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“Don’t scorpion bites kill people?”
“Only in the rarest of cases. You might get a little sick, but that’s all. This never would have happened if you’d listened to me.” He didn’t want to lecture her now, but if his words kept her from panicking, so much the better.
“I’m hurt, and all you can do is say, ‘I told you so’?”
He wrapped a secure arm around her waist to guide her back to his vehicle. “You’re lucky you didn’t end up at the bottom of a mine shaft.”
She glared at him. “I’m not dumb. I listened to everything you said. You just didn’t warn me to be careful where I put my hands.”
Her last statement sent his mind whirling off in a totally inappropriate direction. When she was better, he knew exactly where he wanted her hands. First, though, he had to get her to the doctor.
“The problem with you is, you’d do anything to get out of trouble,” he teased, trying to keep her talking.
Her eyes flared with anger. “Meaning what? I got stung by the scorpion so you wouldn’t have me arrested?”
“Calm down. I was only teasing.”
“Well, it’s not funny.”
“Point taken. It’s just that I knew you were in trouble.”
“You did?” Surprise rang out in her voice.
Now why in the world had he gone and told her about his intuition, or whatever you wanted to call it? She’d think he was crazy, or worse, she’d start thinking they had some kind of deep connection. Neither of which was true.
“I figured that if you hung around here by yourself, sooner or later you’d get yourself in trouble.”
“I forgot to take pictures of Haggerty for my father.”
They stopped next to his pickup, and he opened the door for her. “Hop in.”
“But my vehicle—”
“Will be fine right here. I’ll send a couple of ranch hands out to pick it up later.”
The red splotches on her face hadn’t faded, and the swelling of her hand was getting worse. No way was he letting her behind the wheel.
Holding her arm to her chest, she climbed in without any further argument. That in and of itself set off alarms in his head. He jumped in the driver’s side, fired up the engine, and tramped the gas.
“Can you turn up the air conditioning?” She leaned her head back against the headrest.
Damn. He’d meant to have the air fixed at the beginning of summer, but he’d put it off for one reason or another. “Can’t. It’s busted.”
“You should have said something before. We could have taken my SUV. Turn around.”
“No. We’ve wasted enough time.” He wasn’t up on his first aid, but it was obvious she was having some sort of reaction to the venom. “We’re going straight to the doctor’s. You’ll be fine. Think about a swimming pool or Antarctica or something cold.”
“Boy, you’re a lot of help.” Her frustrated voice faded.
His foot rested heavily on the accelerator, letting up only when the ground got too rough and Lexi groaned from being jostled. At last, they reached the paved road. He floored the gas, ignoring the posted speed limit. Please, God, make her better, and I’ll do whatever it takes.
Minutes later, they rolled into Whistle Stop. With no open spots in front of Doc Willard’s, he ended up double-parking. He jumped out and rushed over to open her door. She was drenched in sweat and clutching the wrist of her enflamed hand.
He didn’t was
te time with words. He scooped her up. Lexi’s cheek pressed against his shoulder. The alarming heat of her skin penetrated his shirt. His arms tightened protectively around her.
He strode into the office. A familiar face turned his way, Tony Granger. They’d been friends the whole way through school. Tony had always been a good guy in Cord’s book, and that was saying a lot. They nodded at each other in greeting, and then Tony’s gaze drifted to Lexi.
