Quite the Catch Read Free Page A

something?”
    Her
laugh exploded. “No, sweets, I’m a nurse who took care of her terminally ill
grandfather. I know , I know I should’ve gotten rid of
the meds but I haven’t, and this is an unusual situation. Would you like some
herbal tea to wash them down?”
    He
made a face. “Coffee would be better.”
    “No
caffeine until you get warmed up,” she said. “Maybe you’d rather have ice
water?”
    “Yeah,
water’s fine.”
    Sitting
up proved to be both painful and difficult. If Tina hadn’t helped him, he
doubted he would have managed. She propped him against a bank of pillows and
kept the covers snug, topped by a quilt. “Do you think you can manage a little
soup or something?” she asked. “It’s probably better if you don’t take the
pills on an empty stomach.”
    Joshua
finished most of the bowl of chicken and rice soup, with Tina’s help, and it
was then that he realized his situation seemed rather surreal. He’d awakened in
a strange place, in bed, tended to by a pretty woman, and he had no idea how
he’d landed there. It smacked of strange, of something out of the sci-fi novels
he sometimes read. Then he wondered how he remembered his taste in novels when
he’d failed to know his name.
    “Hey,”
he said. “I’m freaking out a little. You’re treating me like family or a guest
and I don’t even know where in the hell we’re at. Before I take pain meds and
get zonked, I’d like to know how I got here and why you brought me.”
    Tina
put the soup bowl on the nightstand. “I guess it might seem a little weird. Here’s
my side of what happened. I had promised my grandfather I’d scatter his ashes
on the river, but it rained most of the time since he died three weeks ago. Today
was the first day it seemed possible so I talked Charley into letting me take
the boat down the river to keep my promise.”
    He
might have amnesia but he wasn’t stupid. “Who’s Charley?”
    “He’s
my cousin. Anyway, I scattered Gramps along the way and then just kicked back
to enjoy the day. After I floated under the old railroad trestle bridge, I
heard voices. I thought it was a bunch of guys out hunting until I saw one man
running. The rest of them chased him and I watched. You were the man running. They
started shooting at you about the time you started across the trestle and they
were catching up, fast. You bailed over the side and down into the river. I
thought you’d been hit and figured you were a goner.”
    Joshua
thought he would remember such a dramatic sequence but he didn’t. “Did I jump
or fall from the bridge?”
    She
hitched her shoulders in a shrug. “I think you jumped. That’s what it looked
like. I saw you come up, fighting against the current, and I tried to row
against it to pick you up.”
    “Why?”
    Her
blue eyes darkened and she met his gaze without blinking. “Charley asked if you
were my catch of the day—not quite. I’m not the kind of person who’s going to
sit in a boat and watch someone drown,” Tina said. “Or die from hypothermia.”
    He
shook his head, skeptical. “Why would you help a stranger? Especially one
running from armed men? I might be a fugitive or a criminal.”
    The
corners of her mouth twitched, then transformed into a smile. It lit her face
with radiance and turned pretty into beautiful. “You might be but I don’t think
so. I’m a keen judge of character, most of the time. I worked as an ER nurse in
Dallas for six years and I’ve seen some pretty gnarly people. And after awhile , you get a knack for knowing.”
    Joshua
took a deep breath and blew it out. “God, I hope you’re right, but I don’t
know.”
    When
he shifted position, pain radiated outward from his side and every aching
muscle twinged . Although his slight moan came out
soft, Tina heard it. “You will,” she said. She picked up the bottle of Vicodin.
“You need to take a couple of these and rest.”
    “Sure.”
After he’d sat up and had some soup, he’d felt better for