Cedar Bluff's Most Eligible Bachelor (Cedar Bluff Hospital) by LAURA IDING Page B

in the end she needed his arm to help her get out of the car. He reached for the crutches, offering them to her once she was standing.
    “Which apartment?” he asked, pulling her backpack out of the backseat, where Mike, the helpful paramedic, had left it.
    “Two-eleven,” she answered, confirming his suspicions she was on the second floor. She swung her crutches forward and took a slow step forward. He stood right beside her, hating how her face went pale as she made her way slowly toward the apartment door.
    He was sweating more than she was, just from watching her struggle. Ten times over he had to stop himself from just scooping her into his arms and carrying her in.
    “Keys in the front pocket of my backpack,” she said in a strained voice as she came to a halt in front of the main apartment door.
    He found the keys, opened the lock and then held the door open for her. Thank God there was an elevator, so he wouldn’t have to helplessly watch her attempt to maneuver the stairs.
    When they reached her apartment door, he unlocked and opened it, holding it for her. She went inside, pausing in the tiny foyer.
    “Thanks for the ride. I can take it from here,” she said calmly, drumming up the most pathetic excuse for a smile.
    Like hell she could. He ignored her, coming inside and closing the door firmly behind them. As he looked around at the inexpensive but neat furniture in the apartment, he asked, “How much food do you have?” Walking further into the room, he looped the strap of the backpack over the edge of a chair. How she managed to go grocery shopping on a bicycle was beyond him. “I’ll run out and get you whatever you need.”
    Hailey eased herself onto the sofa with a low groan. He crossed over, helping her to lift her leg onto a pillow, elevating it. “I’m not sure,” she said tiredly. “There’s probably not much in the cupboards. I was planning to go shopping tomorrow.
    She was clearly losing steam, not that he could blame her. He reached into her coat pocket and took out the pain pills. “You might need to take another one,” he suggested, settling beside her on the sofa. “You can take two of them every four hours, as needed, and you only took one.”
    “Because it was a big horse pill,” she muttered. But when he opened the bottle she held out her hand and took the tablet. He went to the kitchen, filled a glass with water and brought it back to her. She downed the second pain pill without hesitation.
    He figured she’d be out like a light as soon as the second pill was absorbed into her system. And while she was sleeping, he’d take inventory to find out what she needed food-wise so he could shop for her.
    But before that there was one question that had been burning in the back of his mind ever since the moment he’d tended to her at the side of the road. Maybe it wasn’t completely fair to ask her now, when she was so clearly not herself, but he needed to know.
    “Hailey?” When he sat beside her on the sofa, she opened her eyes and gazed up at him. Before he could talk himself out of it, he asked, “Who’s Andrew?”

CHAPTER SIX
     
    I N A heartbeat Hailey’s exhaustion vanished. Every muscle in her body went tense, as she stared at Simon in stunned surprise.
    How on earth had he known about Andrew?
    Her flashback, she realized slowly. She must have said something to him during the moments at the side of the road when she’d been gripped in the horror of the past. She’d seen Andrew’s face so clearly.
    His pale, lifeless face. Streaked with blood.
    Quickly she blocked the memory. No, don’t go there. She needed to stay focused on the present.
    But how to respond? Unfortunately, she couldn’t bring herself to lie to Simon. Not after everything he’d done for her. Without his steadying presence, at the scene of the accident and in the emergency department, she knew the nightmares would have sucked her down into the whirling vortex of blackness that had characterized