said instead. “She’s getting the house ready to sell so she can move to a smaller place by the beach. There’s thirty years of crap everywhere. Ali and I finished the bonus room, so at least that’s done. But there’s still every other room.”
“We’re entering that stage of life,” DeeDee told them. “First they downsize, then they start getting sick.”
“That’s cheerful,” Cassie muttered.
“You know it’s true. Soon we’ll be the sandwich generation, raising our own families while caring for our aging parents. It’s a thing.”
“Don’t tell me that,” Gina said. “I’m an only child. There’s no one but me.”
Zennie hadn’t thought about the next few years, but realized if something happened to either of her parents, their care would fall on her and her sisters.
They reached the next section of the trail, where the path was steep and narrow. Gina took the lead, as she always did. She was an X-ray technician who had run hurdles all the way through college. She competed in triathlons a couple of times a year and often talked about how she should have tried harder to make the Olympic team when she’d been younger.
Gina set a challenging but achievable pace. Zennie was right behind her with Cassie and DeeDee bringing up the rear.
The trail was well marked and well used. There were wider areas for groups to pass and the underbrush was kept trimmed, something Zennie appreciated. She might have grown up as a tomboy, but she still had a deep fear of snakes. The foothills around Los Angeles were home to rattlesnakes and Zennie was convinced that in the rattlesnake community, she was a prize.
They reached a flat area and stopped for water and to catch their breath. The view of the hills and city beyond was amazing. It was early enough that they had the trail to themselves and the only sounds were their breathing and conversation.
DeeDee handed Zennie her water bottle. “Hold this for a second, please.” DeeDee put her heel on a boulder and stretched her leg. “I keep getting this stupid tight hamstring.”
She straightened and reached for her bottle. Zennie went to hand it to her friend, her arm outstretched.
She wasn’t sure what happened next. She knew she stepped on a rock and that knocked her off balance. Zennie’s weight shifted, the edge of the hill gave way just a little and the next thing Zennie knew, she was sliding and falling and screaming as she tumbled over before coming to a stop a good twenty feet below the path.
At first she was too stunned to do anything but lie there. She heard her friends yelling her name. Gina scrambled down first, hanging on to bushes and dried grass to slow her descent. By the time she was close, Zennie had pushed herself into a sitting position and was trying to assess her injuries.
She felt shaken but not disoriented. Her upper leg burned. When she looked down, she saw she’d gotten a heck of a scrape from hip to knee. She ignored the oozing blood and dirt and rocks embedded in her flesh. That was superficial and could be dealt with. She was more concerned about serious injuries.
“Lie back down,” Gina told her.
“And risk getting a snakebite on the face? No, thank you.”
Gina waved to the other two. “She’s conscious and still scared of snakes. I think that’s a good sign.”
“Not snakes,” Zennie muttered. “Rattlesnakes. There’s a difference.”
Gina crouched next to her. “Did you hit your head?”
“No.”
“Good. We’ll start at the bottom and work our way up.”
Gina had her move her toes, her feet, her ankles and so on. They quickly assessed nothing was broken, although Zennie had multiple scrapes with plenty of embedded debris.
“That’s going to hurt to get out,” Gina said, helping Zennie to her feet.
“I’m trying not to think about it,” Zennie admitted as she stood and waited. She monitored herself for dizziness or acute pain, but there was just the dull ache of the abrasions. She was banged up, a little shaken, but nothing more.
She and Gina scrambled up to the trail. DeeDee flung herself at Zennie.
“This is all my fault.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I slipped. That’s on me, not you.”
“You could have died.”
Zennie hugged her friend. “You are so weird.”
Cassie, a pediatric care nurse, looked at Zennie’s leg and winced. “You’re going to need to go to an urgent care center. A hospital would be better, but I know you’ll balk at that.”
“There’s one just down the hill,” Gina said. “I’ll go with her and you two can finish the run.”
Cassie snorted. “As if. We are not finishing the run without you two. We’ll all go to urgent care and make sure Zennie’s okay.”
Zennie wanted to protest but she knew there was no way she could clean out the scrapes herself. Not only couldn’t she see what she was doing, it would hurt like hell. At least at the urgent care center, they could spray on a topical numbing cream to take the edge off.
Thirty minutes later she was in an examination room. A handsome doctor in a wheelchair entered the room, her chart in his lap. He was in his late thirties, with too-long hair and glasses. He gave her an easy smile.
“Really? You couldn’t just sleep in on a Sunday morning?”
“Sorry. I’m not the sleep-in type.”
“Fine. Make me work for a living. I’m Dr. Rowell, by the way, but you can call me Harry. Everyone does.” He stopped in front of her and looked at her leg. “That’s ugly. Okay. I’m going to make sure you’re only banged up and not seriously hurt, then we’ll clean you up.” He picked up her chart. “Any allergies to medication or medical conditions I should know about?”
“No, I’m—” She’d been about to say perfectly fine, only what if she wasn’t.
Zennie clutched the edge of the exam room table and stared at the doctor. Horror swept through her as nausea churned in her stomach. Tears filled her eyes.
“What?” Harry asked, his tone gentle. “Zennie, what is it?”
“I might be pregnant. I just got AI last Friday. No one even knows. I’m trying to have a baby for my best friend and I fell.” The tears spilled onto her cheeks. “What if I killed her baby?”
“You didn’t kill the baby,” he told her. “Come on. If you even are pregnant, it’s like four cells.” He squeezed her hand. “Okay, let’s get serious. This early on, the embryo would be embedded in your uterus, surrounded by all your girl parts and internal organs. Fabergé eggs don’t get such royal treatment when they’re shipped around the world.”
She wiped her face and managed a smile. “Girl parts? Are you sure you went to medical school?”
He flashed her a grin. “I think I missed that day, but I totally rocked wound cleaning.” He squeezed her hand again. “Zennie, artificial insemination is a simple procedure that doesn’t always take. If you’re not pregnant, it has nothing to do with your fall. I swear. Believe me?”
She nodded. “I’m not sure I will later, but I appreciate the information.” She knew he was right, about all of it, but she wasn’t exactly in a rational place. “I just want to give her a healthy little baby.”
“I know and I’m sure you will.” He released her hand and looked at her leg. “Yup, that’s ugly. Okay, let’s check you out and find out what’s going on, then we’ll start the torture.”