Page 38 of Take Me Away, Cowboy

He looked up, a few tears falling from his eyes.

“What is going on? Please talk to me. This isn’t about the accident anymore, is it?” she asked.

He looked down again, shook his head.

She started trembling. Couldn’t stop. Something was wrong, she just knew it. She’d spent too long in emergency rooms with families not to recognizethe look.

“I’ll get Brad and the doctor.” Owen released her hand and walked out of the room, leaving her alone in the near darkness.

She couldn’t say how long she sat there, only that every second ticked away like an eternity.

The door to her room opened and Brad walked through, followed by an ER physician and her parents.

She’d fallen, that much she was certain of. Based on the pain, she’d probably cracked a rib or two, but she would heal. Why was there an entourage in her room and why did they look like someone’d died? Owen stood in the doorway, and Brad moved to shut him out.

“No,” Paige said, firmly. “He stays.” Brad frowned, but listened. Owen stood still as a statue against the wall, the opposite of the commanding man she’d seen on the mountain the day before. Paige’s dad walked over to him, shook his hand.

“Thanks for taking care of our girl,” he whispered. “I know you couldn’t’ve kept her off that mountain if you’d tried. But you brought her home, so thank you.”

“Of course,” Owen whispered in reply.

“Listen, I know now isn’t the time, but Brad filled me in on your bear problem. Hopefully the rains last night revived their supplies up north a bit, but if not, I have some ideas I’d love to talk you through. It’s not the first time those wily buggers’ve weaseled their way past our defenses.”

He chuckled, eliciting a smile from Owen, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

“I’d like that, sir.”

“Call me Alan.”

Owen nodded, but then the doctor cleared his throat, trying for their attention. Everyone, including Paige, looked at him expectantly.

“I’m Dr. Metcalf. I understand you’re just visiting Banberry, is that correct?”

“Yes. I was practicing in Turks and Caicos the past year, and before that as a traveling physician with DWB.”

“All right. Have you been keeping up with your physicals while you traveled?”

“It was required with DWB, but no, I’ve only kept up with my GYN appointments. Why would that matter with regards to the accident yesterday?” she asked.

This wasn’t a normal line of patient questioning. Paige’s blood pressure spiked.

“Hmm,” was all he said.

Pain shot up her arm as she tried to sit up, but she didn’t care. She wanted to talk eye-to-eye as much as she could with this doctor.

She might be injured, but she had a medical degree, same as him. Had graduated top of her med school class, was chief resident as well. What was his pedigree? Besides being a man with an M.D.?

“Hmm what?” she asked. “I’m a doctor, Metcalf. Talk to me like one, not like I’m some patient who needs to be coddled.” Her chest heaved, her pulse raced, but she’d been dealing with men like him her entire career.

Her eyes shot daggers at him. He bit his cheek, shifted from foot to foot. He was nervous.

Well, good. He should be.

“Okay, fair enough. You’ve suffered from two cracked ribs. That was the accident. Some minor internal bleeding,” he said, rattling off items from her chart.

Paige’s mom, Marge, inhaled sharply, put her hand up to her mouth. Her eyes filled with tears.

“I’m fine, Mom. That’s small stuff. It’ll all heal, and the good news is you can bring me your homemade lasagna for the next couple weeks while it does.”

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