She looked up at him for confirmation.“My lip is bleeding, isn’t it?”
He wanted to kiss away the shock and the pain and the stunned expression in her eyes.He thought better of the urge and hugged her instead.
“Easy now.Let’s get you in out of this sun.You can wait in the car with Miles while I tell that officer where I’m taking you.”
“It’s probably okay for me to leave,” Casey said.“He already took my statement.”
But she did as she was told, grateful for the fact that someone was taking over.It seemed her good sense and practicality was lost somewhere in the wreckage of her car and she couldn’t think what to do next.
When she got inside, Miles was ominously silent.Casey glanced over her shoulder, wincing slightly as a strained muscle rejected the motion.
His condition would have been funny if it hadn’t been too painful to laugh.He lay stretched out in the back seat with his arm thrown over his eyes, shielding them from the sun.He looked worse than she felt.
“Rough flight?”
He groaned and mumbled something she didn’t understand.She turned around and closed her eyes, wishing that the world would stop spinning so she could get off.
Seconds later Ryder slid behind the wheel.He leaned over and fastened Casey’s seat belt without giving her a chance to respond, then glanced in the back seat at his other passenger.
“Buckle up.”
A brief, quick click broke the silence.It would seem that Ryder had made a believer out of Miles.
The trip to the emergency room was faultless, and it didn’t take the doctor long to address Casey’s bumps and bruises.They were minor.The injury that would take the longest to heal was to her peace of mind.
“While you’re at it, you may as well give this one a going over,” Ryder said, pointing at Miles who was slumped in a chair near the emergency room door.
Doctor Hitchcock frowned.“Was he in the accident, too?”
Ryder shook his head.“No.I had just picked him up at the airport when Casey called.He’s a little the worse for wear.Guess his stomach’s had a longer ride than it could tolerate.”
Hitchcock gave Miles a judgmental look.He’d been doctoring the Ruban family for years, and it wasn’t the first time he’d seen this one in a condition of his own making.
“Looks to me like he just needs a little of the hair of the dog that bit him.”
It was the wordhairthat did it.Miles’s stomach was too queasy for anything, including metaphors.He bolted for the bathroom seconds ahead of another surge.
Hitchcock snorted beneath his breath, but his eyes were twinkling as he glanced at Ryder.
“Casey will be ready to go by the time you bring the car around.Meanwhile, I suppose I can give the party animal something to help his nausea.”
Casey tried a smile, but her lip was too swollen to do much about it, and her head was beginning to throb.“Thank you, Doctor Joe.”
He patted her on the arm.“Don’t thank me.Thank the good Lord for sparing you worse injury.”
“Amen to that,” Ryder said quietly, and went to get the car.
The doctor stared after him, then turned, giving Casey a long, intent look.“So, that’s the new husband, is it?”
She sighed.“You heard.”
He shook his head.“Lord, honey, who hasn’t?Your sudden marriage has set the biggest piece of gossip in motion that Ruban Crossing has ever known.I don’t know what Delaney’ was thinking when he pulled that stunt, but I can guarantee it wasn’t these results.”
Casey’s eyes darkened in frustration.“I know what he wanted.He’d been after me for years to… let’s see, how did he put it…marry well.”
Hitchcock frowned.He’d known Delaney Ruban all of his life.In fact, they’d grown up together, and while Delaney had acquired more money in his lifetime than a man had a right to expect, he’d been obsessed about overcoming his upbringing as the son of a flatlands sharecropper.
“By that, I suppose you’re referring to a socially acceptable marriage, such as to a fellow like Lash Marlow?”
