He didn’t respond but angled himself toward her as she stepped away. His gaze was heavy on her back, sending even more chills racing down her arms. She picked up her pace, everything inside her suddenly jumping to high alert.
With a quick glance over her shoulder, she checked on Luke, who was still watching her. His features were pulled tight and unreadable.
A band clenched her middle, demanding she go back and talk to him. Go back and explain why she’d had to turn him down.
Halfway to the front steps, she turned around and called his name. “I really am—”
Squealing tires cut her off, and she jerked around to face the brilliant headlights of another car. It barreled down on her, picking up speed and stealing her every thought.
She tried to scream, but nothing came out.
The car was gaining ground, nearly to her. The driver had to see her. She was the only target in the vehicle’s lights. And it didn’t slow down. In fact, it was gaining speed.
Mandy managed a stumbled step as the car came faster and faster. Without a doubt she was about to die.
Suddenly an arm clamped her around the waist. It scooped her off her feet and sent her sailing out of the path of the car just as it careened by.
Mandy’s wildly beating heart was firmly lodged beneath her larynx, which accounted for the lack of sound coming out of her mouth, even as she tried to scream. At some point in the previous half second, she’d clenched her arms around Luke’s shoulders. And she had no intention of letting go.
“It’s okay. You’re all right.” Luke’s chest rumbled against her side as he spoke into her ear, the even rise and fall of his shoulders in stark contrast to her erratic panting. “It’s gone. It didn’t hit you.”
Her breath caught on a hitch. “Or—or you?”
“I’m fine.” His voice didn’t even wobble.
How could he possibly be so calm when someone had just tried to run her over?
Someone had tried to kill her.
Luke blinked against the surge of adrenaline rushing through him. It was a familiar—welcome—feeling. It felt like all of his training. All of his missions. All of his past.
Pulling Mandy closer to his side, he eyed the single crutch he’d lost to the speeding car. One second slower, and it would have been his leg. Two seconds slower, and they would both be dead.
Clearly this was a new emotion for Mandy, who shivered against his side, her eyes blinking, unseeing. He patted her back awkwardly and cleared his throat. “You’re good. No one was hurt.”
He thought he was being reassuring, but when her eyes swung in his direction, they were filled with terror. “You’re sure? You’re not injured?”
Meeting her gaze, his lips twisted into a hint of a smile. “No more than I was an hour ago, Dr. Berg.”
She gave him an obligatory chuckle, but the storm inside her danced across her face. “You just saved my life.” It was almost a question, as though she needed confirmation.
He nodded. “A little bit.”
That made her chuckle for real, and the fear he’d read in her eyes began to ease. “Look at me. You’re practically carrying me.” She untangled her arms from around his shoulders, her fingers from the spot where they’d burrowed beneath the collar of his shirt. Her warmth replaced by the cool breeze.
Luke dropped his arm, too, suddenly off-balance, and wavered dangerously. She flung a hand around his back and leaned a shoulder into his side as she eyed the mangled silver support left in the car’s wake. The trashed remains of his dinner like a comet’s tail.
“We came pretty close, didn’t we?”
He didn’t have to ask her for clarification. She could see only one thing, her focus entirely on what might have been. Instead of answering her question, he glanced over her head toward the office door. “Do you have an extra set of crutches in there?”
Her gaze dragged from the top of his head to the sole of his shoe. “Nothing that would be tall enough for you. But I do have a wheelchair.”
Just the word made him cringe, but he finally nodded. “All right.”
Leaning him against the railing, she said, “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
Luke bit back the retort on the tip of his tongue. Where could he go?
But she didn’t need a sarcastic comment after an ordeal like that. What she needed was to sit down for a little while to let the adrenaline subside and the trembling stop. And she probably didn’t need to do that by herself.
The door opened with a bang, followed by the squeaking wheel of the chair she’d promised. She angled it down the steps, skipping the ramp altogether, and slid it to his side. “Have you been in one of these?”
“For a week or so. After the...” Man, it was still hard to say the word.
“Bombing?” she filled in.
He nodded and lowered himself into the chair, and Mandy adjusted the footrest so his leg was propped out directly in front of him.
Patting his foot, she said, “There you go.”
“Thanks. I’ll get it back to you when I can get another crutch.” He glanced toward his mom’s car, and her eyes followed. Tight lines formed around her mouth as she bit her bottom lip until it was nearly invisible. “Are you going to be okay?”
She nodded, then her eyes grew wide. “But your supper is ruined. Let me buy you another hamburger. I’ll even throw in a shake.”
Luke squinted up at her, trying to assess how much of her offer stemmed from guilt and how much was from just not wanting to be alone. He almost asked her if there was anyone waiting at home, but even he knew better than to broach such a personal topic on their first meeting, no matter how close he’d been holding her just a minute before.
The flickering smile on her face dimmed for a split second, and he caught a glimmer of the terror she still battled. He’d faced down his share of angry terrorists—or tangos, as his team called them—and sharpshooters over three tours in the Middle East, and it never got easier. Mandy was a first-timer. Actually, she was holding it together pretty well, all things considered.
But she couldn’t fully mask the fear. Her hands wringing and eyelid twitching, she maintained eye contact, but her smile never quite reached her eyes.
“It’s the least I can do,” she said.
Something in his gut promised his life would be easier if he just walked away. But he’d never walked away from hard before.
“All right. I’ll let you buy me a double-double.”
She
