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She chuckled. “Right.”
SAM HAD PLENTY of time to think about her future. When she returned from parking the truck, she’d discovered the nurses had taken the cowboy, her cowboy, to X ray. Forced laughter came out. She didn’t even know the name of the man who’d cost her her job.
No, that wasn’t true. Well, it was true she didn’t know his name. But she wasn’t going to remain in that job much longer anyway. Brad, her boss, had been married four times, his most recent wife had died only a month ago. Suspiciously.
The sheriff had been hanging around. He’d warned her to stay away from Brad. She’d already figured that out. Brad, however, had been making noises about her stepping into the role of wife number five.
So now she had to decide where to go next. Flagstaff was a nice place, but she didn’t want to be that close to Brad. It would be her luck that he’d turn out to be a stalker.
Motion nearby caught her attention. Two nurses were wheeling her cowboy down the hall.
“Hey! Is that you, cowboy?” she called.
He didn’t answer, but one of the nurses did. “This is the man brought in a few minutes ago with a broken ankle.”
Sam jumped up and stepped to the side of the wheel-chair, walking with it. “Broken?”
“Yes. His walking on it didn’t help the situation.”
Slowly those brown eyes she’d seen earlier opened. “Too much noise,” he muttered, obviously on pain medication.
Sam smiled faintly. He was most autocratic. She looked at the nurse. “What happens now?”
“That’s for the doctor to say,” the nurse said, suddenly prim and proper.
“Yes, it is,” a man behind Sam said mildly as they pushed the wheelchair into a curtained-off area and moved the heavily sedated cowboy into a bed.
“Are you the doctor?” Sam asked the handsome man who looked about forty.
“Yes, ma’am. And you are…?”
“Samantha Jeffers.”
He smiled. “Welcome to our hospital, Miss Jeffers. You did say Jeffers, not Randall?”
Sam shot a quick look at the cowboy. “Um, no, not Randall.” Okay, at least she knew his last name. “Um, I’m his fiancée,” she hurriedly added, afraid she would be thrown out if she wasn’t related to him.
“I see. Does he have any family here?”
Sam hoped she was doing the right thing. “No, none. We were here with the rodeo. He’s a bull rider.”
“Not a great career choice,” the doctor said, sounding like he thought the man was an idiot.
She hadn’t thought the cowboy was brilliant, either, but for some reason, she felt compelled to defend him. “He’s very good!”
“Well, it will be a while before he gets up on another bull.”
“How long?” She knew Mr. Randall would want that question answered.
“Just a minute and I can tell you.” The doctor turned his back on her and took a large envelope from the foot of the bed. He removed the negatives and put them on a lighted background. “Hmm, he got lucky. It’s a clean break.”
“So he can leave right away?”
“No. Because he walked on the ankle, the swelling is particularly bad. We’re not going to put a cast on until the swelling goes down.”
“How long?” Sam asked, feeling more concerned than she should have.
“A day or two. He’ll need to keep the cast on for six weeks, probably. Then he’ll be good as new. You worried?” the doctor asked.
“A little.”
The patient groaned. Sam bent over him, brushing back the dark hair that had fallen across his forehead. “You okay, cowboy?”
“It hurts,” he whispered.
Sam looked up at the doctor. “Can’t you give him something more for the pain?”
The doctor gave an order to the nurse and she hurried out of the room. “She’ll be back in a minute with something to put him to sleep. He should stay asleep until morning.”
“Thank you,” she said, turning back to the patient. This was an unusual situation for Samantha. She had no family, no close friends. She’d never accompanied anyone to the hospital before. She hoped she never had to do so again.
“Do you need a ride home? Or a place to stay?” the doctor asked.
“No, but thank you for asking.”
When the nurse returned, the cowboy barely opened his eyes to take the medication. Sam patted his arm and said, “I’ll see you in the morning.”
Then she slipped out of his room.
IT WAS ALMOST ten when Sam left the hospital. She drove by a fast-food place and got a hamburger to take home for dinner. “Home” was a room she rented from an elderly lady one block from the diner. However, before pulling up to her building, she drove past slowly, looking at the vehicles parked on the street.
As she’d feared, Brad’s truck was parked right in front of Mrs. Walley’s old house. Damn! He was waiting for her.
At least he didn’t know she was driving the cowboy’s truck. Tomorrow he’d go to the diner and she’d be able to slip into her room and gather her belongings. Thankfully, she traveled light.
She didn’t have enough money with her to get a hotel room. Her savings were hidden in her room.
For tonight, she’d have to make do in the cab of the truck. She’d slept in worse places.
She drove to a nearby shopping center and stopped in the back of the parking lot. She made sure the doors were locked, put on her sweater and curled up on the truck bench seat. Thank goodness the cowboy didn’t have bucket seats.
She awoke when the sun came up the next morning, a little sore from her constricted bed. There was a doughnut shop in the strip mall and she bought herself some breakfast.
She returned to the truck and started it up, praying Brad had left. But his car, a beat-up Chevrolet, was still guarding her room. She knew he was thinking she spent the night with the cowboy, which meant his anger was growing. She shielded her face with her hand and drove on by, then returned to her earlier parking space at the shopping center.
Knowing she was in for a long day, Sam went into the large economy store, bought herself a snack and a paperback book. She couldn’t risk driving by her building too many times fearing Brad might notice the truck.
If Larry, his only cook, was handling breakfast, Brad would have to go in for the lunch crowd. So she’d have to stay hidden until eleven this morning. Then she could get to her stuff.
At eleven-fifteen, she parked the truck outside her room and hurried up the sidewalk. Mrs. Walley, her landlady, met her at the front door.
“Dear, you had a young man come calling last night.”
Samantha shook her head, hiding a smile. The old lady was a complete romantic. No one else would describe Brad as a “young man.” “What did he say?”
“He wanted to talk to you.” Mrs. Walley peeked out the hall window. “I think he waited all night. He knocked on the door this morning and asked for you again, but I told him you hadn’t come home. I don’t think he was very happy.”
“Mrs. Walley, I’m moving out today. Since I’m paid until the end of the month, you’ll have some time to find another renter without losing money.”
“Oh, dear, no! I’ve so enjoyed your being here. Must you go?”
“Yes, I must.”
“What shall I tell that young man? Or will you talk to him?”
“No, I won’t. Tell him I’ve gone to California.” She gave the woman a brief hug and entered the place she’d called home for a little over a month. After checking out the window to make sure Brad hadn’t come back, she took a quick shower and washed her hair.
Packing took about ten minutes. All her belongings fit in a duffel bag. She had to be ruthless with herself about what she kept. She couldn’t afford to weight herself down with sentimental junk. A couple of changes of clothes, her toiletries, one towel. She used a spare T-shirt as her nightgown. Wearing her only pair of shoes, some athletic lace-ups, completed her sparse wardrobe.
She slipped out without talking to Mrs. Walley again and headed for the hospital. She suspected the cowboy was going to be annoyed that she hadn’t stopped by first thing this morning. It had just been more convenient to pick up her belongings first. And she had to wait for Brad to give up.
It tickled her to drive by The Hot Skillet without Brad having any idea she was out there. The man was a bully. She felt sorry for the other waitresses who worked there and so very relieved she was no longer one of them.
THE PAIN greeted him as he swam to consciousness. Rich opened his eyes and recognized his hospital surroundings. He remembered his hardheadedness, his refusal to admit he was hurt to his so-called friends. The waitress who’d taken pity on him.
He looked around the room as if he expected her to be sitting beside the bed. Then he berated himself for such silliness. If his mother knew of his condition, she’d be here. She was the best. And his dad would chew him out, then give him a big hug. His twin, Russ…Rich’s eyes filled with tears. Damn, he missed Russ. He even missed his baby brother, Casey.
He wanted to go home. Even if he wasn’t returning as the conquering hero, as he’d imagined, he wanted to go home. As soon as the doctor released him, that’s what he would do.
The nurse brought in his breakfast, giving him a cheerful greeting. She was young and pretty and he flirted with her. But he kept calculating how long it would be before the doctor checked on him…and how long it would be before the waitress came back.
“Anybody here to see me?” he asked as the nurse prepared to leave.
“I don’t think so. Do you want me to check?”
“Yes, please. I’m expecting a lady, tall, willowy brunette.”
The pretty little nurse looked disappointed, giving his ego a lift. “I’ll ask,” she said and turned to leave.
“Say,” Rich said, stopping her again. “When will the doctor be by? I need to get out of here.”
“In about an hour,” she replied as she walked out of his room.
Almost to the minute she’d predicted, the doctor examined him and promised to put him in a cast that evening so he could leave the next morning. But he told him he couldn’t drive for a month, even though he’d put him in a walking cast up to his knee.
Rich was devastated by that news. There was no way he was going to stay in Flagstaff for a month. Maybe he’d get the waitress to call home and get someone to fly down and drive him back. They’d have to come soon. His horse was stabled at the rodeo grounds, but they’d be closing the place tomorrow.
He spent the next three hours trying to plan a scenario that would get him home, get his animal taken care of and…with growing worries, figuring out what had happened to the waitress and his truck.
Just before they served lunch, the woman he’d become increasingly annoyed with finally walked into his room.
“Where the hell have you been!” he yelled.
Chapter Two
“Sorry I’m late,” the waitress said, seemingly unconcerned about his frustration.
“Where have you been?”
“Packing my belongings,” she replied, moving closer to his hospital bed.
“Just like a woman,” he said in disgust. “I’m lying here in pain and she’s packing a huge wardrobe!”
She ignored his remark. “Has the doctor been to see you? What did he say?”
“He said I get out tomorrow. They’ll put the cast on this evening, a walking cast.”
“Great! You’ll be all set, then.”
“Not exactly. He said I can’t drive for a month.”
She seemed taken aback, which made him feel better. “What are you going to do?”
“Well, I’ve had plenty of time to work things out, since it took you so long to—what do you mean pack? Where do you think you’re going?” He liked her. He appreciated what she’d done for him, but he hadn’t expected her to pack her belongings and follow him home. What did she think she was doing?
She grinned. “Don’t panic. My packing has nothing to do with you. I’m out of a job and—”
“Can’t you find something around here?”
She raised one eyebrow. “I could.”
“Then you wouldn’t have to move,” he pointed out.
“Thanks for the advice. Now tell me what you decided and where you want me to leave the truck.”
“I need you to do a couple of other things for me if you don’t mind. Can you go to the rodeo grounds and take care of my horse?”
“Your horse? You have a horse here with you?”
“Yeah.” Why did she sound so surprised?
“You don’t need a horse to do bull riding.”
“I also do calf roping and team steer wrestling.”
“Oh. Well, what do you want me to do with your horse? Do you mean clean out his stall and feed him? I can do that.”
“I’m not asking you to do that kind of work. Check and see if Gabe Randall has left yet. If he hasn’t moved on with the rodeo, get him to take care of Bella.”
