Read Online Not Just a Cowboy (Texas Rescue) by Caro Carson - Free Book Online Page A

being wheeled into a helicopter? She felt like an awful person for half hoping so.
    She stopped an exhausted-looking female firefighter. “Have you seen the Austin truck?” she asked, trying to control her panting.
    The woman, probably too tired to talk, as well, stuck her thumb over her shoulder and kept walking with her crew. Patricia looked, but didn’t see another truck, just the stretcher being loaded onto the helicopter. Did the woman mean someone from Austin was on the stretcher? Patricia stood helplessly, staring at the little hum of activity around the distant helicopter. In mere minutes, the nurses in scrubs ducked as they ran with the empty gurney back toward the ER from under the helicopter’s downdraft.
    His arms must have been so tired....
    She was responsible. If the injured firefighter was Zach or Murphy, she was to blame, as well. But Luke—if it was her fault Luke had been hurt—her mind kept focusing on Luke.
    Stop it. This was useless conjecture. She needed to find out the patient’s name, now. Determined, she spun toward the ER’s door, and crashed right into a man. A very solid man in a black T-shirt.
    “Luke!”
    He steadied her with a hand on each of her upper arms. One of his cheeks was black with soot, his hair was a crazy mess and he reeked of smoke.
    “Oh, it’s not you,” she sighed, then took in a gulp of air.
    Even tired and dirty, he looked a little amused. “Actually, this is me.”
    The helicopter was taking off behind her. She gestured in its general vicinity and raised her voice a bit. “I mean, that’s not you. I thought, you know, with your arms being tired and all...I thought...”
    He said nothing at all, but stood there with a ghost of a grin on his face, watching her intently. Even in the glow of the ER’s artificial light, she could see how blue his eyes were.
    “They said a fireman fell off a ladder,” she explained. “His arms must have been tired, and I thought...”
    Realizing it still could be an Austin crew member on that flight, she glanced up at the rapidly receding helicopter. “That’s not one of your friends?”
    “No. We’re all present and accounted for.”
    Luke was here. He was fine. The wave of relief was a palpable thing, as physically painful as the worry had been. She was unprepared for it and the uneven emotions crashing inside her.
    She shook one arm free of him and poked him in the chest. “That could’ve been you. You realize that, don’t you? You shouldn’t have let me boss you around. You shouldn’t have done all that work for me today. I mean, sledgehammers are not easy—”
    “Patricia.” He gave her arms a friendly squeeze as he chuckled.
    Her poke became a fist. She gave him one good thump on his uninjured, healthy chest. “You can’t let someone wear you out like that. It’s dangerous. I shouldn’t have made you do it.”
    He caught her fist to his chest and held it there, pressing her hand flat against his cotton T-shirt and the muscle underneath. “You didn’t make me. You can say Chief Rouhotas made me, if it makes you feel better. And that guy in the helicopter got hurt because his ladder collapsed, not because his arms were tired. It was their mistake, a bad one. They didn’t secure their ladder properly. I’m okay.”
    “You’re okay this time.” The relief was coursing through her, an adrenaline rush she didn’t welcome. “But let me tell you something. I do not ever want to do this again. It is sickening and awful. I don’t even like you anymore, if I ever did.”
    “I can tell.” He was smiling openly at her now.
    “I’m serious.” She jerked her hand out from under his and took a step back. “But I saved you some dinner. There’s mashed potatoes in the mess tent for you. Go eat.”
    “So we’re on for dinner after all?”
    “I would never, ever date a fireman. Especially not you.”
    “Patricia, come here.” He tugged her with him out of the light, around the side of the tent. In the