He couldn’t appreciate her attempt to make light of the situation. His mind was still focused on the asshole who’d hurt his woman. “Could you identify him?”
“No, it was too dark. All I could see was that it was a big truck. Oh, and it had a rack of spotters across the top. They were blinding in my rearview.” She paused, her brows furrowing as much as the painkillers would allow. “How did you find me anyway?”
“We set up a grid search along the route. Took us a few hours though. I’m sorry about that.”
“Hey,” she said, wrapping her hand around his. “I’m just glad you showed.”
His chest constricted painfully. “I meant what I said, Kate.”
“Knock, knock.” A nurse came in, pushing Kate’s father in a wheelchair. “Are you feeling up for another visitor?”
“Of course. Hi, Dad.”
The nurse moved the chair close to the bed and then quietly left the room.
“Katy-belle! Your mother just called me. I couldn’t make heads or tails of what she was saying, just that you were in an accident. What happened?”
“I did a little impromptu off-roading,” she deadpanned. “Didn’t go as well as I’d hoped.”
“Katelyn Gertrude Handelmann, that is not funny.”
She looked properly chastised. “Sorry, Dad. I had an accident. It happens. I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
“It looks worse than it is,” Kate said soothingly, reaching up to touch the bandage on the side of her face. “I’m just a little banged up; that’s all. You know hospitals. They’ll take any opportunity to slap a Band-Aid on you and charge a couple hundred bucks. How are you?”
“I’d be home in my recliner right now if it wasn’t for this damn snow,” he grumbled. “Why were you out, driving in a blizzard?”
Mr. Handelmann shot a questioning, decidedly unfriendly look Mad Dog’s way, as if he suspected Mad Dog was behind it.
Kate neither confirmed nor denied his unspoken accusation. “It wasn’t bad last night, and I planned to be home well before the storm. I didn’t expect to have an accident.”
Her father grimaced. “No one ever does. That’s why they’re called accidents and not intentionals. Wait, you said last night?”
“Calm down, Dad. You just had an angioplasty.”
“I know damn well what I had. Answer the question.”
Kate exhaled. “I went off the road last night. Chris found me earlier today.”
The older man visibly paled. “You were out there all night? Why didn’t you call for help?”
Mad Dog was so attuned to Kate that he could see her carefully picking and choosing her words. She was downplaying the truth and not telling him everything.
“You know there are a lot of dead zones along the mountain. And it wasn’t as bad as it sounds,” she added quickly. “I was in the Jeep, and I had heat and food and a first aid kit. It was just a matter of waiting out the storm.”
“Just waiting it out,” he echoed, shaking his head.
Yeah, Kate is definitely adept at evasive maneuvers around the truth.
He suspected her father knew that, too, if his furrowed brows were any indication.
“Mr. Sheppard,” Kate’s dad said, finally turning to him and holding out his hand, “it seems I am in your debt for finding and rescuing my daughter.”
Mad Dog shook his hand. Clearly, he had no idea the things Mad Dog would do for his daughter. “My friends helped, sir.”
“Then, I owe them my thanks as well.”
“Speaking of, I’m going to go down and give them an update,” he said, sensing the two of them needed some time alone. “Anything I can bring back for you?”
Kate smiled. “Just you. And maybe a Danish.”
“You got it.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kate
Kate was acutely aware of her father’s eyes on her as she watched Chris walk out of the room. Then, he exhaled heavily.
“You sure you know what you’re doing, Katy-belle?”
“Not a shadow of doubt in my mind, Dad.” And there wasn’t.
Not only was Chris her sexy, hot boyfriend, but he was also her real-life knight in shining armor, riding in to rescue her when she needed it most.
“You know your mother’s not going to be happy about this.”
She did know. “Mom wasn’t happy with Karyn’s choice either.”
Five years after the fact, she still wasn’t. It was easier for Beth Handelmann to deal—in other words, not acknowledge—Karyn’s homosexuality now that she was across the country. Being out of immediate sight meant their mother didn’t fret over public opinion quite so much. Times were changing, but the wheels of progress and acceptance ground slowly in small towns with outdated “values.”
When her father’s mouth turned down at the corners, she decided not to say any more about that.
“I’m sorry about the store, Dad. I know you were counting on me, but it looks like I’m going to take a couple days off.”
He gave her a sad but gentle smile. “You’re more important than the store. We’ll figure something out. I’ll call Luther, see if he can cover a few hours a day until I can get back in there.”
“Didn’t the doctor tell you to wait two weeks?”
“Yeah, but I don’t think I can wait that long.”
“Dad ...”
“I’m supposed to minimize stress, right? Tell me that parking my ass at home for the next two weeks is going to be less stressful than overseeing the store and greeting customers for a couple hours a day.”
He had a good point. The store was his happy place. As much as he adored her mother, her constant hovering and worrying were difficult to tolerate for any length of time.
“As long as you promise not to do any of the heavy lifting.”
“Deal.”
Her dad stayed and talked for a while longer and then said he was tired and wanted to go back to his room to rest. With no way for patients to get home, the hospital was being pretty lenient about bed space.
Chris came back in shortly after, carrying a bag from the hospital cafeteria. She suspected he’d been hanging out in the friends-and-family waiting area, sensing that she and her father needed some time together. Once again, she was humbled by his thoughtfulness.
“They had Danishes?” she asked hopefully.
“Apple, raspberry, cherry, and cheese,” he said, extracting several wax paper–wrapped goodies from the bag. “You didn’t specify which kind you wanted.”
“No need to specify. I like them all. What do you say, split each one half and half?”
“Hungry, huh?”
“Starving. I wasn’t admitted in time to get onto the food service dinner list, and the pack of pretzels the nurse gave me just isn’t cutting it.”
“I can get you something else.”
“This is good. The nurse came in earlier and added something to my IV, and it’s making me a little sleepy. Keep me company for a while?”
“Absolutely.”
They turned on the small mounted television and watched snowmageddon reports from around the area while he broke each Danish into bite-sized pieces and fed them to her. Eventually, she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer. She vaguely remembered him tucking the covers around her and feeling the gentle brush of his lips against her forehead.