Rough-hewn beams supported the room’s low ceiling, while the floor was covered with worn brown linoleum. A green curtain with roosters printed across the hem hung over the only window. Below it, a chipped porcelain sink was full of dirty dishes.
“Sit at the table and let me take another look at your head,” she said. “Looks like it’s still bleeding.”
Evan walked over to a white farm table pushed against the back wall of the room and removed his coat before he sank into a chair at the end.
“I’ll be right back,” she said.
He watched her leave the room, then glanced curiously around him. Where was the phone? Surely she had a landline somewhere. He had to call in to the office. His coworkers had probably been trying to contact him for the past two hours.
The thought had him pulling his phone from its holder, but as soon as he turned it on, he mentally cursed. The signal was no stronger here than it had been in the dry gulch.
Deciding he didn’t have time to wait for the woman with the velvety brown eyes, he pushed himself to his feet and moved, albeit shakily, toward the open doorway she’d disappeared through.
He’d taken two steps into a tiny hallway when she suddenly stepped from a door on his right and nearly rammed right into him.
“What the hell are you doing?” she barked at him. “I told you to sit!”
He understood this whole ordeal was a nuisance and a huge interruption to her day, but he didn’t deserve this. Nor had he asked for it.
Squinting, he focused his aching eyes on her face. “I admit I got a wham on the head, but as far as I can tell, I still have my memory. I don’t recall you being my boss.”
Her lips, which had turned a darker pink since they’d entered the warm house, pressed into a thin line of disgust.
“I’m not trying to be your boss. I’m trying to keep you from falling on your face and reinjuring yourself.” She made a sweeping motion toward the front part of the house. “But be my guest and roam around all you want. If you need me, I’ll be in the kitchen.”
With that, she started to walk away, but he snatched a hold on her forearm. She met his reaction with a questioning stare that had him immediately dropping his hand to his side.
“Sorry. Just tell me where the phone is. I’ll make a call and get myself out of your hair.”
She pointed to the right, where a doorway opened to another room. “In there. At the end of the couch.”
“Thank you. I—” Before he could finish, a wave of woozy weakness came over him. He instinctively reached out to her to brace himself.
He heard her mutter a curse under her breath as she grabbed his arm to steady him. “Come on,” she said in a gentler tone. “I’ll help you to the phone.”
With a supporting hand on his arm, she guided him out of the hallway and into a cozy living room. Along the way, he noticed she’d taken off the ranch coat, and he was surprised to catch the faint, mellowed scent of flowers emanating from the wool sweater she wore. The garment was tattered at the neck and the cuffs, and the Nordic weave across her breasts had faded. She hadn’t bothered with makeup or fussed with her clothing, but she’d taken time that morning to put on a feminine scent. Evan had always found it difficult to understand a woman’s thinking, but this lady was far too complex for him even to try to unravel.
He sank heavily onto the cushion of a short red couch. Noelle handed him a cordless phone from a nearby table.
“I’ll look at your head after you finish your call. Do you think you can drink something? Water? Coffee or hot chocolate?”
She was standing in front of him, her legs slightly apart and one hand resting on her hip. The faded denim outlined her strong thighs and rounded hips, while the sweater clung to her breasts. She was more woman than he’d ever had in his arms. In spite of the throbbing pain in his head, he had to admit to himself that there was something very sexy and sensual about her.
“Do you have any aspirin? I’d take two of those with a cup of coffee.”
“You think it’s wise to medicate yourself?”
He reached up and tentatively touched his fingertips to the lump above his ear. “I’ll make sure the doctor knows—whenever I see him.”
“You’re going to see him as soon as I can drive you into town. So make your call. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” She turned to leave the room.
He quickly asked, “You’re planning on taking me to town?”
She frowned at him. “That’s right. You’re not up to riding or driving. How else would you get there?”
He did his best to straighten his shoulders. “There’s no need for you to trouble yourself. I’m about to call my office. Someone will drive out to pick me up.”
“No,” she blurted. “I don’t want any more lawmen around here.”
Although each word he spoke seemed to intensify the ache in his head, he attempted to joke, “What’s the matter? 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.