Free Her Lucky Cowboy by Jennifer Ryan Page A

and scrubbed them over his face. His hands dropped to his lap, and he bent his head and spoke to the floor. “I can’t stop seeing that video in my head. You. The bull. He almost killed you.”
    Drawn to his worry and concern, she put her hand over his and squeezed. “I’m okay. Nothing happened to me.”
    “Nothing happened to you. Look at you, Bell.”
    Her name came out soft and filled with such tenderness that tears stung the backs of her eyes. She blinked them back. He’d caught her off guard with his concern. That was all. It didn’t mean anything.
    “Dane, really I’m fine. The stitches look bad, but they’re really nothing. Don’t worry about me. Concentrate on getting better.”
    “I have the chance to get better because you risked your life to save me. Don’t think I forgot how much I owe you.”
    “It’s done. Over. You don’t owe me anything. It’s my job. The reality of what’s happened to you is settling in. Given time, you’ll get better, and you won’t think about it so much.”
    That’s all this was, his mind trying to deal with a traumatic event. His feelings and emotions rose to the surface now that he was able to process the events with a clear head.
    “I will find a way to pay you back.”
    She took her hand away. Too personal. Too close to feeling less like a doctor offering comfort and more like a friend consoling another. They weren’t friends. They’d just shared an experience that had been traumatic for both of them. Now, it was over, Dane was going home, and she’d go back to her mundane life.
    “I’ll get your meds. You’ll need them to get through the flight. Do not get out of bed until the nurse comes with the wheelchair.” She looked over her shoulder when the door opened, and smiled at Gabe, Ella, Blake, and Gillian. “He’s all yours, guys. Cheer him up. He’s far too melancholy for a rodeo champ.”
    Dane frowned at Dr. Bell’s back. He’d seen the look on her face when he’d called her honey on purpose just to get a rise out of her, and the way her face and eyes had gone soft when he’d called her Bell. He didn’t know why he did it. Something inside him wanted to see the real her. The one she didn’t hide from everyone, including her own sister. He’d seen her, the real her, just for a second when he’d said her name.
    For the first time, a woman meant something to him. He only wished he could figure out why she meant something, and what that something was. Even when she was gone, he thought about her, wondered what she was doing, and when she’d be back. Anticipating her return nearly undid him last night and this morning. He needed to see her. Why? Reassurance that he was really okay? Nope. It ran deeper than that, and he didn’t want to dig deep. He wanted it to be something easy. Not complicated and complex, because that meant more changes. More responsibility. More permanent.
    The need to make her see him as something more than the rambling rodeo cowboy, going from town to town and woman to woman, surged through him. He didn’t know how to get her to see him as someone different than that guy other than to actually be the guy he wanted her to see. But who the hell was that? He didn’t know, because right now he couldn’t see past getting out of this bed, out of this hospital, and back home. Doing all those things meant they’d go back to their lives and he’d be separated from her, and that was the last thing he wanted, which made him surly and do stupid things like call her honey just to get a rise out of her.
    She messed with his mind. He wanted it to stop.
    Was he focused on her because he didn’t want to face what came next? This next phase of his life, which he’d barely had time to actually plan past winning the championship and earning the money he needed and wanted for his future. He didn’t know what that future actually included or looked like.
    “Missing your horse already,” Blake teased, slapping him on the shoulder and