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Griff helped her the rest of the way up.
While Rachel was still in a sitting position, the nurse spread out a pad on the pillow. She nodded toward Griff.
Griff helped ease Rachel downward until she lay on the bed.
“All this fuss over a little bump on the head,” Rachel grumbled. “I’d like to give the bastard on the four-wheeler a bump.”
“Did you get a good look at him?” Griff asked.
“No,” Rachel said. “He wore a black helmet and moved so fast I couldn’t even see the color of his ATV.”
Nurse Cristine worked on cleaning the wound. Once she was done, she applied a butterfly bandage and then handed Rachel a pill cup and a Styrofoam cup filled with ice water.
Griff helped her sit up.
Rachel dutifully drank the water, washing down the pill. Then she lay back against the pillow and closed her eyes.
Griff studied her for a long moment while she wasn’t aware of what he was doing.
Throughout the doomed operation and the months of rehab he’d endured, he’d fought through the pain and uncertainty so that he could return to San Diego…to her. When he’d finally returned, he hadn’t been able to force himself to call Rachel’s number. He still had nightmares and woke up in a cold sweat.
She deserved a man who wasn’t broken, damaged and not in a good place in his head.
“Will you stay put while I make that phone call?” he asked.
She cracked an eyelid. “Don’t you trust me?”
He shook his head. “Not for a minute. Promise not to move?”
She sighed and closed her eyes again. “I promise.”
Griff started for the door.
“Griff?” she called out softly.
He turned.
She was staring at him. “How long have you been back in the States?”
“Almost six months,” he admitted.
The hurt in her eyes sank into his gut.
“Why didn’t you call me?” she asked, looking small and vulnerable against the sterile white sheets.
He turned away. “I couldn’t.”
“Couldn’t or wouldn’t?” she persisted.
“Both,” he said and stepped out into the hall, letting the door swing closed behind him.
He hadn’t called because he wasn’t the same man who’d left six months ago. Rachel hadn’t changed. She was still beautiful and tough, yet vulnerable.
Every fiber of his being yearned for what could have been and would never be.
CHAPTER3
Rachel layin the hospital bed, feeling sorry for herself. Not because she was injured, but because Griff hadn’t called her in the six months since she’d last seen him. And it wasn’t like he’d been on a deployment.
