LITMIR.BIZ

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How the hell do you do outside work?”

      Eadie turned her head to briefly look at him before she faced forward to start him toward the door. He didn’t sound weak, just irritable. Looked it, too.

      “Thanks for the compliment. I don’t have to be big to use smarts. Lean on me if you need to because it’s almost closing time at the doctor’s. You don’t want to pay for the emergency room,” she said as they walked out into the bedroom.

      “You’re supposed to coddle me, not worry me about money,” he said, vexed.

      “Sorry.”

      “And it sounds like you don’t think I’m worth the extra fee.”

      Eadie tried to be patient with that surprising hint of self-pity. It was out of character. “Money’s an automatic worry for me,” she said calmly. “I forget some folks don’t need to worry.”

      “That’s right, it’s my money,” he said, then went on. “But how come you worry? Are you saying I don’t pay you enough?”

      “It’ll be easier to coddle you if you stop talking.”

      “I never noticed meanness in you before, Eadie Webb.”

      She couldn’t help an ironic smile, since he couldn’t see it. “I’m not surprised.”

      “Why aren’t you surprised?”

      He was like a child who couldn’t stop asking questions. Eadie was patient with him because his relentlessness might be a cover for genuine pain. “You’ve got better things to do than make a study of me.”

      “Do tell,” he said, and the way he drawled it the slightest bit made her smile again. “Maybe I ought to use my convalescence to make a study of you. What do you suppose I’d find out?”

      Oh, Lord, what was this about? Her smile faded. It was about nothing, absolutely nothing. She’d do well to remember that.

      “If you were studying me now,” she said, suddenly inspired, “you’d figure out that I’m beginning to doubt you need me to lean on.”

      “You think I’m fakin’?”

      “Yes, and I wish you wouldn’t. I’ve got a sink full of dishes and chores in a couple hours, so if you don’t really need me, I’d just as soon get home.”

      “What if I paid you overtime?”

      “I wouldn’t take pay for something like this.”

      “Then I reckon I could do your dishes later.”

      Eadie giggled over that. “Would I have any left that weren’t broken?”

      “I’d buy you a new set. And a dishwasher, too.”

      “I’ve got a dishwasher, but I can’t use the extra water. Please, let’s just get you to town.”

      Eadie got him to the front door then had a brief argument about whether they’d take her little truck or his big new supercab pickup. She gave in for the sake of time and helped him into his truck before she rushed to the driver’s side and got in to start the engine and get the air conditioner going.

      She turned to get out and dash to the house to call the doctor, but Hoyt vetoed it. “Miss Ed should already have done it, so let’s just go.”

      So Hoyt had been putting her on, at least about wanting her to stitch him up instead of a doctor, since the call to the doctor had already been made. She closed the driver’s side door and adjusted the seat so her feet could reach the pedals before she put on her seat belt.

      “Your legs are short.” Hoyt’s brusque observation made her smile a little as she put the big truck into gear.

      “Thanks so much for all the fine compliments, boss. I’m puny, my legs are too short, I’m mean. And let’s don’t forget how ‘froze’ I am. Keep that up, and you might turn my head. Of course, that might be just before you got dumped along the highway someplace.”

      “Huh. Those are not coddle words, Edith Regina Webb.”

      “No, they aren’t,” she said and flicked a glance his way. “And you’ve sprung a leak. Better put that towel over it and apply some pressure.”

      Eadie faced forward and pushed down on the accelerator to rocket down the long driveway to the highway. Once she got on the pavement, she settled back and tried to enjoy the novelty of driving a nearly new pickup with a powerful engine that all but flew them to Coulter City.

      CHAPTER TWO

      HOYT got right in at the doctor’s, since they’d arrived just before Doc Harris finished with his last patient of the day. Eadie was surprised when Hoyt asked if she was going in with him. He’d said he wanted her to go in to help him keep the doctor’s instructions straight, but Eadie was suspicious of that. She went along though, torn between the pleasure of being needed and the feeling that Hoyt was somehow toying with her. He seemed as hale and hearty as usual, so the fact that he wanted her to go in with him was odd.

      No sense trying to figure this out, though. Eadie sat down on a chair out of the way and tried not to be conspicuous while the nurse took his vitals, noted them on his chart, then went out. Whatever reason Hoyt wanted her in here, it was sure to seem strange to the doctor.

      And maybe suspect. After all, Hoyt was a known ladies’ man who’d had a parade of women through his life. Eadie was his lackluster, part-time secretary who not only worked three afternoons a week for him, but had now trailed into a doctor’s private examination room with him. Eadie felt no small embarrassment over how that might look to the doctor. Would he think she was imposing on Hoyt to get his attention? Eadie suddenly decided she was willing to risk Hoyt’s ire by leaving him alone in here.

      And of course, the doctor came in just as she stood to go to the door and slip out. He eyed her like some unusual phenomenon.

      “Well, hello to you, too, Eadie,” Doc Harris said as he peered at her over his half-glasses, his kind eyes lively with curiosity. “Is there some interesting development between you two?”

      Eadie’s face went red-hot. “H-Hoyt…just wanted me to—to come in and get your instructions straight, but I don’t need to do that until you finish with him.”

      The doctor looked at Hoyt. “Do you want her in or out while I have a look?”

      “In.”

      The terse little word was nothing less than an order, and the doctor grinned.

      “She stays then. Let’s get that shirt off and see what we’ve got.” He spared a moment to send Eadie a glance. “Might as well have a seat, Eadie. Right over there’s fine.”

      Eadie felt another tide of fierce heat wash into her face and hesitantly went back to the chair to sit down, but kept her gaze fixed on the floor as Hoyt took off his shirt. Doc Harris adjusted the table to an incline so Hoyt could sit back. She could tell the doctor was carefully pulling away the gauze patch. And then she heard it hit the nearby tray as he discarded it.

      “Ah well, it’s just a nick,” the doctor scoffed. “I thought we had something serious here. Eadie could have fed you an aspirin and sewed you up in a flash. Or called the vet.”

      Eadie’s gaze flew to the doctor’s grinning face, then realized he was making light of Hoyt’s injury as a tease. After all, the gash was almost four inches long, and it was oozing again. Eadie realized then that this was a typical joke between macho males. Doc Harris would have made the same remark if Hoyt had come in with his leg half cut off. And she could tell by Hoyt’s rugged profile that he was grinning almost proudly. Men!

      The doctor went briskly out, leaving the door open. Eadie took a steadying breath, tried to stay where she was and not stare at Hoyt’s bare chest. Doc Harris came back fairly soon and his nurse trailed in after him with a stainless-steel

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