The crash was a blur, but she thought she could remember hitting the steering wheel with her midsection. Her truck was so old it didn't have airbags. She was lucky she hadn't been hurt worse.
The house was quiet. She knew that, after a few days of being away, Cord would need to check on the stock. He'd told her that Iris and Jilly were taking care of things in his absence, but he'd want to see for himself on this first morning back.
Having some time to herself was a good thing, she told herself. She needed to figure out where she stood with the enigmatic rancher. He hadn't kissed her again since that first passionate embrace the morning before Toby had shown up.
Not once during the long hours in the hospital.
They'd mostly watched renovation shows on TV, where he critiqued the work other builders were doing, making her laugh.
Last night, she'd thought for sure he would kiss her goodnight. He'd helped her up the stairs and down the hallway, waited while she'd run through a quick shower, her first since the accident.
When she'd padded back into the hall, he'd told her he had to lock up and make a phone call, so he'd say goodnight in the hallway. He held her close, her face nestled into the hollow of his throat.
When she had leaned back slightly, anticipating a kiss, he'd only pressed one to the crown of her head and left her to go to bed.
Had he had a change of heart? What if he thought that, when she’d gone to the hardware store, she was trying to leave him?
She needed to explain. She didn't like things unsettled between them.
She wanted to know where she stood.
He'd joked in the hospital about proposing but never brought it up again.
Had it been a joke?
Getting downstairs was a chore. Each step either jostled her broken rib or pulled at the stitches where the surgeons had removed the bullet. She clung to the banister.
When she hit the landing, the thought that had been nagging her subconscious materialized. Maybe it had slipped through her consciousness in the middle of the night, while she'd been wrestling with nightmares. Or maybe she'd just had to recover to this point before she remembered.
She saw her phone plugged into a charger on the kitchen counter and crossed to it. Tapped the screen to wake up the display, and her fears were confirmed.
She'd lost a day somewhere in the hospital.
It was Tuesday.
She was in the mudroom, struggling into her right boot, fighting both the pain and the tears in her eyes, when the back door opened with a rush of cold air.
Cord was there, his expression showing how surprised he was to have almost stumbled onto her.
"Whoa. Hey." His hands closed over her shoulders, and he nudged her out of the way, her boot dropping to the floor as he got the back door closed.
Standing up straight relieved the most pressing pain, and she blinked back her tears, praying he wouldn't see.
"What are you doing?" he asked. He brushed her hair off the side of her face, and she knew he saw too much.
"I never finished the tractors," she said.
"You don't need to worry about that." He gestured toward the kitchen. "Why don't you sit down and let me make you some breakfast?"
Her rising frustration at her limitations made her voice sharp. "I don't have time for breakfast. I need to get out there and get to work."
"No, you don't."
"Cord—"
"Honey, the only thing you need to do right now is relax and recover."
"But it's Tuesday!" she burst out.
His hands closed over her upper arms. "Molly." The command in his voice left her no choice but to look up into his serious face. "Will you please sit down? You're worrying me."
The pain had settled sharply on her left side, so even though it made tears of frustration rise to her eyes, she let him lead her into the kitchen and settle her in a chair. He poured her a cup of coffee and placed it on the table before he joined her in the nearest chair. Their knees brushed when he sat down.
"It's Tuesday," he said. "And the No Name isn't going anywhere."
What?
"While you were in the hospital, I called my brother."
He looked chagrined as he rubbed the bridge of his nose with one hand, maybe hiding his embarrassment. "When I thought you might die, I realized what was really important. You. Trying to imagine a life without you…”
He stopped and cleared his throat.
“I wanted you to have a place where you can recover. Someplace you don’t have to jump at every shadow. Thinking like that made it easier to swallow my pride and pick up the phone."
She motioned for him to go on.
"He floated me a loan." He grimaced. "He's saying I don't have to pay him back, but I refuse to think of it as anything other than a loan. The wire transfer went straight to the bank yesterday, and, as of this morning, the loan is current." He squeezed her knee with one big hand. "So you can quit worrying about those stinking tractors."
Relief melded with happiness. "You're going to patch things up with your brother?"
He leveled a stare at her. "You going to keep nagging me if I don't?"
"Probably."
A tiny grin pulled at one side of his mouth. "Figures."
The pain in her side became breath-stealing, and his eyes flicked down to where she pressed her hand against the pulsing wound.
He jumped up from the table. "Let me grab one of your painkillers." He was quick to place the pill and some water on the table in front of her. "You're not supposed to take that on an empty stomach." He turned to the sink and started washing up. "I'll get some toast and eggs on."
She downed the painkiller and slugged the water, knowing she needed it. A shiver wracked through her, and she clasped her hands around the coffee mug, soaking up its warmth.
Even
