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“Thanks for helping me, Haydon. I’m really sorry you had to see this.” He glanced down at his wife and then back at Haydon.
“I’ll be fine,” Haydon assured him with sad yet sturdy eyes. “Now go on.”
Michael gave a quick nod to his brother, then to Smokey. He reined his horse toward town. All the way there, he prayed, holding her close, willing her to stay alive and thanking God they had even found her.
Voices. Selina heard voices. But they sounded far away. Where was she and why couldn’t she open her eyes?
“Selina? Can you hear me?”
Michael? She struggled to open her eyes. Finally, she could see through a small slit.
Michael’s face blurred and pitched and swayed before her.
She concentrated on opening her eyes wider. Michael’s face was no longer fuzzy or drifting.
Words tried to leave her mouth, but they never did. It was as if they were stuck in her throat.
“Here.” A cool hard surface touched her lips. “Drink this?”
The liquid pooled into her mouth. She coughed, then swallowed. More liquid. “What happened?” she asked like a croaking frog.
“You fell and hit your head, love.”
Love? Did he just call her love? She must have hit her head a lot harder than she thought. Now her mind was playing tricks on her. She tried to sit up, but pain shot through the back of her head. She reached toward that spot, but Michael’s calloused hand clutched hers.
“Don’t. You have a bump the size of an egg back there.”
Another round of pain sliced through her head like the sharp blade of a hunting knife.
“How’s our patient doing?”
Selina’s attention wobbled over to the door. Doc Berg came walking toward her.
“Hi, Doc.”
“How you feeling, Miss?”
“Like someone took a moonshine jug and smashed it against the back of my head.”
Michael moved so the doctor could sit in the chair he’d been sitting in.
“You’re one lucky young lady. From what Michael here tells me, you fell through the upstairs floor. You’ll be sore for some time, but I didn’t find any broken bones, only a few scrapes and bruises. You would have ended up with a whole lot more if you hadn’t been wearing those pants.”
She looked over at Michael and gave him a look that said, see, pants ain’t always a bad thing.
He offered her a half grin.
“I’m going to keep you here overnight so I can keep an eye on you and make sure that bump doesn’t get any bigger and that you don’t get a fever.”
“I can do that,” Michael said, shocking Selina plumb down to her toes.
“I thought everyone at your place was busy harvesting the wheat.”
“No, we’re all done with that.”
Doc Berg stood and faced Michael. “I’ll be honest with you. I don’t like the looks of that bump on her head, Michael. Someone needs to stay with her around the clock for at least a couple of days.”
“I can.”
“How can you do that and get your chores done, too, Michael?” Selina asked. “Haydon will probably stay home a couple more days with Rainee. So that leaves Jesse, Smokey and your hired hands to do the rest. I can’t do that to them. So I think Doc’s right. It’s best iffen I just stay here.”
“I’d feel a whole lot better if she stayed here, too, Michael. Me and the missus can take turns keeping an eye on her. We know what to look for, where you wouldn’t.”
Michael didn’t say a word, but finally he nodded. “Okay. Well, I’m going to head on home, then. I’ll be by sometime tomorrow to check on you.” He leaned over and gave her a kiss on her cheek. “Do what Doc says and don’t be giving him a hard time, okay?”
“Me? I never do stuff like that.”
Michael narrowed one eye and hiked a brow before turning to the doctor. “You have to watch her, Doc. She’s a feisty one who doesn’t take kindly to being told what to do.”
She saw a look pass between the two men along with a smile.
“Okay, y’all. I promise I’ll behave and do what Doc says.”
Michael flashed her a satisfied grin. “I’ll see you later, love.” And he was out the door.
Love. So her mind hadn’t been playing tricks on her after all. She really had heard him call her love earlier. She liked the sound of it. Things were finally looking up between them. The two of them just might have a chance at a real marriage after all. That thought curled her lips and toes and warmed her heart.
Michael hated riding off, leaving Selina behind. Seeing her lying on the floor of that old house made him realize how important she had become to him. Who would have thought he would ever even think of her in a romantic, loving way? After all, to him she was the lady in trousers. And when he first saw her in those trousers, lady wasn’t really the word that came to mind.
