Oh, no. She really didn’t need to get into that with Iris.
All of a sudden, she heard the thundering of footsteps down the stairs. It was Sammy, with the dogs hot on her heels. “It’s an emergency,” she said, rushing out the front door.
“What?” Iris and Rose asked in unison, moving after her.
“Ryder texted me and said that there was an accident.”
“What?” Rose repeated, moving as quickly after her sister-in-law as she could.
“Logan turned the tractor over on himself and he’s stuck. Ryder is trying to lift it up, but it’s stuck. And we’re going to need help.”
Everything in Rose’s mind went blank. Logan was hurt. The tractor had rolled over on top of him. People died that way.
No. That wasn’t fair. She couldn’t lose Logan. They couldn’t lose Logan. They had already lost so much. And the idea of their family having to go through anything more was... No.
She pushed all the thoughts away as the three of them ran toward the barn, following Sammy, who was moving as quickly as a woman in her advanced stage of pregnancy could.
When they came to the place where the tractor was tipped on its side, and she could see Logan’s leg sticking out, she screamed his name. She wasn’t even conscious of making the decision to do it. And then she overtook Sammy, her boots pounding the ground, her arms swinging wildly back and forth.
When she rounded to the other side of the tractor, she could see that he was conscious.
“You’re alive,” she said.
“Yeah,” he answered. “If I was dead there would be no point in calling 911. And really, there’s no point anyway except I’ve got to get out of here.”
“I’m going to hook my truck up to it,” Ryder said. “I’ve got a winch. Just need to get back up on its side.”
“And not make a mistake,” Logan growled. “Because I don’t really want you cutting my leg off if you drop the fucking thing back down on me.”
“I’m not going to cut your leg off,” Ryder said. “It’s not any different than hauling anything else out.”
“Except I’m under it.”
“How the hell did you manage that?” Rose asked angrily. She had half a mind to bend down and hit him on the exposed shoulder. “You dumbass.”
“Took the corner too hard,” he said. “I’m not going to die or anything.”
There was a wild look in Ryder’s eyes, though, and it was that that scared her. Because her older brother was nothing if not absolutely steady. Like a rock. And if he wasn’t steady, then maybe there was real cause for concern.
“I don’t want to move him,” Ryder whispered to Rose. “You know, in case he has a spine injury or something. I don’t know. I can’t tell.” He shook his head. “I’ve just heard stories. You know, adrenaline blocks pain. So, he’s yelling at me, but I don’t trust that to mean he’s not injured.”
She swallowed hard and nodded.
“I don’t want to move him,” Ryder said. “But I’d like to get the tractor off him.”
“Maybe we should just wait for help,” Rose said.
She hated that he was stuck there, underneath that tractor. Hated that he might be in pain at all.
She lowered herself down to her knees and looked at his face. His handsome face, which looked so different now than it had a few days ago.
She knew her brother was right there. But she figured he wouldn’t think anything of her touching Logan when he was pinned underneath the tractor. She put her hand on his cheek. And ignored the fact that Ryder wasn’t on his knees with his hands on Logan’s face. That perhaps it showed they had a different relationship, no matter the situation.
Ryder was hooking a winch up to his truck, and attaching the other end to the tractor.
“If you die,” she hissed, “I will kill you.”
“Well, dying is not on my agenda for the day,” he said, looking up at her, that startling blue making her stomach tight, even now. “Should have been nicer to me last night, though.”
“Don’t push it,” she said.
He laughed, and it sounded rusty, and she hated that.
It was only one minute later that a fire truck came up the driveway, lights on, no sirens. And by then, Ryder had the tractor hooked up to his truck.
The EMTs came, and took stock of Logan.
“Looks like it’s missed most of him,” said the woman, a dark-haired, dark-eyed petite creature that Rose vaguely remembered from school. Juniper Rainville.
“Well, that’s good,” Rose said, realizing she was sitting flat on her ass in the dirt, and not quite able to bring herself to move.
“Should I try to pull it off him?”
The other EMT, a young guy that Rose didn’t recognize, turned to Ryder. “I mean, you might as well. We could call for backup and pull it off, but if you think that’ll work...”
“Should,” Ryder said, engaging the winch.
The tractor began to rise up off Logan, and as it did, the paramedics slipped a spine board beneath him, strapping him down and pulling him out from beneath it.
“I’m fine,” Logan said.
“Yeah, but in the interest of not causing damage, we have to treat you like you might have a spinal injury,” Juniper said. “So be patient.”
“I’m not going to the hospital,” he grumbled.
“Maybe you should,” Rose said, pacing back and forth and staring down at him while the EMTs checked him out.
“You want to pay my bill?”
Rose pinched the bridge of her nose while they looked in his eyes, checked his spine for trauma.
“I recommend you go to the hospital,” Juniper said. “Just to be safe.”
“All right. But in your opinion am I gravely injured?”
“I can’t diagnose you.”
“Isn’t there paperwork I can sign and not go?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Then I want that paperwork. Because I’m not going to the hospital.”
“Why not?” Ryder asked.
“Because I’m fine,” he said.
“You’re just being stubborn,” Rose said.
“Seriously,” he said, having finished being checked over, and moving himself into a sitting
