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“I think so.”
“Are you drinking enough water?”
Her gaze darted around the room. “What’s with the third degree? Don’t you have somewhere else to be? I know I do.” She pushed out from the table and stood up out of her seat. A blast of white blinded her and she sucked in a breath, her fingers tightening on the edge of the table. Sarah blinked, praying that everything would settle quicker this time.
Thankfully, her prayers were answered as the room came into focus once more. She reached for her dishes and carefully made her way across the room to the sink. The only problem was that Dax hovered at her elbow the whole time.
“Will you stop that,” she said. “They’re going to think I can’t take care of myself.”
“That’s because you can’t,” he said, matching her tone. “I’ve seen this before, Sarah. I know what it looks like when a person tries to do too much so soon after having an accident like yours. And believe me when I tell you that if you do this today, you’re going to end up hurting far more than you thought possible.”
The conversation at the table hadn’t been interrupted. Everyone still chatted about their weekend plans. She swung an irritated look toward him. “Well, what would you have me do? I’m here to work. I’m not going to bail on my responsibilities. If you don’t like it, then I guess you’re going to have to follow me around everywhere and make sure I don’t drop dead.”
She turned to face the sink and set to work washing her dishes. Dax must have taken her statement literally because he didn’t move from her side. Sarah rolled her eyes, reaching for the hand towel to dry everything off. If there wasn’t an audience readily available to witness her issues, she might have put him in his place and promptly gotten chastised for doing so.
With smooth, even movements, she headed for the back door. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to gather the eggs this morning.” Without waiting for a response, she exited out the door and into the cool morning air.
12
Dax
Dax barreled after Sarah, cursing his need to keep an eye on her. The woman was beyond annoying—if anything, she was infuriating to the highest degree. Couldn’t she see what she was doing to herself? There was a reason doctors told their patients to take it easy.
He came up beside her. “You don’t have to get the eggs.”
“Yes, I do.” Her breathing was heavier. It was clear that her injury had caused a great deal of strain on her body.
“I already did it for you.”
She stopped so suddenly that he took a few more steps in front of her. “Why did you do that?”
“Why did I help you do your chore? Gee, I don’t know, Sarah. Maybe it’s because you went through a trauma yesterday and you’re acting like an idiot by not staying in bed.”
Sarah blinked.
Dax groaned and dragged his hand down his face. “Why can’t things ever just be easy?” When he met her gaze, she found the frustration from before, but along with it was that foreign substance she couldn’t put her finger on. “You need to rest, Sarah. Did Zeke ask you to put in any work today?”
“No, but—”
He threw up his hands into the air. “Then what are you doing out of bed?”
She blinked again, clearly not grasping why this was such a big deal. “I have responsibilities, Dax. I thought out of everyone on this ranch, you would understand that.”
“What are youtalkingabout?”
Their voices continued to rise, and her face had now flushed to a worrisome shade of red.
Sarah glanced around, her focus sweeping over anyone who might be in the immediate vicinity. Was she worried he’d hurt her? The thought had his blood boiling. Then she took the few steps toward him and lowered her voice to almost a whisper. “I have to work a certain number of hours before I can go home.”
To say he was bewildered was an understatement. None of what she was saying made sense. Why would the sheriff’s niece have to work a certain amount before she got to head home?
She groaned. “It’s no use. I can tell you’re going to keep pestering and pestering me.” The color in her face only deepened and nearly appeared purple. She grimaced and touched her head. “No one knows, and I don’t want to tell a soul. Okay, that’s not true. Zeke knows and so does Bri. But I guess letting… you… in on… the…”
He saw the color drain from her face only a moment before her legs crumpled and she collapsed into his arms.
Dax grunted as her entire weight sagged against him. This had been exactly what he’d been describing when he told her that she needed to rest. Why didn’t people listen to him? His life would be so much easier if everyone would just trust what he had to say.
It took some finagling, but he managed to get Sarah in a position where he could scoop her soft body up against his chest and head back to the house. For the third time since this whole fiasco began, he was the one who had saved her. And for what?
