Chapter Nine #2
“Nope,” Vi said, searching Eve’s face. “Sometimes you just have to check things out in person.”
The bell over the café’s front door rang.
Ted entered. He wore blue jeans, cowboy boots and hat, and a blue scrub top. He waved to Eve and then asked the waitress to bring two coffees.
Eve got to her feet, gathering her tote with her medical textbook and notes.
“That’s your study partner?” Mom asked, wide-eyed.
“Way to go, Eve.” Vi held up a hand for a high five.
Eve rolled her eyes and left Vi’s hand hanging.
“Stop it. Both of you. Ted is a friend and a study partner.” She left her disbelieving family and joined Ted in another booth, her back to the door.
“I’ve only got an hour. Can we start with the mechanism of injury and its importance in diagnosis?
But first…cinnamon rolls.” She waved to the waitress.
Ted set his cowboy hat on the table and flipped through his flash cards. “I think they’re going to focus on falls versus blows on the test. A direct strike provides a trail to follow, bruises, cuts, and the like. While a fall might disguise various points of internal damage.”
Eve flipped through her textbook. “They’ve got pictures somewhere. Here it is. Page one hundred thirty-three.”
The waitress came by with two mugs of hot coffee.
“Keep the caffeine coming,” Eve told her. “We’ve got a test on Friday.”
Ted grinned. “And we’re going to ace it.”
*
Hayden had left Gran at the ranch with Roddy while he picked up groceries in town. He slowed as he passed the Sagebrush Café, spotting Evie’s car.
Ah, yes. She told me she had a study date.
He spotted her sitting in a window booth with a man.
A man?
Hayden jammed on the brakes with jealousy-infused adrenaline, turning into a parking spot in front of the Sagebrush Café at the last minute.
She didn’t tell me her study partner was a man!
He hopped out of the truck and strode toward the door, chest heaving, heart pounding. He entered the café without a plan or an excuse. He knew he’d made a mistake the moment the door swung shut behind him.
Violet and Nellie stood at the cash register, settling up their bill.
Vi’s finely arched brows rose. “Are you checking up on my baby sister?”
“No.” After a moment spent wrestling with his ragged emotions, Hayden approached Vi and Nellie, giving each a hug, shocking both himself and Vi, if her raised brows were any indication. “I’m surprising my wife while I’m in town.” He attempted a smile, not wanting to create a scene with his in-laws.
His words and actions must have worked.
“Wise move.” Nellie hustled Violet toward the door, despite Vi looking like she’d like to say more. “Eve’s study partner is a hunk.”
Yeah, I can see that.
Once the Fishers were out the door, Hayden approached Evie’s booth, his unexpected encounter with his ex-fiancée forgotten.
There was a picked over plate of cinnamon rolls in the center of the table.
Evie’s back was to him, which was great.
Hayden wanted to eavesdrop. And check out the man opposite her.
A tan cowboy hat sat on the table next to the salt and a pile of textbooks.
Said cowboy had broad shoulders and bulging biceps that strained the sleeves of his blue scrub top.
His brown hair was cut short, but it looked like he hadn’t shaved for days.
“It’s why patients come in years later with pain that doesn’t make sense unless you trace it back to the original injury,” he was saying.
“The body remembers what the mind tries to forget.”
Evie tapped the end of her pen on her open textbook, head shaking. Her blond ponytail traced a path from one shoulder to the other, a path Hayden’s hand wanted to follow. “That’s depressing. Do you ever wonder if emotions are the same way?”
Hayden paused, needing to hear the tenor of the conversation before announcing himself. He moved to the counter and picked up a small menu.
“What do you mean?” the big man asked.
“If the body remembers old wounds, even when the brain tells you you’re okay, could feelings work similarly?
” Evie presented her question urgently. “Can the brain set aside emotional wounds for months or years, but with the right trigger, all that angst and anxiety can come roaring back and blindside you? Keeping you from…let’s say, being able to love. ”
Is she talking about me?
Hayden lowered his cowboy hat brim.
“I think that’s in one of the psych courses,” the big man replied. “Are you asking out of curiosity or for personal reasons?”
Hayden glanced over his shoulder, noting Evie’s blush.
She is talking about me.
Love is dangerous, he reminded himself.
At least she hadn’t named names.
“What can I get you, Hayden?” Asked Beverly, one of the elderly waitresses that had worked at the Sagebrush Café forever.
“Hayden?” Evie sounded as if she had mixed feelings about him being here. “Is something wrong with Irene?”
“No. I was picking up groceries.” He spun on that barstool. “I stopped but I…didn’t want to interrupt.” A bold-faced lie. He tried not to glare at her hunky study partner.
Evie introduced him to Ted. “I guess this is my cue to get going.” She gathered her things while thanking Ted effusively for all his help.
Her praise rankled almost as much as her asking Ted if Hayden’s obstacle to being able to love her or…someone…was tied to the hurts of his past.
They bid Ted farewell.
Hayden walked Evie to her car.
“You were checking up on me,” Evie told him, bypassing questions and accusations and moving right to the point. “Don’t you trust me?”
“Should I? With my track record?”
“Oh, Hayden.” Evie laid her palm on his cheek, her touch reassuring. “When someone leaves you, that doesn’t go on your record.”
He didn’t want to talk about this. “Are you going to study with Ted again?”
“You are jealous.” Evie crossed her arms, expression turning stern. “I’m not going to hurt you, Hayden. I wouldn’t know how.”
This was a good start. Her meeting with another man.
Hayden didn’t dare say that out loud. Instead, he wrapped his arms around Evie and held her close. “I don’t like it when we fight.”
“We’re not fighting,” Evie said into his chest. “You’ll know when we’re fighting. Just like I know when you’re jealous.” She drew back, smiling up at him. “That makes up for you telling Irene you can’t love anyone for fear of being hurt.”
“Or hurting someone else.” Someone like Evie.
It wasn’t until they parted ways that Hayden realized he hadn’t protested her hypothesis about jealousy being connected to love.