Chapter Sixteen
S ierra hoped to be cleared for work after ten days. The first two days after her injury were the hardest for her, since she wasn’t supposed to watch TV or read. All she could do was doze and talk to Connor. Who had basically moved in with her for the duration of her convalescence.
She gathered he’d had a hard time convincing his mother that he didn’t need help. “You’d think I had two broken legs the way she’s going on about it,” he griped. “I don’t remember her being so frantic when I actually broke my leg as a kid.”
“You scared her. A helicopter accident can be deadly.”
“I know. But this one wasn’t.”
“Thank God.”
She had to laugh when he told her how much food his mother had left for him and what she’d cooked. But she was grateful because Connor shared his food with her. Otherwise they’d have lived on takeout and in Marietta there wasn’t a lot to choose from.
After the first two days it was nice having free time to be with Connor, but he went back to work as soon as he could tape up his ankle and limp. By the end of the week, she was going stir-crazy and was ready to go back to work. She hoped the doctor would sign off on her returning to her job soon. She didn’t see why he wouldn’t. She was fine. No headaches, no other worrisome symptoms either.
“What would you do if your injury required down time from working as a paramedic?” she asked him one evening shortly before her exam to clear her to go back to work.
“You mean, if I broke something and would be out for weeks? I guess I’d ask Redbird if they had a desk job while I recovered.”
“Really? I can’t see you with a desk job.” Redbird, the helicopter service that supplied Marietta’s hospital with helicopters and pilots, probably had a number of places where a grounded flight paramedic could be of help.
He shrugged. “That’s because I can hardly think of anything I want to do less. I sure as hell couldn’t perform my normal job or be a ground paramedic either, and I’d go nuts waiting around to heal with no job. Not to mention, the money. It’s probable I couldn’t even help Liam. So, I guess it would be a desk job or nothing.”
“You really don’t like being stuck in the hospital or in an office, do you?”
“Never have.”
“I’ve been wondering about something for a while now,” Sierra said.
“What?”
“You’re smart.”
He sat up straight and looked at her. “Thanks?”
She laughed. “I’m serious. You know as much as or more than any flight paramedic I’ve worked with. Have you ever thought about becoming a flight nurse?”
He shot her a sharp look. “I’ve thought about it. But I decided against it. I like what I do now. Besides, I’ve had enough school and training to last me. Not to mention, there’s always CME to get certified every two years.”
She imagined he didn’t care for the continuing medical education. Somehow it didn’t surprise her that Connor was the active type. Not given how much he liked sports.
“You said you broke your leg as a kid. Have you ever broken anything else?”
He laughed. “Oh, yeah. Most recent was a few years ago when I was skiing on a double diamond run. And before you ask, yes, I’m fully capable of skiing that terrain.”
“Touchy, touchy. I didn’t say anything.”
He snorted but continued. “I caught a tip and fell. Luckily a tree stopped me before I went over the edge. But I broke my leg.”
“You make it sound like it’s no big deal.”
“It’s not. When I was a kid, I rodeoed. We all did.” He smiled. “I broke an arm, some ribs, and my collarbone. Not all at once, though.”
“And you kept doing it after all that? Good Lord, you must be a masochist.”
He shrugged. “I was in high school. Almost everyone I knew rodeoed. It’s a rough sport.”
“What was your event?” She’d known Connor was a cowboy. She knew he helped Liam out when needed. But she’d never thought of him as a rodeo cowboy. She could see it, though. She thought about when he’d taken her to the Gallagher ranch and taken her riding. It was clear he was totally at home with horses.
“I tried everything but I was best at bareback bronc riding. I stopped when I decided I needed a different career. I was good but not good enough to do it for a living. Besides, it’s a tough life and the money is anything but dependable.”
“Do you miss it?”
“At first I did. But I was living on the ranch at the time and taking care of the horses and the ranch, plus riding whenever I wanted helped. It took me a while, but I figured out I wanted to be in medicine. Logan wanted me to be a doctor, but it wasn’t in the cards for me, for which I’m grateful now. I’d never have made it through med school. Hell, I left college after a year. After my dad died money was tight. So supporting myself as quickly as I could was important. That’s when I decided to quit college and enlist. I could be trained as a medic and get paid at the same time. So I went through training to be a medic and then a combat medic.”
“How long did that take?”
“Six months. Ten weeks of basic and sixteen to be combat-certified.” He tilted his head, considering her. “Why the sudden interest in my past?”
“It’s not sudden. I’ve always been interested. We’ve just never talked about it much. Was it hard transitioning to be a civilian paramedic?”
“Not hard. Time-consuming. I had to take some college courses first. My medic training enabled me to skip some of the civilian training, but it still took about six months to certify as a paramedic, then I had to have further training to become a flight paramedic.”
“You never talk about your experience as a combat medic.”
He shrugged. “There’s not much to talk about. Parts of it were rewarding. A lot of it was brutal.”
“Brutal in what way?”
“Losing people. Losing friends. Trying to save someone when you’re under fire. Watching people in a Humvee getting blown up in front of you, then trying to save them while you’re being shot at. It’s pretty fucking scary.”
“But you did two tours, didn’t you? Why?”
He shrugged. “Seemed like the thing to do at the time. It was a steady job, steady paycheck. And I felt like I was helping. Until I didn’t.”
“Did something happen to make you decide not to reenlist?”
He got a faraway look in his eyes. “Yeah.”
He didn’t say anything else, and she could tell he wasn’t going to. So she changed the subject and was rewarded by him looking like the Connor she was used to. Not the brooding, intense man she’d never seen before.
Clearly, there was a lot more to his service than he was willing to talk about. At least for now. She wondered if he ever would.
*
“Coming!” Sierra called out when she heard a knock on the door. She’d been back at work for a week now, Connor for a bit longer. She was going out with Connor tonight, but he was early. Hopping on one foot, she tried to get her other shoe on. She wore pants with short boots that should have been easy to slip on. “Damn it.” Stupid shoe. She gave up, answering the door with one boot on and the other held in her hand.
“You’re early—” She stopped mid-sentence and stared at the man on her doorstep. Dark brown hair, blue eyes, a face that had made more than one woman sigh. Including her, once upon a time.
“Phil? What are you doing here?” She hadn’t seen her ex-husband since she left Texas months ago. He was the very last person she’d expected to find on her doorstep.
“Hi, Sierra. You look great.”
He said that as if he’d seen her last week, rather than months before. As if the last time she’d seen him hadn’t been to sign divorce papers. She simply stared at him wondering what was going on. Phil was here, in Marietta? She couldn’t wrap her head around it.
“Can I come in?”
Still shocked, she stepped aside, and he walked in. “Why are you here?” She’d thought if or when she saw her ex again she’d be sad. Instead she was surprised. And wary. And annoyed. What the hell did he mean showing up at her apartment out of the blue?
He’d been looking around the apartment with interest, but at that he smiled. “I wanted to see you.”
“Why?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“How did you know where I live?” She hadn’t told a lot of people. Certainly none who would have told Phil.
“Mind if I sit?”
Yes, she started to say but didn’t. Might as well get it over with. Besides, she had to admit she was curious as to what in the hell he could want. She waved a hand at the couch and he took a seat.
“One of your friends told me you’d moved to Montana. The hospital had your forwarding address.”
She started to question which friend and why the hospital had given out her private information but hell, Phil was a doctor there and they knew they’d been married. And likely didn’t know they were divorced, though they had to have known the two of them were estranged. Still, Phil could have given any number of reasons why he needed to get in touch with her and someone would have given it to him.
With a sigh of frustration, she sat on the other end of the couch and put on her other boot. “Look, Phil, I don’t know why you’re here or what you want from me, but I have a date. He should be here any minute now.” She hoped. “So, either get to the point or leave.”
“I’ve missed you, Sierra.”
Give me a break. “Oh, please. You missed me? Well, that’s too damn bad. You’re not the only one who can move on. How is darling Tamera, by the way? Does she know you’re here?” He didn’t answer. “Oh, I get it now. She left you, didn’t she?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. A sure sign he was uncomfortable. “We broke up. It was mutual.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”
“Yes. We broke up a few weeks ago.”
“I thought you were madly in love and going to marry her.” That’s what he’d told her that awful day when he’d blown up their life.
“I made a mistake. She was…a mistake. I should never have left you, never have asked for a divorce. I’ve never regretted anything more.” He looked so sad, so sincere. If he was sincere, why the hell had it taken so long for him to decide he’d made a mistake?
Stunned, she stared at him. “A little late, don’t you think?” She heard a knock on the door. Thank God. It was bound to be Connor. She got up and crossed the room to open the door. Before she could speak, Connor took one look at her, yanked her against him and laid a kiss on her hot enough to cause a forest fire. By the time he released her, her brain was well and truly scrambled.