Is there a stack of warrants out on you or something?”
Her nostrils flared as she stared at him. “No. I simply don’t like you people. That’s all.”
Too stunned to make any sort of reply, Evan watched her walk out of the room.
You people? Through the ten years he’d worked for the sheriff’s office, he’d met plenty of folks who disliked lawmen. But they were usually drunks, drug users or hardened criminals. Not a decent woman like Noelle Barnes.
What had a lawman ever done to her? he wondered. Put her in jail? Broken her heart?
Mentally shaking his aching head, Evan punched in his partner’s cell number and lifted the phone to his ear.
It didn’t matter whether Noelle Barnes loved or hated law officials, he told himself. Once he got back to civilization, he’d never see her again.
More than an hour later, as Noelle paced restlessly around the large waiting area of the hospital emergency unit, she was still trying to figure out what had come over her.
Like Evan had told her, there’d been no real reason for her to drive him into town or to see that he got to a doctor. There were plenty of deputies in the sheriff’s office who would’ve come to Noelle’s house and collected him. Instead, she’d insisted she drive him herself. Now, as the long minutes continued to tick by, she began to worry that his injury might have been more serious than either of them had suspected.
She’d seen people before who had taken severe licks on the head. Once her brother, Andy, had been hit in the temple with a hard-thrown baseball, but the only bad effect he’d suffered was a black eye. Then a girlfriend of hers had fallen and banged her head against a concrete wall while she and Noelle were roller-skating. But the only injury she’d sustained was a minor cut on the scalp.
On the drive into town, Evan Calhoun had told her that his mother had died from a head injury after a simple fall on the staircase. And though he didn’t appear to be connecting her demise with his own injury, just hearing about it had shaken Noelle. No matter whether he worked as a carpenter, a cowboy or a law officer, she didn’t want anything bad to happen to him.
The sound of a crying baby drew Noelle’s attention. Across the room, a young woman was trying to pacify a fussy infant and control a rowdy toddler at the same time. The mother looked completely frazzled, yet Noelle couldn’t help but envy the woman. She had someone to love, someone who needed her. She had a family.
Jamming her hands into the front pockets of her jeans, Noelle looked down at her boots and tried to keep her mind from slipping back to Phillip and the short year they’d been married. For a while, she’d been naively in love. Like most new brides, she’d been dreaming and planning for their future. One with two or three children they would raise on a small ranch outside Phoenix. But those wonderful dreams had been flattened when she’d discovered Phillip was as phony as her father’s integrity.
With a weary sigh, she looked away from the mother and children and glanced for the umpteenth time at the double doors where Evan had disappeared with a nurse. He’d been back there nearly two hours. Something had to be dreadfully wrong.
Determined it was high time to get some answers, she marched over to the admission desk, where two nurses were dealing with ringing phones, paperwork and people who were just as weary and worried as she.
Trying to hold on to the slender thread of patience she had left, Noelle was waiting in line to speak with one of the nurses when the double doors suddenly opened. Relief flooded through her as she spotted Evan in a wheelchair, being pushed by a male nurse. Evan looked pale and wrung out, but that was far better than lying flat on his back in a hospital bed.
Stepping out of the slow-moving line of people, she intercepted the two men before they reached the middle of the waiting area.
“The doctor isn’t holding you over?” she asked in surprise. For the past half hour, she’d been thinking he’d be admitted to a room for a night of observation, at the very least.
“No, thank God.” He slanted her a weak grin. “I didn’t think you’d still be here.”
She lifted her chin. “Why would I run out on you? I’ve already wasted most of the day. What’s two more hours?”
He chuckled before cringing in pain. Noelle was surprised at how much empathy she felt for him. Up until she’d found him in the gulch with his face in the gravel bed, she’d never met him. Having this much concern for a complete stranger wasn’t normal.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the nurse making a survey of her rough work clothes and dusty hat. No doubt he wondered what connection she had to this Carson City detective.
“Are you taking this man home?” the nurse asked Noelle.
“That’s right.”
“Then park your vehicle next to the curb and I’ll bring him out.”
Noelle exited the building and hurried to fetch her truck. Cold wind swept across the crowded parking lot. She tried not to imagine what would’ve happened if she’d ridden in a different direction today. Even if Evan had awakened without her help, he might not have been physically capable of tracking down his horse and riding out of the gulch on his own. The plummeting temperature tonight would’ve surely caused him to suffer hypothermia. Noelle had always believed that things happened for a reason. It was clear that she was meant to rescue the detective, although she couldn’t imagine why.
A few minutes later, after Evan was safely buckled in the passenger seat and she had the heater blowing on their feet, she put the vehicle in motion.
“Okay, you need to give me a clue where you live,” she told him as she directed the truck toward the nearest exit of the parking lot. “I’m not familiar with the residential streets around Carson City, so you might start with some general directions.”
“Sorry, but I don’t live here in town. Just take me by the sheriff’s office. Someone there can drive me home.”
Glancing over, she saw that he’d removed his hat. The hair around the wound had been clipped down to the scalp, and a row of stitches now held the gashed skin together. The man was tough to be up and walking, she thought. She’d give him that much.
“Is there some reason you’re trying to get rid of me?” she asked.
Wiping a hand over his face, he said, “No. Just trying to save you a long trip. I’m sure you have things to do at home.”
“The daylight hours are gone. The only thing I’m going to do when I get home is feed the horses and tend to a sick cow.”
He didn’t say anything until the traffic cleared enough for her to pull into the street. “Okay. Go to 395 and head north.”
Noelle didn’t know why she’d made it her responsibility to see this man to the doctor and then home. She could have let a coworker deal with him. But something about finding him on her property and rescuing him from hypothermia, or worse, had left her feeling a bit possessive. Like finding a wounded animal and not wanting to let go until she was certain it could survive without help.
“A
