Page 29 of Operation: Chosen

He chuckled. “You worried about me?”

Heat flooded her cheeks. She hadn’t felt that particular emotion in a long time. “So? What if I am?”

Eric didn’t answer and headed quickly over to his cabin. Terrell visibly relaxed the moment he saw Eric round the front of the emergency vehicles.

“Man, I was so worried about you. Did they shoot you?” Terrell tried hard to play it cool, but his worry was evident.

“I’m okay. Look. I don’t know how long I’ll be away. I have to go to the hospital, and I’ll probably have to get a cast. This doesn’t mean I won’t teach you how to ride, but it means I’ll need your help even more when I get back. You up for a challenge?”

Terrell came the closest to smiling she’d seen since she’d met him. “I am.”

“Good. I want you to go and stay with Junior until I get back even though that puts you closer to the others. I don’t want you sitting here alone. It’s not safe with all that’s gone on. He’s right out here. Need anything first?”

Terrell shook his head and trudged down the steps. “Not if you’ll be home by the time I need to shackle up and go to sleep. And if not, it won’t be the first time I’ve slept in my clothes.”

Ali wanted to put a hand on his shoulder and squeeze it. She’d been there. She’d slept in her clothes to be able to leave her uncle’s house within minutes of waking every morning. Leaving before he could get up had always been her goal. If only there were a way to offer Terrell the same chance at success that she’d had.

Junior waved Terrell over, and Ali led Eric to her car. It was small and he was going to have to practically fold in half to fit in the passenger seat, but at least he wouldn’t have to drive himself. She pressed the button to unlock all the doors.

He opened the passenger side and eyed her. “You drive this? Do you even know what kind of speeds this car can achieve?” His mouth was crooked in a half-smile.

“I am aware. If you don’t tell anyone, I can admit that I may have tested it once or twice.”

“I’d never say a word.” He lowered into the car like he was practically sitting on the ground, then pulled his knees in. When he managed folding himself in half, he moved the seat back as far as it would go. “Tight fit.”

He wasn’t even super tall, but he made the car seem even tinier. “Take your hat off, cowboy.” She laughed. “It won’t seem so small if you don’t scrunch your neck.”

“A man without his hat is no man at all,” Eric teased as he took off his cowboy hat and balanced it on his knee. He angled his body to reach for the seatbelt with his right hand to avoid using his injured arm then paused.

He grunted softly as he reached toward the floor with his good arm and picked up a small, shiny object off the floor. Ali gasped at the sight of her wedding ring grasped in his fingers. When she’d tossed it in the back, she’d never thought about it bouncing its way to the front of the car as she drove.

“Pretty ring.” He set it in a recess in the center console with no emotion on his face.

She picked up the ring, opened the glove box and tossed it inside. “Pretty doesn’t mean important.”

He made a softharrumphnoise in his throat. “How long has that been in here?”

Heat rushed up her neck. That was a question she hadn’t thought about answering. “About a week. I wore it for years just to make people think I was taken. No one knows me well enough to know better.” She pushed the ignition button and the engine growled to life.

Although he was sweaty and dirty from a long day and getting trampled, he still made her heart quiver and feel like she was twenty again. Seeing that ring put her life in perspective. If only he’d wanted to be successful. If only he’d wanted to work with her and be the best they could both be, together.

As soon as she had the thought, she shoved it from her mind. How selfish. He had made his own way and his own success. Now she just needed to figure out how she was going to manage for the next few weeks before she had to go back to her life. Before she had to slip that old ring back on for security. “You’ll have to give me directions. I have no idea where I’m going,” she said.

“Bold of you to assume I’d give the right directions when I didn’t want to go to the hospital in the first place.”

She pulled her phone to her mouth, pressed the home button, and asked her phone to bring up directions to the nearest hospital. The phone calculated the route and announced the first turn.

“Party pooper.” He chuckled.

“I just like taking you for a ride.” She accelerated out of the parking lot and headed up the driveway. “Settle in. It looks like this will take about an hour.”

“I don’t think I’m going anywhere that far away. They are going to have to peel me out of this seat if I have to sit in here that long. My knees aren’t going to move.”

She snorted at the thought. Eric shot forward in his seat and pointed at something in the distance. “Floor it! That’s Skyfall!”

* * *

Eric wishedhe were behind the wheel of the compact sports car. Ali didn’t know the roads, and she obviously hadn’t driven on gravel very often. Skyfall was getting farther and farther away, despite being a horse against a car.

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