Page 11 of May I Kiss the Bride
“Apology accepted, sir.”
“Rey.”
She blinked. “Rey.”
“That’s better.” He winked, and he had no idea how in high heaven he thought he could wink at her. Too late to take it back now. “Now, if you don’t mind, I need to make sure all those men out there are on their way outside with their purchases.Don’t need the womenfolk harassed. This here is a business establishment.”
Viola Delany’s hand pressed against his chest. If he wasn’t well and stuck before, now he truly was. “You’re not moving an inch until the doctor comes and looks you over.”
This was a voice he hadn’t heard before. A commanding voice with plenty of authority. A voice that maybe a mother would use on a child, or a woman would use on a husband.
“I didn’t know you had a bossy side, Viola.”
Her brows lifted a fraction. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Rey.”
Was it possible to stare at a woman too long? What would the poets have to say about that?
“Now, let me see that bandage of yours,” Viola continued in her bossy voice. “Unless you have a hunchback on the side of your torso, it seems you have enough bandaging to outfit the Red Cross for a month. You only got shot once, right?”
Rey grinned. “Right.”
“And the scar on the side of your face? Is that from another fight with train robbers?”
He touched the scar on his face. “Nothing so impressive. Fell off a horse.”
“Ah.” When Viola took it upon herself to unbutton his shirt, he wasn’t sure if perhaps he had fainted and was now dreaming a dream he probably shouldn’t be dreaming.
Yet this was no dream, although it might be a slice of heaven. Her warm, delicate fingers worked deftly, only brushing against his skin once or twice.
“Ah.” Viola’s gray eyes gave nothing away, unless he counted the purse of her lips. “Just as I thought. No wonder you almost fainted. Who bandaged you up?”
“Doc Smithson.”
“Whoever Smithson is, there’s no need to be a zealot about medical care and bring a man close to fainting.” She began to pick at the edge of the bandaging tape. “I think he’s rearranged your ribs in the process.”
Rey sucked in a breath as Viola peeled off one edge of the bandaging. It was both painful and relieving. The tightness loosened but left behind the burn of sore skin atop of deep bruising.
“Sorry, I’ll be quick,” Viola murmured.
He sucked in another breath and focused on her face, her hair, her eyelashes. Anything but the pain of the bandage tape being ripped off his skin. “Tell me,” he rasped. “Where’d you learn to administer medical care? You don’t seem to care for blood.”
Her gaze flicked to his, then back to her task. “Volunteered at the Red Cross a few times. Never treated a real patient though. Mostly cut bandage strips and rolled them up.”
She tugged a particularly tight section, and he winced, then locked down his jaw to keep from groaning.
“There.” She wadded up the discarded bandaging and set it aside. “Now, let’s take a look.”
He didn’t know what he expected, but it wasn’t her prodding the area around his stitches. Her touch was light, though, and although there was a bit of an ache, he didn’t mind her soft fingers on his skin.
“The swelling is down,” Viola pronounced. “And the bruising is changing color. All good signs.” Her eyes lifted to his face. “You’ll live, Sheriff Rey.”
He shouldn’t laugh because truthfully, it hurt, but he laughed anyway. “You did a lot more than cut bandage strips and roll them up. Are you a secret nurse-in-training? You fainted when I walked into the train car, yet you have no qualms now?”
When her cheeks bloomed pink, he knew he’d struck a chord somewhere, but he wasn’t sure what it was.
“I guess I’m not in shock over your potential death anymore.” She moved her hands to her lap as if something on his torso had burned her. “Besides, my father would never let me become a nurse. I’ve just read a few books about medicine and medical care, that’s all.”
Her words might be nonchalant, modest, even, but Rey sensed that behind this woman’s prim demeanor was a dream of something beyond what her life was in San Francisco.
