She needed to keep it that way.
* * *
CLINT SAT BACK in the seat, shoved his good foot into a shoe and watched Stephanie drive. She drove with the same concentration she showed when treating the cow. He thought back to that moment she’d smiled. Openly. Not guarded as she had been since they met.
He’d thought her pretty before, but when she smiled, she was stunning. And when her blue eyes had darkened with concern while she examined his foot, he’d felt a tingling interest he hadn’t experienced in a long time.
Down, boy. He knew nothing about her. He had a pile of troubles at the moment. Plus, he wouldn’t be staying long. Just long enough to chart out a future.
But in that moment immediately after the cow had stepped on him and she’d knelt next to him, their eyes had clashed, challenging each other. It had made him feel alive for the first time since the car accident. Call it sexual attraction, awareness, or whatever, something was there, at least for him.
“I don’t need a doctor,” he said. “I’ve seen enough injuries to know this doesn’t even count as a pinprick.”
“Then you didn’t need my shoulder?”
She had him there. His foot hurt like hell, but he probably could have walked on his own. He just hadn’t been able to resist the offer. “It helped,” he said, somewhat lamely.
A small smile started on her lips, then faded. “We are going. So far my track record in seeing you safely to Covenant Falls is near zero.”
Was she being adamant because of this Josh? She’d made it clear she valued the opinion of his benefactor more than his. It was rather a blow to his pride, but then except for that one extraordinary moment on the ground, she’d been stilted since they’d met. It was as if she knew something about him, something she didn’t particularly like. The reason he’d left the army? That he failed his buddies for a dumb stunt?
At least he hadn’t had a blackout during the afternoon. He didn’t know what triggered them. The doctor suggested tension, anxiety, but they occurred at other times, as well. The only warning was a god-awful headache.
“I really am sorry,” she said, breaking into his thoughts. “I shouldn’t have asked you to help. You haven’t much experience with animals, have you?”
He shrugged. “It felt good to be doing something useful, even holding two legs of a reluctant cow.” He stayed silent for a moment, then said, “Tell me about Josh Manning. All I know is he’s a vet, not to be confused with your kind of vet.”
“He’s a good guy. He’s one of about three people whose opinion I respect.”
Clint raised an eyebrow. “That’s not very many.”
“I’ve been here only five years,” she said with a trace of a grin. It was the first time she’d lowered her guard with him. He knew about that. He had his own walls and recognized them in others.
“Just what does he want? Why is he doing this?”
“Josh inherited the cabin from a fallen friend, a fellow soldier, and rehabbed it. It was a mess when he arrived. Time and partying kids had pretty well destroyed it. He worked like hell to fix it, and he doesn’t want it to fall into disrepair again.”
“Couldn’t he rent it?”
“Covenant Falls isn’t exactly on the tourism map,” Stephanie said. “Josh and his wife hope to change that, but in the meantime, he wants someone to use it, and who better than a vet.”
“And the town?” Clint asked. “I looked it up. It’s pretty small.”
“It is. And quite elderly on the whole. A little over three thousand people spread over a large space. Most have lived there all their lives.”
“Where are you from?”
Her lips tightened. “Pennsylvania. Once upon a time.”
“What brought you here?”
“What brought you to the army?”
A deflection. Interesting. But then everything about her was interesting. Contradictory. There was a standoffishness, a message that said “hands off,” yet she had been very easy with the rancher. And his being stomped on by a heifer had apparently broken through some kind of barrier. She wasn’t a bundle of warmth, but she was communicative. Progress.
He shrugged. “I wanted to fly. The army was the fastest and cheapest way to do that.”
“Risky, though.”
“Not if you know what you’re doing.”
“What did you fly?”
“Choppers. Black Hawks mostly.”
“How long?”
“Seventeen years.”
He waited for the next question. Why had he left? It didn’t come, which either meant she wasn’t interested or she already knew. He tried to tamp his growing interest in her. He couldn’t even get from point A to point B without help. It was galling. He leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes. His foot throbbed, but it was a minor annoyance. It was the emptiness ahead that was agonizing.
* * *
WHY HAD SHE asked so many questions? It only invited more conversation and questions of his own.
Still, curiosity tickled her. She glanced at him. His eyes were closed. Resting? Dang it, but he was...
Remember your first reaction. That smile. The compliment. Remember Mark’s smile.
Still, it was her fault he was injured. She’d needed him, true, but she and Hardy could have handled the cow alone. It would have taken longer, been riskier. She hadn’t truly given Clint a choice, though, knowing full well she had challenged him. She’d known he would take it, having judged in the first few minutes of their meeting that he couldn’t ignore a challenge. However, she hadn’t expected him to get stomped on and, when he had been, to laugh.
Her passenger stirred as she slowed and she wondered whether he had been feigning sleep. Either way, it was fine with her. As soon as she delivered him, even if not totally intact, to Josh, the happier she would be. He was...disturbing. She pushed aside any notion of being attracted to him. She was just...worried about that foot. She had made conversation to keep his mind from it. Didn’t mean anything.
As she pulled in front of the doctor’s office, she noticed Josh’s Jeep. He had probably decided to see for himself how much damage had been done. It never ceased to amaze her how he had gone from being the angry loner to one of the town’s best liked citizens. Her friend, Eve, was much better at magic than she’d ever been.
Clint straightened up and blinked at her. He glanced around at Main Street, and the two-story building flanked by businesses. A sign proclaimed it the “Covenant Falls Medical Clinic.” Josh Manning leaned against a wall.
She cut the engine. “That’s Josh. He can help you inside.”
“I would rather you did,” he said. “I’m becoming accustomed to your shoulder.”
She had to smile. His quirky, self-deprecating sense of humor was appealing. “I expect Josh will be more help than I was.”
He gave her a long steady look. No smile. Just a glance that seemed to see right through her. Then he nodded. “I appreciate the ride, ma’am.”
She knew that “ma’am” was a common address to women by soldiers. It also distanced them. Huh. He hadn’t been resting at all. He opened the passenger door as she stepped out of the van. Josh approached them, introduced himself to Clint and offered his arm. Josh nodded to her, and she mouthed “Sorry.” They headed inside and she fought