“I knew you were coming here to study, and I wanted to see you.” Mom’s smile tried to sell that story, but Eve wasn’t buying it.
Eve smirked. “You didn’t believe my texts that said I was okay?”
“Nope,” Vi said, searching Eve’s face. “Sometimes you just have to check things out in person.”
The bell over the café’s front door rang.
Ted entered. He wore blue jeans, cowboy boots and hat, and a blue scrub top. He waved to Eve and then asked the waitress to bring two coffees.
Eve got to her feet, gathering her tote with her medical textbook and notes.
“That’s your study partner?” Mom asked, wide-eyed.
“Way to go, Eve.” Vi held up a hand for a high five.
Eve rolled her eyes and left Vi’s hand hanging. “Stop it. Both of you. Ted is a friend and a study partner.” She left her disbelieving family and joined Ted in another booth, her back to the door. “I’ve only got an hour. Can we start with the mechanism of injury and its importance in diagnosis? But first…cinnamon rolls.” She waved to the waitress.
Ted set his cowboy hat on the table and flipped through his flash cards. “I think they’re going to focus on falls versus blows on the test. A direct strike provides a trail to follow, bruises, cuts, and the like. While a fall might disguise various points of internal damage.”
Eve flipped through her textbook. “They’ve got pictures somewhere. Here it is. Page one hundred thirty-three.”
The waitress came by with two mugs of hot coffee.
“Keep the caffeine coming,” Eve told her. “We’ve got a test on Friday.”
Ted grinned. “And we’re going to ace it.”
*
Hayden had left Gran at the ranch with Roddy while he picked up groceries in town. He slowed as he passed the Sagebrush Café, spotting Evie’s car.
Ah, yes. She told me she had a study date.
He spotted her sitting in a window booth with a man.
A man?
Hayden jammed on the brakes with jealousy-infused adrenaline, turning into a parking spot in front of the Sagebrush Café at the last minute.
She didn’t tell me her study partner was a man!
He hopped out of the truck and strode toward the door, chest heaving, heart pounding. He entered the café without a plan or an excuse. He knew he’d made a mistake the moment the door swung shut behind him.
Violet and Nellie stood at the cash register, settling up their bill.
Vi’s finely arched brows rose. “Are you checking up on my baby sister?”
“No.” After a moment spent wrestling with his ragged emotions, Hayden approached Vi and Nellie, giving each a hug, shocking both himself and Vi, if her raised brows were any indication. “I’m surprising my wife while I’m in town.” He attempted a smile, not wanting to create a scene with his in-laws.
His words and actions must have worked.
“Wise move.” Nellie hustled Violet toward the door, despite Vi looking like she’d like to say more. “Eve’s study partner is a hunk.”
Yeah, I can see that.
Once the Fishers were out the door, Hayden approached Evie’s booth, his unexpected encounter with his ex-fiancée forgotten. There was a picked over plate of cinnamon rolls in the center of the table. Evie’s back was to him, which was great. Hayden wanted to eavesdrop. And check out the man opposite her.
A tan cowboy hat sat on the table next to the salt and a pile of textbooks. Said cowboy had broad shoulders and bulging biceps that strained the sleeves of his blue scrub top. His brown hair was cut short, but it looked like he hadn’t shaved for days. “It’s why patients come in years later with pain that doesn’t make sense unless you trace it back to the original injury,” he was saying. “The body remembers what the mind tries to forget.”