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The deputy answered the question. “There’s one in the next county, about thirty miles from here.”
“Then that will have to do, if they’ll take me.”
“I can give them a call,” the deputy said.
No way, Jenna thought. She wasn’t going to let him go off like that. She would worry about him. Still, did she have a right to intervene? Regardless, she couldn’t seem to hold back.
She said to the stranger, “You can stay at the Flying B until you regain your memory or until Deputy Tobbs finds out who you are. We’re turning the ranch into a B and B, and we have guest rooms and cabins on the property.”
“I can’t stay there.”
Jenna persisted, especially now that she’d made up her mind about saving him, or whatever it was she was trying to do. “Why not?”
“I just can’t. I shouldn’t.”
“Sure you can,” Doc said, supporting her idea. “It would be a good place for you to recover.”
“I don’t know.”
Jenna frowned. “What’s not to know? Just say yes.”
He frowned, too. “Are you always this insistent?”
Was she? “Sometimes.” Considering from the time that she and Donna were kids, the one lesson their father had always taught was to go after what they wanted. “But Doc agrees with me, so you’re outnumbered.”
“Consider it part of your treatment,” Doc said. “I could keep a better eye on you, and being surrounded by fresh air would be a heck of a lot nicer than being holed in a homeless shelter.”
The deputy interjected. “Sounds like you’ve got it worked out.”
“We do,” Jenna assured him.
“Then I’m going to take my leave.” He placed his card on the rolling stand beside the bed. “Call me if you have any questions,” he told the man with amnesia. “And if I need to reach you, I’ll stop by the Flying B.” The deputy turned to Jenna. “You should introduce him to everyone at the ranch. It’s possible that someone there will recognize him.”
“I will, just as soon as he’s feeling up to it.”
He turned back to the patient. “You take care.”
“Thank you,” came the polite reply.
Deputy Tobbs said goodbye to everyone and left the room, a hush forming in his absence. Jenna wondered if Doc was going to depart, too. But he stayed quietly put.
She said to the stranger, “You’re going to need another name, other than John Doe.”
His dark gaze caught hers. “Some people have that name for real.”
“I know. But it’s doubtful that you do.”
“Then you can pick one.”
“You want me to name you?”
“Somebody has to.”
Jenna glanced at Doc. He stood off to the side, clutching a clipboard that probably contained “John Doe’s” charts. Anxious, she crossed her arms over her chest. Doc’s silent observation created a fishbowl-type effect. But he had a right to analyze his patient’s reactions.
Was he analyzing her, too?
She’d been bothered by the John Doe reference from the beginning, but now that she’d been given the responsibility of changing it, she felt an enormous amount of pressure.
Could Doc tell how nervous she was?
She asked the stranger, “Are you sure you don’t want to come up with something yourself?”
“I’m positive.”
He sounded as if it didn’t matter, that with or without a makeshift name, he still considered himself no one.
Reminding her of how lost he truly was.
As he waited for the outcome, he thought about how surreal all of this was. He felt like a ketchup jar someone had banged upside the counter, with memories locked inside that wouldn’t come out.
Emptiness. Nothingness.
His only lifeline was the pretty blonde beside his bed and the doctor watching the scene unfold.
“What do you think of J.D.?” she asked.
“The initials for John Doe?”
She nodded. “I always thought that using initials in place of a name was sexy.”
He started. Was she serious? “Sexy?”
She blushed, her cheeks turning a soft shade of pink. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
Intrigued, he tilted his head. She’d gone from being aggressive to downright shy. “How did you mean it?”
“That it’s mysterious.”
“Then I guess it fits.” Everything was a mystery, right down to his confusion about dating her. Was she the type he would’ve dated in the past? Or did he even have a type?
“So we can start calling you J.D. now?” she asked, obviously double-checking.
He nodded.
“And you’re going to stay at the Flying B?”
He nodded again, still feeling reluctant about being her houseguest or cabin guest or whatever. As far as he was concerned, a homeless shelter would have sufficed.
She said, “When I first saw you, I assumed that you were a cowboy, maybe an employee of a neighboring ranch. I hadn’t considered a carjacking, but I wondered if you might be a hitchhiker. I’m glad the deputy is going to talk to everyone in the area about you. Then we’ll know for sure.” She glanced at his clothes, which were hanging nearby. “You were certainly dressed like a local cowboy, except that you didn’t have a hat. But I figured that you’d lost it somewhere.”
He followed her line of sight. The T-shirt, jeans and worn-out boots he’d been wearing were as unfamiliar as the day he’d been born. “I don’t have a recollection of doing ranch work.”
“You don’t have a recollection of anything,” she reminded him.
“I know, but wouldn’t I have a feeling of being connected to ranching? Wouldn’t it be ingrained in me if that’s what I did for a living?” He turned to the expert. “What do you think, Dr. Sanchez?”
“I think it’s too soon to be concerned about that. You just need to rest and let your feelings fall into place when they’re meant to.” He smiled. “I also think you should start calling me Doc.”
“Okay, Doc.” He preferred less formality, too, and already he’d gotten used to hearing Jenna say it. A moment later, he shifted his gaze back to his unfamiliar clothes.
Jenna said, “You put some miles on those boots.”
“I must have thought they were comfortable.” He noticed that the toes were starting to turn up. “I guess I’m going to find out if I still like wearing them.”
“Yes, J.D., you are,” Doc said, using his new name. “In fact, you can get dressed now, if you want. I can send a nurse in if you need help.”
“No, I can handle it.”
“All right. Then I’ll go get your papers ready, and Jenna can step out of the room and come back when you’re done.”
J.D. got a highly inappropriate urge, wishing that he could ask her to stay and help him get dressed. He even imagined her hand on his zipper.
Hell and damnation.
He should have insisted on going to a shelter. Clearly, being around Jenna wasn’t a good idea.
She and the doctor left, closing the curtain behind them. J.D. got out of bed and walked over to the closet, still thinking about Jenna.
He cursed quietly under his breath, stripped off the hospital gown and put on his Western wear. He grappled with his belt. He fought the boots, too. They felt odd at first, but he got used to them soon enough.
Curious to look at himself in the mirror, he went into the bathroom. He didn’t recognize his reflection, with him wearing the clothes. He was still a nowhere man.
Luckily, the hospital had provided a few necessities, like a comb, toothpaste and a toothbrush. Still standing in front of the mirror, he combed his hair straight back, but it fell forward naturally, so he let it be. They hadn’t provided a razor, so he had no choice but to leave the beard stubble. It was starting to itch and he wanted it gone. Or maybe it was the image it created that he didn’t like. It made him look as haunted as he felt, like an Old West outlaw.
J.D. the Kid? No. He wasn’t a kid. He figured himself for early thirties. Or that was how he appeared. But he could be mistaken.
Blowing out a breath, he returned to his room and opened the curtain, letting Jenna know that she could come back.
She did, about five minutes later, bringing two cups of coffee with her.
“It’s from the vending machine,” she said. “But it’s pretty good. I had some last night when I was waiting for your test results.” She handed him a cup. “It has cream and sugar. I hope that’s okay.”
“It’s fine. Thanks. I don’t have a preference, not that I’m aware of, anyway.” He sat on the edge of the bed, offering her the chair. “You’ve been putting in a lot of time at this place, hanging out for a man you barely know.”
“I’m starting to get to know you.” She smiled. “You obviously like coffee.”
“So it seems.” He drank it right down. “I had orange juice with breakfast, but this hits the spot.”
“We have gourmet coffeemakers in the guest cabins. You can brew yourself a fancy cup of Joe tomorrow morning.”
“That sounds good, but maybe I shouldn’t stay there. You don’t need the burden of having a guy like me around.”
“You can’t back out. You already agreed. Doctor’s orders, remember?”
Yes, but his recovery didn’t include the stirrings she incited. Even now, he wanted to see her blush again. He liked the shy side of her.
“When this is over, I’ll repay you for your hospitality,” he said.
“Just get better, okay? That will be payment enough.”
“You’re a nice girl, Jenna.”
“And you seem like a nice man.”
“You thought I was drunk off my butt when you saw me stumbling around. I remember you telling me that I had too much to drink.”
“I retracted that when I saw that your head was bleeding. How is your head, by the way?”
“Still hurts a little.”
“How about your feet?”
He squinted. “My feet aren’t injured.”
“I was talking about your boots. How do they feel?”
Oh, yeah. The boots. He glanced down at the scuffed leather. “Fine.” He motioned to hers. “You’ve got yourself a fancy pair.”
“These are my dressy ones. Sometimes I go dancing in them, too.”
“I have no idea if I know how to dance.”
“You can try the two-step and see.”
“Right now?” He teased her. “Up and down the hospital corridor?”
She laughed. “Later, smarty, when you’re up to par.”
Were they flirting? It sure as heck seemed as if they were. But it didn’t last long because he didn’t let it.
He knew better than to start something that he was in no position to finish. She seemed to know it, too. She turned off the charm at the same instant he did.
Tempering what was happening between them.
As a bright and bouncy nurse wheeled J.D. out to Jenna’s truck, he said, “I’d rather walk.”
“It’s hospital policy,” the chipper lady said. “Everyone leaves in a wheelchair.”
