The Parent Plan Part 3 by Paula Detmer Riggs

Author:Paula Detmer Riggs [Riggs, Paula Detmer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Forty minutes later, Karen was alone with Cassidy in the bathroom, where he’d insisted on going in order to shower off the muck and mud. Now he was sitting on the closed lid of the toilet with only a towel around his waist while Karen busied herself disinfecting the small wound on his temple.

The two extra-strength aspirins she’d forced down his throat had done little to take the edge off the pain that had him grunting with every movement of his head.

Outside, the rain was coming down in windy gusts, which had sent most of the hands inside the various buildings to mend tack or clean stalls. Travis had jawed with Billy about the new bull for a few minutes before driving off, taking with him one of the hands who needed to leave early. Vicki and Rags were watching a movie and eating cookies in the living room. Now and then, peals of delighted little-girl laughter drifted through the house like a soothing breeze.

“Hold still,” Karen ordered, fixing Cassidy with a glare designed to quell even the most difficult patient.

He returned her glare with a cold, angry look that would melt a mountain. “Stop trying to drive a spike in my skull and I will.”

“Some spike.” Still glaring, Karen wafted the cotton ball she’d been using in front of his Roman nose. To her surprise, he took one look at the blood-soaked piece of fluff and flinched.

“Well, get to it, then,” he said, his voice suddenly strained.

“Don’t give me orders, Sloane. I’m not one of your hands.”

He closed his eyes. “I know who you are, Kari. And who you’re not.” His tone was suddenly laced with a weariness that hurt her more than his coldness.

Resisting an urge to smooth back the shock of thick, wavy hair tumbling over his forehead took almost as much concentration as staunching the still oozing gash. “This needs a couple of sutures.”

“You’re the doctor,” he said, without opening his eyes.

She bristled, then realized that the sarcasm that usually accompanied a mention of her career was absent. In its place was a grim acceptance that she found oddly disturbing.

“Well, ‘the doctor’ still thinks you should spend at least one night under observation.”

“Just what I need,” he grumbled. “People running in and out of my room all night long, asking me stupid questions.”

“I told you why that’s necessary, Cassidy. Even a slight pressure on the brain from swelling or seepage can cause serious problems.” Even death, she added silently with a slight shiver.

He slitted one eye open. “I’ve been through all that before. I don’t intend to go through it again.”

“At least let me make an appointment with a neurologist for tomorrow.”

“No.”

“Are you seeing double?”

“No, and I’m not queasy,” he said before she could launch into the series of questions she’d already asked a half dozen times since Billy helped him into the house.

“Cassidy, this isn’t a game.”

His sigh was ragged. “Let it go, Kari. Rassling with you wears me out worse than any knock on the head.

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