Rattled Read Free

nothing.” He looked at Erin. “I just wanted to see how you’re doing. I didn’t come here for gratitude or anything.” He shrugged, looking uncomfortable. “I just got interested, you know. I know we’ve never met officially, but I couldn’t help wondering if you were okay.”
    Erin could feel the warmth rising in her cheeks under his gaze. She tried to tell herself that no one expected her to look gorgeous in a hospital bed. And he’d already seen her in bad shape. But she wished she’d had a shower and a hairbrush, while at the same time wishing he would come closer, so she could get another look at those eyes.
    As if in answer, he crossed the room and stood looking down at her, frowning, while his gaze traveled over her as if tallying up the damage.
    Erin cleared her throat and tried to think of something to say. “I’m very grateful. I don’t know if I could have gotten out of that ditch on my own.” Her heart sped and she swallowed the acid taste that rose in her throat. It didn’t matter now. She was safe. She took a breath and forced herself to smile. “Maybe it sounds cliché to say that I owe you my life, but if you hadn’t come along, who knows when someone would have found me?”
    “I can’t believe anyone would hit you and then just drive off!” Camie said. She paced the small room. “I’d like to wring his neck.”
    The man opened his mouth as if to speak, then closed it again.
    “You know me,” Erin said, “and that’s my friend Camie.”
    The man took the hint. “Drew Morgan.”
    “I’d offer to shake but—” Erin held up her hand with the splinted finger.
    For the first time, the man smiled. It was a good smile, one that started with a slow curve of the lips, then worked its way up into those eyes, blue as a desert sky on a summer day. He had a rugged face and tousled dark hair. Erin’s heart beat a little harder, though she doubted he was the type of man who would notice her under normal circumstances.
    “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in town,” Camie said. “You new?”
    Drew nodded. “I’ve been here a couple of weeks. It’s just temporary.”
    “Doing what?” Camie asked. Not for the first time, Erin was glad her outspoken friend would take the lead.
    “You know the ghost town the college bought, Silver Valley?”
    “Sure, big news,” Camie said. “The college owning a whole town. Erin and I both work at the school.”
    Erin remembered the local news stories from a few months before. The college, which specialized in the sciences, had an associated research group that did explosives testing. They were developing a program to train military, police, and search and rescue teams from around the world in antiterrorist training. Buying an entire ghost town a hundred miles away would give them a base for the training programs, complete with empty buildings for exercises.
    “I fly helicopters,” Drew said. “I’ll be shuttling some of the brass from the college, local politicians, and so forth down there for tours.”
    “Well isn’t that interesting!” Camie was all sunshine and warmth, the side of her that made most men stumble over their own tongues while they gaped at her golden girl-next-door beauty. Some might have thought Camie was flirting, but Erin caught the mischievous gleam in her friend’s eye.
    “Why don’t you have a seat and tell us all about it?” Camie said, pushing the empty chair closer to Erin’s bedside. “Erin could use something to take her mind off the pain.”
    Drew sat and gazed at Erin. “How bad is it?”
    She shrugged, awkward under his steady gaze but unable to look away. “Right now, everything hurts, so nothing hurts worse than anything else. But the only broken bone is this one chip in my finger. Six weeks in this splint.” She made a face at it, wondering how she’d manage to type. “The only reason I’m still here is because I hit my head, and they wanted to keep me for observation.”
    “It’s a good thing