Abby finally reached the door after trudging through the snow that seemed much deeper here than at her house. Leaning against the side for a moment, she tried to catch her breath as it puffed white in the air around her. When she finally managed to breathe a little more normally, she pushed open the small door. “Chase?”
Not hearing anything, she walked inside and closed it behind her. A horse in the enclosure to her left pranced nervously and rolled its eyes. She reached out and patted the mare’s nose as she whispered, “It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m just trying to check on your owner.”
The horse calmed, and Abby started to make her way farther back inside the barn, while her gaze darted around.
A much larger arena sat to her right with another horse, much bigger than the first, running back and forth along the fence. Peering closer, she could see drag marks in the dirt, and her heart clenched in her chest.
God, please don’t let him be dead. I couldn’t handle that again.
She followed the markings until she reached a small office. Pushing open the door, her terrified voice called again, “Chase?”
“Abby?”
Chapter Four
Chase hadn’t heard her until she pushed open the door to his office. He managed to drag himself inside after the accident, but couldn’t reach the phone, and now his leg burned like fire.
Next thing he knew, she was at his side.
“Oh my God, Chase. What happened?”
What is she doing here?
“Damned horse kicked me. I think my leg is broken.”
“I’ll call an ambulance.” Abby grabbed the phone, trying to dial with hands trembling so badly, he could see it. “Yes—hello? I need an ambulance at—what’s your address?”
“Just tell them the Rocking W. They know.” He mumbled, closing his eyes. Sharp, stabbing pain ricocheted up his leg every time he tried to move.
“What do you mean you aren’t sure when you can get here? He needs an ambulance, damn it!”
He chuckled and opened his eyes as her gaze swung back to him for a moment.
She’s a spitfire, that’s for sure. Nice temper to go with those bright green eyes.
“All right, fine. I’ll see if I can get him there some other way.” Abby hung up the phone with more force than was probably necessary. “They can’t get here for a while. They are tied up with an accident.”
“It’s fine. If I don’t try to move too much, it will be okay until they get here.” The blood seeped through his jeans near the bulge at his shin. He wasn’t a doctor, but he knew a compound fracture when he saw one. He’d seen way too many not to know.
* * * *
Abby chewed on her fingernail and tried to think of something, anything to help him.
Something to splint it with, that’s what I need.
“I can see those gears turning, Abby. What are you up to?”
“I need to find something to splint your leg with so we can get you to the hospital. Do you have some loose boards around here and some twine?”
“But…”
“No buts, Chase. You need a doctor and now, not whenever they can get here.”
He hesitated for a split second before giving her directions. “In the storeroom. Out the door and to your right.”
She returned a moment later with two boards she thought would be long enough and a long piece of twine. The boards would fit fine, but the twine would have to be cut.
“Do you have a knife somewhere? I’m going to need to cut this.”
“Yeah—in my jeans pocket.”
Their eyes met when she bent down in front of him and murmured, “Which pocket?”
Chase exhaled. “The front right.” Her fingers met his when they both reached for the knife. “I can get it,” he whispered, his warm breath flittered across her cheek, making her realize just how close he was as her gaze shot up to meet his. The heat in his eyes sent a shiver down her spine when it shifted to her lips.
She sat back on her heels. “Oh—yeah right.”
Chase handed her the knife, and his warm fingers brushed against hers as the same jolt of electricity shot up her arm. Grabbing the boards, she set them on either side of the apparent break, but his hiss of pain brought her eyes back to his.
“Am I hurting you?”
“No—just do it.” He was lying, but there wasn’t anything she could do about that now.
Abby cut the twine and fed it underneath, tying it tight. His skin had a pasty pale tinge and she saw him work the muscles his jaw. He wasn’t about to let her know how much pain he felt.
Men. They can be so damned stubborn.
“I think that should hold it until we can get you to the hospital. Where are your keys?”
“In the house on the dining room table, but Abby, how did you get here? You don’t have a car.”
“The old truck from my barn,” she shot over her shoulder before she raced to the house to find his keys. She parked it as close to the barn door as possible and ran back inside.
She squatted close to his side and said, “Wrap your arm around me and I’ll lift you.”
“You can’t lift me.”
“Don’t you dare tell me I can’t do something—now, come on and help me.”
The surprise written all over his face changed to admiration before he pulled his good leg under his body. Chase wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled himself to his feet. He tried to catch his breath once they stood as he closed his eyes to the pain. She settled her arm around his waist as she sucked in a ragged breath when her position pressed her intimately against his side. The warmth of his body penetrated her shirt and sent a shiver rippling through her.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine, Chase. Let’s get you out to the truck.”
They slowly moved toward the door of the barn to where she parked. Once they were beside the vehicle, he reached out and pulled the door open and she helped him turn his body and slide inside. She shut the door and raced racing around to the driver side.
“Be careful. The roads are bad.”
“I know. Trust me, okay?”
“I do, Abby.” Their eyes met across the expanse of the cab and her heart skipped a beat in her chest. With a sigh, she turned back to the road in front of them and maneuvered the big truck down the driveway.
They drove past the old truck and he said, “You came in that thing?”
“Yes.”
“You’re braver than I thought.” He tried to joke, but she could see the tightness around his lips and the furrow between his eyebrows.
She shrugged and returned her gaze to the road in front of them. “I had to do something. I couldn’t reach you by phone.”
His voice sounded rough and gravelly as he asked, “That was you?”
“What do you mean?”
“I kept hearing the phone ring, but I couldn’t reach it.”
“Yeah, it was me.”
“Why?”
“Why what?” Her hands gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles, and she squinted out the windshield.
“Why did you call?”
She shook her head and said, “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Sure I would.”
Abby rolled her eyes and murmured, “My mother told me to check on you.”
“Your mother? I don’t understand.”
She exhaled in a frustrated rush of air. “My mother is sensitive, as they call it. She can see things some times, know things. You know what I mean? Anyway, she told me to check on you.” A frown rippled across his face. “I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”
“I never said that.”
“You didn’t have to. I can see it on your face. Don’t worry.
Most people don’t believe me when I tell them. It doesn’t bother me anymore.”
Except that his disbelief does.
Luckily, it wasn’t that far to the hospital. She kept an eye on Chase while she drove, trying desperately not to hurt him as he leaned against the seat of the truck, his lips white and his eyes closed.
She pulled right up to the door and put the truck in park. “Stay here. I’ll go get someone to help.”
He tried to smile, but it came out more like a grimace. “I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere.”
After scrambling out of the truck, she rushed inside. When Abby told the receptionist what was going on and that it was Chase Wilder, they quickly grabbed two men from the rear side of the emergency room with a stretcher. The snow stopped, but it was still bitterly cold as she turned up the collar of the coat she wore and pulled the stocking cap down around her ears.
Everything happened so fast, Abby could do nothing more than stand by when the men maneuvered Chase onto the stretcher and wheeled him inside, leaving her in the waiting room.
* * * *
“Is it bad, Chris?” Chase asked as he grimaced with pain.
“You did a good job of taking yourself out for a while, Chase. What happened, anyway?”
“I got kicked.”
“Damn good thing Mrs. Carter found you. That’s a bad break.”
Chase frowned when he thought of Abby. She had said her mom told her to check on him. That kind of freaked him out, but he liked the face that she was worried enough to come over and with this weather, no less. A smile flittered across his face when he remembered the old rusty truck of the Millers’ sitting in his driveway. He couldn’t believe the thing actually started, much less made it to his house. It was a good three miles between his place and hers.
Christopher wrote something on the paper in his hands. “You’ll probably have to have your leg pinned.”
He frowned. “What are you telling me?”
“Surgery, probably tomorrow, which means you’ll be a resident here for a bit.”
“Shit! I can’t stay here. I’ve got animals to take care of.”
“You don’t have much choice, Chase. You can’t get around with that leg, even on crutches, for the time being.”
Chase groaned and closed his eyes.
Now what the hell am I gonna do?
“Listen, can I tell Mrs. Carter how you are doing? She’s pacing the waiting room.”
Abby.
“Can she come back here?”
Christopher frowned a moment before he answered, “Sure. I’ll go get her myself.”
A few moments later, he opened his eyes to find Abby nervously chewing her lip and standing next to the gurney.
He smiled. “Hi.”
Frown lines appeared between her eyebrows. “Are you okay?”
A dry chuckle left his lips. “Yeah—thanks to you.”
Her gaze shifted away. “I didn’t do anything, Chase.”
Now it was his turn to frown. “Yes, you did. How many other women would drive through a blizzard in a rusty old truck to make sure their neighbor, whom they just met, is okay because he wasn’t answering the phone?”
Abby’s shoulders lifted in a shrug.
He reached out and took her hand, as she brought her gaze back to his. Her hand trembled slightly before she pulled it back and rubbed her palm across the thigh of her jeans.
“So what happens now?”
“I’m not sure. Christopher is saying I have to stay and have surgery tomorrow to pin the break.”
He wasn’t sure what he saw in Abby’s eyes when the emotions rippled across her face. “Surgery?”
“Yeah, which means I’ll be laid up a while from what it sounds like.”
“What about your house—your horses?”
“I’ll just have to find someone to take care of them for me while I’m in here. I’ll have one of my friends go by and feed them. Once I get home, I’m sure I’ll be able to get around enough to take care of them.”
In the space of a heartbeat Abby said, “I’ll do it.”
Surprised by her suggestion and her willingness to help him, he asked, “You?”
“Don’t look so surprised, Chase. Even though I lived in New York City for the last several years, I know horses. My parents have property near Albany. I grew up around horses.”
The warm rugged sound of his laughter filled the space and he let his gaze roam her face. “Nothing you do surprises me anymore, Abby. I guess it just makes me realize I don’t know that much about you.”
“Well, I guess since we are neighbors now, you’ll learn more about me over time.” Abby smiled for the first time since she had come in the emergency room. “I’m not the fragile female I’m sure you expected.”
“No, ma’am. That you aren’t.” He let his gaze skim down her frame. When he returned to her face, he watched color splash across her cheeks in a pretty blush.
Christopher came in behind her with a frown wrinkling his brow. “We should be moving you upstairs shortly, Chase.”
“Good—the pain medication you gave me is making me tired.”
“I better go, then.” Abby turned to leave, but he grabbed her hand again before she could turn away.
“Don’t leave yet.”
Her gaze met his.
“Okay.” She pulled up a chair and sat down next to him and he let his eyes drift shut with her hand still cradled in his.