Erin rubbed the palms of her hands against her thighs and looked around the room. “This feels like overkill,” she said.

“Being in the ER?”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe,” he told her. “But I’ll feel better knowing you’re taken care of.”

She grinned. “Is this part of your hero complex?”

“I didn’t realize I had one,” he teased.

He noticed her thumbs rubbing against her forefingers, both of them in time with each other. Instead of pretending he didn’t see her nervous action, he grabbed both of her hands. “Let me go out on a limb here and suggest that you don’t like hospitals.”

“Does anybody?”

She had a point.

Before he could say more, Dr. Brown came in and they both straightened their spines.

“Let’s see what we have,” he said with ease.

“I’m sure I just need a couple stitches. Or staples,” Erin told him.

Lisa walked into the room with a handful of gauze, saline, and all the things a doctor needed to sew together skin.

Dr. Brown put on a pair of gloves and patted the back of the gurney. “Why don’t you lie on your side.”

Erin released Matt’s hands and sat back. Tension and probably pain washed over her features when Dr. Brown touched the cut.

“What happened back here?”

Erin took a second to answer. “Car accident.” She looked at Matt.

“How long ago?”

“Last year.”

“This is a pretty impressive scar. Did you have any head trauma? Internal bleeding?”

She blinked several times and stared at Matt as if she were afraid to answer the question in front of him.

Much as he wanted to know the answer, and had many more questions that went with it, he found himself volunteering to leave the room. He took her hand. “Do you want me to wait outside?”

Relief flashed. “Would you?”

“Of course.” He kissed the back of her hand and walked outside the room.

But he didn’t go far.

He pulled out his phone and pretended to find entertainment in his e-mail while he listened to as much as he could hear.

“Tell me about the accident.” Matt heard Dr. Brown’s voice.

“It was bad. I woke up in the hospital and didn’t remember much of anything for a few days. I was told there was swelling in my brain but it went away without surgery.” Matt digested the words.

“Complete amnesia, or just to the event?”

“Event,” Erin said.

“Sounds like you were lucky.”

Matt heard Erin’s nervous laugh. “I suppose.”

“You hit a portion of the scar.”

“Yeah, brushing my hair can prove interesting sometimes.”

There was noise inside the room. “I’m just going to check a few more things,” Dr. Brown said.

Matt found himself shuffling from one foot to the other, wondering what was happening behind the curtain.

“Are you still nauseous?”

“Not really. I’m nervous.”

“Is it us? Or do you have a history of anxiety?”

“I’ve never been diagnosed with anxiety issues. If that’s what you’re asking,” Erin told him.

“Let me look in your eyes.” There was silence. “Follow the light with your eyes but keep your head straight.”

He listened while the doctor completed his assessment. “Tell you what,” Dr. Brown finally said. “I’m going to order a CT of your head.”

“Okay.”

“Now let me look at your hand.”

Matt smiled and took several steps away from the door.

When the doctor left the room, Matt walked past him, smiled, and returned to Erin’s side.

The nurse was cleaning up the bandages and tools they’d used to sew Erin up. “Can I come back in?” he asked.

“Yes.” Erin grinned and sat up. “He wants to take pictures of my head and wrist.”

Matt played innocent. “Oh?”

“A precaution.”

“Sounds reasonable. Are you feeling better?”

“Tender, but okay.”

“I can ask the doctor for pain medication if you need some,” Lisa said before she walked out of the room.

“No. I’ll take something when I get home.”

“You sure? We have better stuff here.”

Erin shook her head. “I’m sure.”

Her thumb was doing the rubbing thing again when they were alone. Matt was starting to think he was the reason she was jumpy. “Do I make you nervous?”

She glanced at her hands and then put them under her legs. “It’s the smell. Antiseptic and latex, mixed with whatever might be happening out there.”

“And memories,” he said.

“Those, too.”

He took the liberty of placing his hand on her knee. “I’m a good listener. If you ever want to talk about it.”

Those beautiful eyes of hers softened and her shoulders relaxed. “If you were a tiny bit of a jerk, it would be so easy to push you away.”

Matt batted his eyelashes as if he were a lost puppy looking for scraps at the dinner table. “My mom says I’m a good catch.”

Her core shook as she started to laugh.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Matt talked her out of her hospital jitters with stories of entertaining medical runs he and his crew ended up responding to. Like the man who managed to climb onto the roof of the mall with a guitar, stripped naked, and started to perform.

Erin pictured the scene that Matt laid in front of her and found herself laughing.

“There were three engines and a dozen black-and-whites on scene. We didn’t know if he was mentally ill or suicidal, or just trying to make his fifteen minutes of fame happen. The thing that kept us guessing was the fact he could carry a tune.”

“He was good?”

Matt was grinning. “America’s Got Talent good. But every time someone would try and talk to him or threaten to take him down, he would step closer to the edge. We thought we had a jumper.”

“What happened?”

“It was a standoff for two hours. That part of the mall was temporarily closed until the man finally sat down and waited for someone to get him.”

Erin found herself feeling sorry for the stranger. “That’s so sad. All that talent and not stable.”

Matt shook his head. “Oh, no . . . don’t feel sorry for the dude. He was the decoy. Not a crazy bone in his naked body. While he was distracting the police and half the fire stations in town, his cohorts were making off with everything they could grab from a jewelry store inside the mall.”

“What?”

“It was a big story around here for a long time.”

Dr. Brown walked into the room with a laptop. “Your CT report is back.”

Erin couldn’t read the man’s expression, but he wasn’t overly jovial or instantly putting her at ease. “And?”

He placed the computer on a rolling table and opened it up to show her. “Do you want Matt to leave the room?” he asked.

Unlike when she was talking about the accident, she didn’t feel the need for him to leave. “No, it’s okay if he stays.”