Nightfall Read Free Page A

looked into the fire to distract herself.
    “ Your van doesn’t have
airbags?” he asked, going to work on her injury.
    “ It pre-dates airbags. We
call it the brontosaurus because it’s so old.”
    “ Who’s ‘we’?”
    She shifted her gaze to his
and something sparked between them. She glanced away. Was it her
imagination, or was he asking about her marital status? Probably
her imagination. She had to look like roadkill. She tucked a
wayward curl behind her ear.
    “ My sister,” she told him.
“We’re in business together.”
    “ A flower shop,
huh?”
    She smiled. “Heather prefers
‘floral studio.’ I guess you looked in the back?”
    “ Yep.” He dabbed the
cut.
    “ Ouch!”
    “ Sorry.” His gaze met hers.
“You’ve really got some dirt in here. You fall on a
rock?”
    “ I’m not sure. I couldn’t
see, really.”
    He looked concerned now.
“Can you tell me what day it is?”
    She took a deep breath.
“Friday, November fifth.” It was engraved on her brain. The day she
was supposed to collect the check that would save her floundering
business.
    “ Count backward from a
thousand.”
    She shot him a glare. “I’m
not drunk.”
    He waited patiently until
she complied. After about ten seconds, he gave a nod. “Bend your
head forward,” he said. “That hurt?”
    “ A little sore.”
    He settled his hands on the
back of her head and palpated her skull, right through all the
tangles and leaves in her hair.
    “ Look at me.”
    She did. His irises were
nearly black and she could see the fire reflected in them. The
moment stretched out. Holly’s chest tightened and her heart started
to thud.
    His gaze shifted to her cut.
“You could probably use a few stitches. I’m not equipped to do it
here, but I could run you to Bozeman.”
    She just stared at him. She
was new to Montana, but even she knew that would take at least two
hours, given the weather.
    “ Ah, probably not worth it,”
he said, rummaging through the kit. “It’ll heal up pretty good if
you keep a butterfly on it.”
    “ Where’d you get your
medical training?”
    He looked at her. “The
Army.”
    Ah-hah. It made sense now.
The posture, the mannerisms. Something about him had made her think
cop, but now she realized it was the military
background.
    “ You served in
Iraq?”
    “ Afghanistan.”
    “ And you came
home…?”
    “ Two years ago.” He snapped
the kit shut, and his tone told her he didn’t want to talk about
it. Maybe the transition from soldier to ranch hand hadn’t agreed
with him. Holly could relate. She’d always pictured herself a
painter, not a florist. But as an artist, she’d been starving, and
flowers paid the bills.
    Most of the time.
    A wave of anxiety hit her.
“Listen, does your phone work out here? Because I really need to
call the sheriff.”
    “ Like I said, they’re
stretched thin tonight.”
    “ I need to call my sister,
too.”
    “ Soon as I’m done, you can
call whoever you want. You should use the landline. Cell phone
coverage is spotty out here.” He dabbed at her face some more with
the antiseptic and she watched the muscles of his neck move as he
worked. She smelled wood and leather and a hint of male sweat. The
combination was making her a little lightheaded. It had been ages
since an attractive man had put his hands on her for any reason at
all, and even though the reason was accidental, the situation was
making her antsy.
    “ You’ve got a lot of dirt in
here,” he said. “What were you doing in the woods, anyway? Weather
like this, you’d have been better off staying in your vehicle to
wait for help.”
    “ I know. But I got out to
check the damage and someone started shooting.”
    He froze.
“ Shooting? ”
    “ Three shots. Two missed.
Third one hit the van, and I took off.”
    “ Someone shot at you.” He said it as a
statement, not a question, and she could tell by his tone that he
didn’t believe her.
    She eased back. “That’s why
I ran.”
    “ You sure