To my relief, she stopped tugging on my shirt. Did I just ask June Evans to stop undressing me? Did I have a concussion, too?
“Is there someone else out here?”
My thoughts were so crowded out by everything going on in my chest, it took a minute to remember. Aaron, my ranch hand, split his time between my ranch and another on the other side of town, but he’d already left for the day. She probably couldn’t reach him on his cell out there, and even if she could, what would be the point? Just a kid barely old enough to drink, he wouldn’t come out here and patch me up.
“Your parents, maybe?”
“Vacation,” I ground out. They’d just left on an anniversary cruise, somewhere off in the Netherlands or France, or both, I couldn’t remember. Thank the Lord for small favors. Only adding my mother hovering over me could make this situation worse.
“Isn’t there anyone else I can call?”
Maybe she meant an ambulance. She sure sounded like she wanted to call one.
Worry furrowed a line between her eyebrows, her deep blue eyes filled with something close to terror. Her tender fear for me broke through a layer of pain, filling my chest with a whole new ache. Lying in the dirt, struggling to breathe—yeah, exactly the wrong time for me to think about any of that.
I shut my eyes again. If I could just breathe a minute, maybe I could get a handle on this. Only, I couldn’t breathe, every inhale like pulling shards of glass through my lungs. My shallow breaths weren’t enough to satisfy, but breathing deeply turned up the dial on the pain. Hopefully, my broken ribs hadn’t gone and punctured anything vital.
“What can I do?” June asked again, as though maybe I had a little card in my pocket that would give her instructions.In the Event of Broken Ribs…
“What are you doing here?” I wheezed. Not at all polite, but lying miserable in the dirt, manners weren’t my top priority.
“I just wanted to talk to you.”
She spread her palms out as though that should be explanation enough. June wanted to talk to me? Made about as much sense as anything else right now.
I struggled to sit up, like a turtle on its back. She grasped my shoulder with both hands and pulled me upright. Curse words and misery filled my brain. All the jostling amplified the pain, like shouting into a megaphone, sending fresh torment across my chest, but breathing came a little easier now that I wasn’t lying down.
June let go of me but kept her hands out near my shoulders as if she thought I might topple back into the dust. The worry lines around her eyes and mouth deepened as she watched me fight for breath. I had to look like hell.
Not the happy reunion I’d been planning on, I’ll tell you that.
“I’m going to call Booker.” She grabbed the purse slung over one shoulder and rummaged around in it.
“Don’t call anyone.” I just needed a minute. I shifted to try to stand, but spikes of agony shot from my ribcage straight to my brain, clouding my vision.
Okay, maybe I needed two minutes.
“I think we should get you to the Medical Center.”
“I’m fine.”
Why I was lying, I didn’t even know. I couldn’t take a breath without searing pain, and I’d been flat on my back for ten minutes. At least I hadn’t lost my lunch to round out the indignities. Nothing like seeing a man hurl to impress a woman.
Not that I was looking to impress June. Lord, I needed to get a handle on this.
“You’re not fine, come on.”
She tugged on my shoulder again, sending fiery spasms through me as my muscles twisted and pulled over my ribs. An animal-like noise filled the air, and it took me a second to realize I’d made the sound.
“Don’t,” I hissed.
She released me, her eyes wide. “I’m sorry. Do you want me to call an amb—”
“No.” I didn’t need to be carted off my own property. I’d get my legs again here in a minute.
Any time now.
Soon.
