“Now lean on me, and we’ll go back to the sofa,” Cody said. “When you’re settled, I’ll put your socks on your feet.”

“Thank you.” Stevie stood up and the room did a couple of spins before it finally settled. “How can I be so lucid and yet dizzy?”

“Concussions seem to have a mind of their own,” Cody said as he slipped his arm around her waist and helped her back to the sofa. Her body had warmed up, but his hand still felt hot enough to leave a print on her back. No, sir, the way her heart threw in that extra beat and her pulse raced told Stevie that what she was feeling had nothing to do with the concussion.

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got until you lose it. That was just one example of Pearl’s words of wisdom that came to Cody’s mind as he helped settle Stevie on the sofa.

“I’m sorry to be such a bother,” Stevie said. “I hate having to depend on anyone for anything.”

“You’re not a bother.” Cody shook his head. “I should have come looking for you the first time you didn’t answer your phone. I understand about not liking to be dependent, but sometimes you’ve got to let your friends help you.”

“What are you talking about?” Stevie frowned. “I’m glad you came to find me. It would have been a long walk back when I came to, and who knows, as cold as I was, I could have frozen to death.”

“It’s just that you…” he started. “Do I smother you?” he asked.

“No. What brought all this on anyway?” she asked.

Cody raked a hand through his hair. He wasn’t about to throw his brother under the bus, or the tractor as they said on the ranch, so he chose his words carefully. “I’ve learned that when a woman gets cranky, it’s time to let her have a little space. You seemed to need to get away from everyone when you went out on the four-wheeler, so I waited to check on you. That’s all.”

“I. Am. Not. Cranky,” she said through clenched teeth.

Cody bit back a chuckle. “Your words say one thing. Your tone and body language says something else altogether. What was your first thought when you drove out toward the pasture?”

She set her mouth in a firm line and turned her face away from him. “Freedom,” she finally answered.

“Been there. Done that,” Cody said. “In the villages where I worked, I seldom got a free minute to myself. It was too dangerous to walk more than a little way from the hospital, and even then, there were always people around wanting to talk to me.”

“I don’t mean to be unappreciative.” Stevie’s tone changed.

“I know,” Cody assured her.