Since she knew they could page her to the medical trailer if needed, she stayed to see the final events. It had nothing to do with observing her favorite pickup man, she told herself. Turning her gaze back to the arena, she watched female contestants on horseback swiftly guide their mounts in and out of a line of poles. She marveled at the skill and courage of the riders, groaning when one of the poles was knocked down. She knew that couldn’t be good.
The next event was something called chute dogging. It was a lot like the steer wrestling competition except the contestant didn’t have to drop from a moving horse. Hannah figured it was probably un-rodeo, un-western, and un-Texan, but she couldn’t help rooting for the steer.
Finally, it was time for the bull riding. Mitch Rafferty, rodeo commissioner and former competitor, had told her if the cowboy was bucked off in less than eight seconds, he was disqualified. The point system was more complicated, each contestant’s score rising or falling depending on a particular animal and how challenging the ride. She remembered an excited Ronnie Slyder telling her that he’d drawn the most difficult bull for the finals. And he was happy! She didn’t understand his youthful excitement at taking a chance. For the first time in her life she felt old. Or maybe just nervous.
Hannah watched when the chute opened and the bull leaped out with the rider on its back, clinging one-handed to a rope loop. After that, she couldn’t bear to look. Too hard on her heart. She set her sights on a much more appealing visual—Dev. He was hard on her heart in a much different way.
He galloped into the arena and skillfully maneuvered his horse so that he could grab the rider and rush him to safety. About five or six contestants took their rides, giving her the same number of opportunities to admire Dev’s skill and horsemanship. Finally it was time for the very last rider who just happened to be Ronnie Slyder. When the chute opened, she held her breath until he’d stayed on the requisite amount of time. The next thing she knew, he was on the ground and a gasp went up from the crowd. From where she was standing it looked like at least one, maybe more of the animal’s hooves had struck him.
The rodeo clowns darted into action, distracting the enraged bull and sending him into the gated enclosure at the end of the arena. Hannah climbed the fence and jumped over, racing to the injured teenager.
“Don’t move him,” she shouted to everyone who’d gathered around to help. “Get me a stretcher and a neck brace.”
She dropped to her knees in the dirt beside the boy. He was on his back, groaning and semiconscious. After checking his pulse, she listened to his strong, steady heartbeat. She moved her hands up and down his arms and legs, inspecting for broken bones. There didn’t seem to be any.
“How is he?” Dev was beside her, and worry laced his words.
“As far as I can tell, there’s nothing broken. Damn, I wish I had medical equipment. This is like trying to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together.”
She palpated his abdomen and there was an involuntary groan from the boy, but he wasn’t coherent enough to tell her anything. Just then someone handed her a brace and she immobilized the teenager’s neck. Then, along with several other people, she helped lift him onto the back board.
“I want him airlifted to the hospital,” she snapped to the paramedics on the scene.
“Chopper’s on the way,” Dev assured her.
“Good.”
The crowd parted and a woman pushed her way through. “I’m Ronnie’s mother. How is he, Doctor?”
Hannah looked up into the woman’s worried gaze, wishing she had concrete medical facts for reassurance. Wishing she had scrubbed him from the competition. “Pulse and respiration are fine. Heartbeat is steady. As far as I can see nothing’s broken, but without tests and diagnostic equipment, that’s all I can tell you.”
The sound of a chopper overhead filled the air. Within minutes it had landed and emergency medical personnel had secured the teenager on the craft. His mother was allowed to accompany him. And then they were gone.
Hannah looked up at Dev. “This is a hell of a way to end the rodeo.”
“Yeah,” he said, nudging his hat up.
“I have to go.” She turned on her heel and headed for the medical trailer.
“Where? What are you doing, Hannah?” he demanded, falling into step beside her.
“I’m going to the hospital. I need to talk to the doctor there. Ronnie needs a CT scan of the belly to rule out internal bleeding. Probably needs a skull series, too, especially if he hasn’t regained consciousness by then. I want to make sure everything that can be done is. He’ll need someone to run interference for him.”
“I’m sure the ER staff is trained to deal with anything.”
“Yeah,” she said, looking up at him. “But I was first on the scene. He’s my patient. I need to make sure he’s okay.”
He let out a long breath. “You have nothing to feel guilty about.”
Her gaze snapped to his. She was surprised he’d known what she was feeling. “I gave him medical clearance even though he only had one good hand.”
“Mitch cleared him too and he used to be a champion bull rider. He would know if an injury to his other hand would be a problem.”
“I’m going to the hospital,” she insisted.
“Then I’ll drive you.”
“You don’t have to—”
“Yeah, I do.”
“It happened in a split second, Dev. There was no time for you to ride in and get him off the bull.”
She recognized surprise when his gaze collided with hers. “Okay. I’ll let it go, if you will.” He rested his hand at the small of her back. “After we go to the hospital and make sure he’s going to be all right.”
Hannah intended to argue with him, but didn’t have the energy. Some of it had drained out of her from the adrenaline rush of dealing with the emergency. The rest of it she’d used up running from her attraction to Dev. They walked to his truck in silence, giving her time to think.
Since coming back to Destiny, she’d been deliberately hiding behind everything that had happened in high school in order to blunt the force of her fascination for Dev. His ignoring her, saying immature things about her looks. Her pique that he’d finally noticed her, but for the wrong reasons—all of it she’d dredged up and used against him to build a wall to keep him at a distance.
And now here he was driving her to the hospital twenty miles away so she could check on a patient. It was time to admit that Dev Hart was a nice man. She liked him. A lot. But that was the beginning and the end.
She was career; he was cowboy. And never the twain shall meet.
He unlocked his truck and opened the door for her.
“Okay,” she said, climbing in. “You can come to the hospital.”
Chapter Eight
Dev rubbed a hand across the back of his neck as he sat in the hospital waiting room with Ken and Mary Slyder. He wished he knew something to say that would ease their worry. But if he were in their shoes, and Ben had been choppered in after an accident with a ton of bull, he would be wearing a hole in the floor with his pacing. And that didn’t begin to do justice to what he would feel.
Mary sat on one of the room’s plastic-covered sofas with her husband beside her, his arm around her shoulders. Overhead, fluorescent lights hummed, giving the room a cold, institutional feel.
The tall, thin brunette twisted her fingers together. “I wish they’d let me go in with him. Why won’t they let me see him? That can’t be good. I don’t think I can stand to wait anymore. What’s happening?” she asked helplessly.
“Hannah—Dr. Morgan said she’d find out,” Dev reminded her.
“But she’s been gone so long. What if they won’t tell her anything? She did warn us that she’s not on staff here.”
The woman’s gray-haired husband patted her shoulder. “Don’t borrow trouble, honey. If the news was bad we’d know something by now.”
“Ken’s right,” Dev said. “Besides, staff or not, Hannah w
ill find out what’s going on with Ronnie. I saw the look in her eyes and I can tell you without a doubt I wouldn’t want to be the one who tells her no.”
He wasn’t blowing smoke. Hannah might look like a good, stiff Texas breeze would blow her away. She might be mistaken for a walking blonde joke, until you looked into her big blue eyes. Normally they snapped with spirit and intelligence—and good humor. But when he’d last seen her, they were spitting fire and determination as she’d marched down the hospital corridor on a fact-finding mission. And mission was definitely the right word. Something told him she would have information when she came back.
Hannah Morgan was a hell of a doctor, and a hell of a woman. He couldn’t stop himself from wondering what it would be like to have her in his corner. But lickety-split he backed off on that idea. It wasn’t safe to go there.
Dev glanced at the double doors and nodded confidently. “Come hell or high water, that woman’s gonna get to the bottom of what’s happening with Ronnie.” He turned his gaze back on the distraught couple huddled on the couch. “Don’t you worry. She might not be on staff, but she’s a doctor. I have a feeling she won’t take no for an answer.”
Several moments later, the waiting room’s double doors whispered open and the determined doctor in question walked into the room. She was still wearing the white lab coat she’d had on at the rodeo. Her stethoscope was curved around her neck. She wore it like most women wore jewelry. But Hannah wasn’t most women. The thought nudged his heart into a canter.
She nodded at Dev, then squared her shoulders and walked to the couple who had shot to their feet at the first sound of the doors opening.
“How is he? What’s going on?” Mary Slyder asked. Her husband was right beside her, leaning forward slightly as if he might otherwise miss something. “Is he going to be okay?”
Hannah took a deep breath. “The ER doctor is a trauma specialist. That’s a very good thing. Ronnie’s in excellent hands with Dr. Elliott. He doesn’t think there’s any serious damage, but he’s ordered a CT scan to rule out internal bleeding. And he wants a skull series—”
“What’s that?” Mary Slyder put her fingers over her mouth as the fear in her eyes kicked up a notch.
Hannah reached out and touched her forearm reassuringly. “It’s nothing more exotic than X-rays of his head—several different views. It’s standard emergency procedure because Ronnie had a contusion and lacerations. And he lost consciousness for a short time. The doctor is concerned about concussion. And he’s right to be. I am, too.”
The woman brushed away a tear. “How serious is a concussion?”
Hannah let out a long breath. Dev was looking at her face and saw something flicker in her eyes. Somehow he knew she was censoring how much information to give them. She took the woman’s arm and led her to the sofa, urging her to sit. With a sigh, Hannah settled on the edge of the plastic beside her.
“If I were you, I’d want the straight story, so I’m going to give it to you.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Mary said nodding. “The not knowing is worse.”
Hannah nodded. Understanding and comfort seemed to flow from her. “The injury is potentially serious. But there’s no reason to panic. The fact that he’s conscious now is a good sign.” She smiled. “He gave them cause for concern when they asked him what day it was.”
“Why?” his mother asked.
“He kept saying it was Friday.”
“But it is Friday,” Mary said.
“They wanted to know the date. But that wasn’t the question they asked him.” The anxious parents laughed, and then Hannah continued. “Ronnie has a lot going for him. Not the least of which is his hard head.”
Dev knew she was thinking that the kid had insisted on riding with stitches in his other hand.
“He can be stubborn,” Mary said.
“No bones are broken,” Hannah continued. “But until all the tests are in, we only know he’s got a bump on his head and a cut over his eyebrow. We know he was lucky that his eye is all right. He’s young, tough and in terrific shape—all factors in his favor.”
As Hannah talked, listened to questions from the worried parents and patiently answered them, Dev never took his eyes off her. Life and death decisions. He couldn’t even imagine what kind of courage it took to do her job. He’d already seen her with Ben and knew she was good with kids. He had no doubt she was a dynamite pediatrician. But he’d never realized that she used completely different skills in handling parents. She was a champ at both.
It had taken years of training and hard work to sharpen those skills for a lucrative practice. How could he ask her to stay in Destiny and give that up? Whoa! Apparently he still hadn’t shaken the subconscious hope that she wouldn’t go back to California. He was beginning to wonder if he could ever make it go away.
“I want to see Ronnie,” Mary said.
“I don’t think they’ll let you while they’re still doing tests.” Hannah squeezed the other woman’s hand, then looked at the boy’s father. “But I’m going back. They’re not happy with me, but that’s too bad. I plan to continue being a pushy, nosy outsider. I’ll keep you informed.”
“Thanks, Doc,” Ken Slyder answered. “How can we thank you for being here for us—and for Ronnie?”
“Yes,” Mary seconded. “It’s scary enough. But we appreciate you explaining everything.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Hannah said, standing. She went to the door. “I’ll be back in a little while.”
Dev followed her into the hall. “Was all of that the truth?”
“I wouldn’t lie to them,” she said, sticking her hands in the pockets of her white coat as they walked.
There was a row of vending machines at the end of the hall and Dev put a hand on her arm as she started to round the corner. “Let me buy you a cup of coffee,” he offered.
“Thanks. I could use that. Black, please.”
He slid a bill into the slot and pushed the button. The cup plopped beneath the spout and the dark, steamy liquid filled it. He opened the clear plastic door and pulled out the container, then handed it to her. As she took it, her fingers brushed against his. The resulting heat was steamier than the coffee.
“So it’s looking good for Ronnie?” Dev asked, sticking his fingertips into the pockets of his jeans.
She nodded, then blew on the hot liquid she held cradled in both hands. “There could always be a complication, blood clot, cranial bleeding, internal bleeding. But there was no point in going there with his folks. There’s every reason to believe he’s going to be fine. Tests are done as much to rule out a problem as find one.”
“I know you were frustrated at the rodeo, about not having equipment.”
She nodded. “Fortunately in this case, it shouldn’t make a difference.” She glanced around. “This is a nice facility, the latest equipment and technology. Ronnie is in excellent hands. I’m certain he’ll receive the best of care here.”
“The Slyders appreciate you being here,” he said. “And so do I.”
“You? Why?”
Now there was the burning question. He didn’t have an emotional connection to the kid other than as a concerned adult, and rodeo volunteer. And a smidgeon of guilt about not getting him off that animal sooner. But somehow, being there with Hannah made everything better, easier. He had a bad feeling it wouldn’t matter if they were in a hospital, a five-star restaurant, a corral, or his living room on the ranch. He simply liked spending time with her.
“You’re a good doctor, Hannah,” he said lamely. He leaned a shoulder against the wall and met her gaze.
“How do you know that? I didn’t do anything. How do you know it’s not just a job?”
He crossed one boot over his other ankle. “I know you have reasons for wanting to be a success. But it’s not just a job. I’ve seen you in action. You’re a dedicated doctor.”
She shrugged noncommittally, but there was a hint of a pleased smile on her face. “Anyone
can talk to the guy in charge and relay information.”
“Yeah, but you could have made a phone call. Not everyone would take the time and trouble to be here at all. You did.”
“I’m smart—”
“This isn’t about intelligence quotient,” he interrupted. “This is about decency and caring. Destiny could use more like you.” Dev blinked. He couldn’t believe he’d said that.
There it was again, that hint that he wanted her to stay. What the hell was he thinking?
“Thanks, Dev,” she answered, then glanced at a spot over his shoulder as if she was afraid he would see something in her eyes. “But all I did was show up. For selfish reasons. I needed to know that Ronnie was getting the best care. If that makes me a good doctor, then I’ll accept that.”
He noticed she’d ignored his comment about Destiny needing her. But dammit, the town was growing and they could use her skills. He was a concerned citizen. That had to be the reason he’d blurted it out. He wouldn’t let it be about wanting Hannah to stick around.
No way did he want to come in a distant second to a woman’s career. Not again.
She blew on her coffee. “I have to go be the squeaky wheel and find out everything I can.”
He grinned. “Okay. You go, girl. Let me know if you need any muscle.”
She nodded, then started to walk away. Her sneaker squeaked on the linoleum floor as she half turned to look at him. “It’s late, Dev. You don’t have to stay. I’ll find a ride back to the ranch.”
“I’m the guy who brought you. I’ll be seeing you home, ma’am,” he said, touching the brim of his hat.
A smile curved the corners of her lips. “Thanks. See you soon.”
He watched her walk away, the doctor in denim. He couldn’t stop the heat that filled him. The coat hit her at the knee, but he imagined the sway of her hips, and admired her shapely calves and slender ankles. What was it about Hannah that got to him?
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