Page 7 of Silent Deception
“Fine.” She took his vitals, listened to his lungs, and examined his healing wounds, asking questions and jotting notes in a chart as she went.
She was pure, cool professionalism.
But with every touch of her delicate hands, an electric shock of unwanted awareness shot through him. He had to force himself to be still, to betray no reaction. He hoped she didn’t sense his tension.
Only after he’d walked out the door of the clinic was he finally able to haul his thoughts back to the present.
Trevor would need to bring Dad into the clinic on Tuesday because seeing Kristin again was the last thing Ryan wanted.
No Ranger with a 60mm mortar could have done a better job of destroying his heart.
* * * *
KRISTIN WAITED UNTILshe heard the door of the clinic close behind Ryan, then leaned her forehead against the cool, smooth wall of the waiting room. His new patient chart still in her arms, she willed away the tears burning behind her eyelids.
She’d expected challenges when she decided to move back to Homestead with a new career. A home that needed work. A nine-year-old son who considered Central Texas the last place on earth he wanted to live. A town that held bad memories from her early childhood.
But she certainly hadn’t expected to run into Ryan Gallagher on her second day here.
For years, she’d known he was a Ranger involved in highly dangerous operations in the Middle East. Last year, when she’d been back in town for her dad’s funeral, she’d overheard someone mention that he rarely ever showed up in Texas.
There was nothing between them, not after one of the worst days of her life. But discovering that he’d been airlifted out of the Middle East as a “Critical 4”—on the verge of death—just months ago, had filled her with worry and immeasurable sadness.
Now, scanning the grim surgical reports in his medical folder had made her feel worse. His well-muscled, six-foot-two body had suffered multiple serious injuries that time would never totally heal.
His lean, darkly handsome face was the same. The nearly black hair she’d once loved to touch. The piercing blue eyes and strong masculine jaw.
But the sexy twinkle in his eyes had died, along with his quick wit and his born-and-bred Texas cowboy manners, leaving behind a stranger. A hardened and dangerous soldier, one who’d survived all those years.
During his exam she’d prayed she could keep her veneer of cool professionalism firmly in place, and not betray the cascade of emotions rushing through her.
With luck, Ryan hadn’t seen the sorrow and sympathy in her eyes over all he’d sacrificed in the line of duty or noticed how his arrival had thrown her off balance. Or how much he still drew her, despite all these years.
But no matter what he thought of her now, no matter what she’d once prayed for, there was no going back. She had too much at stake during the next six months to even think about old love or the faint hope of new beginnings. Cody’s future depended on it.
CHAPTER THREE
