Chapter 6
Nate didn’t get out and about before nine a.m. on his days off for just anyone.
Shit. He’d known Sophie for three days, and already, she wasn’t just anyone.
He was drawn to her, physically, sure, but there was more to it.
She’d looked banged up and exhausted for as long as he’d known her, and yet he couldn’t stay away.
There was no explanation, and he refused to think too hard about it as he parked in the visitor lot of the hospital and headed for the door.
He had to make himself move at a normal pace instead of rushing inside to see her.
Good damn thing he slowed down too. Otherwise he might’ve missed the nurse rolling Sophie’s wheelchair out to a waiting cab on the other side of the entrance. He jogged over to her and fell into step with the nurse.
“I can get her from here,” he said, working to keep his frustration out of his voice.
Sophie’s head whipped around toward him. “Nate.” She managed to sound surprised.
“That taxi is waiting for her,” the nurse said, nodding toward the first car in a line of them waiting to pick up passengers.
“I’ll take care of him,” Nate said, forcing his I’m-a-firefighter-everything-will-be-okay smile. “And her.”
“You comfortable with this, Sophie?” The nurse leaned to Sophie’s side to reassure herself.
“Yeah, I… He… Yes. This is the man who rescued me, Elizabeth. He apparently thinks his work isn’t done yet and he has to get me home safely.” Sophie’s lips curved up into a tantalizing shy grin.
At the sight of that smile, his tension started to melt away.
“Oooh.” The nurse straightened and looked at him again, this time with less glare and more hel-lo, the tone of feminine appreciation he used to get a kick out of when he was a rookie.
“I guess there are tougher burdens to bear, my dear. I need to take my trusty chair with me though. You okay to stand?”
Sophie answered by clutching the plastic hospital-logo bag in her lap and rising to her feet.
Her skin still seemed pale to Nate, but he’d never seen her when she was healthy, so maybe that was her usual coloring.
Or maybe she was just still recuperating from some scum of the earth nearly killing her.
Either way, he was one hundred percent entranced by her.
The nurse reached out for Sophie’s hand. “You take care, okay, sweetie? If you have any questions on your self-care, you call that number on the paper.”
“I will. Thanks for everything. You’re the best.”
The nurse wheeled the empty chair away from them and went back inside. Nate told the cabbie Sophie had a ride, and then he glanced across the lot.
“My truck is parked about halfway down that first row. If I go get it, will you still be here when I drive up?”
Sophie closed her eyes momentarily against the light-headedness from standing. She’d done almost nothing but lie around for two days and was weak as a kitten … and detested that feeling.
As she waited for the dizziness to level out, she felt Nate’s hand, firm but gentle, on her arm, steadying her. She opened her eyes to find him inches away, frowning with concern.
“I’m okay. Just rusty at this standing thing. I can make it to your truck as long as we don’t sprint.”
“I’ll drive up.”
“It’s not that far. I can walk.”
“I could carry you.” He grinned and raised his brows, letting on he wasn’t serious, and that alone saved him.
“I have a head injury and charbroiled lungs, not a broken leg. I want to walk.” She swallowed and stiffened her spine, feeling steadier now, and more determined. The sooner she could start walking, standing, doing anything besides lying in a hospital room, the sooner she’d get her strength back.
Nate looked about to say no, so Sophie tried a different tack. She wrapped her hand around his upper arm and held on. “Please?”
He took her bag from her and nodded. “Let’s go then.”
When they got to his truck, an older but well taken care of Ford, she let him help her up into it and sank into the seat, way more tired than she should be from walking a few hundred feet. Recuperation was going to get on her nerves.
Nate climbed in on his side, shot a quick, assessing glance her way, then started the truck. The radio blared out a country song, and he hit the power button to silence it. “Where do you live?”
“Sea Breeze Condominiums on the island. Do you know them?”
“They’re at Sea Breeze Drive, right?”
She nodded, and he headed toward the bridge that would take them across the bay to San Amaro.
“Don’t think you’re off the hook for trying to ditch me this morning,” he said lightly as they drove over the shallow bay.
Damn. Busted. She’d been hoping they could just gloss over that. “I’m sorry. They released me, and you weren’t there, so—”
“So you left me hanging. Or would have.”
“I didn’t know if you’d show up,” she said quietly, voicing only one of her numerous concerns. Another was that he would show up. And here she was, torn between being annoyed and grateful. And more.
It was the more that scared the shit out of her.
“I said I’d drive you home. Of course I’d show up.”
“I get that now,” she said sheepishly. “I apologized. What else do you want from me?”
“Dinner.”
That.
That was exactly why this was a bad idea.
“I’m supposed to be recovering, not going out.”
“Who said anything about ‘out’? I’ll leave you alone to sleep all day, and then I’ll come back at dinnertime to cook you something. That will save you from having to cook. See? All about recovery.”
“You’re hard to argue with.”
“Resistance is futile.”
Sophie laughed in spite of her reluctance. Then she sobered, the butterflies in her gut intensifying. “Why are you doing this?”
“Doing what?”
“Everything. Visiting me in the hospital, putting yourself on the line to tell me what you weren’t supposed to tell me — which, by the way, the fire chief and the investigator did visit me this morning and confirmed that it was arson — taking me home, cooking me dinner—”
“So dinner’s a yes then.” He shot a shit-eating grin her way, and even when he was being smug, her heartbeat still did a little double-time beat just from how good-looking he was.
“Just dinner,” she said. “It’s not a date.”
“Not a date.” Nate nodded.
Those were the words she needed to hear, and yet they brought her no comfort.