Christmas Home (The Coming Home #6)

10. Clyde

ten

Clyde

T he week went by fast, faster than I’d anticipated. I got my former employer’s final paycheck in the mail and only had a brief pang of worry that my ex might find me and haul my ass back to Georgia. Then I got too busy to even think about it.

I honestly don’t know what got into me. I never put down roots in a new town. I usually don’t stay in one place long enough. But, in a moment of weakness, I set up a checking account.

Banking, really? Me? I chalked it up to my brain not being quite right. Besides, if my money wasn’t sitting around, Lewellen, who still had a key to the room, couldn’t steal it when I was at work. And the heifer would. She totally would.

The silver fox slipped up on me almost daily, and, each time, my heart began beating a mile a minute before I could remind the treacherous thing that men and I didn’t mix. Luckily, he’d stopped looking my way, and even the few times he showed up when I was bussing tables, he didn’t ask questions or leer at me.

Although, I’ll admit I liked the idea of him leering. Well, no, that’d be too much. Looking my way, though. Dang it, there I went again. I was a weak man. For the hundredth time this week alone, I asked myself why I was so bad at ignoring handsome men.

I finally shrugged it off as an internal flaw or something. I had Monday and Tuesday off and had no idea what I would do with myself. Honestly, I could use a day outdoors getting some fresh air. I didn’t mind hanging around the motel, so long as I kept to my room. Too many unsavory folks lurked around the place, especially in the evenings. More than once, the sheriff had shown up and hauled someone off. I needed to stay off her radar if at all possible.

I laughed at that. Staying off anyone’s radar in this tiny town was impossible. Already, I’d met the sheriff and her deputies, and truth be known, I liked them. They were funny and got along with everyone. Still, I had impending legal troubles south of here, so it’d be best if she only saw me as the guy that worked at the Crawford City Café and not the guy living among what I assumed were meth heads at the Daylight Motel.

I slept in on Monday and ignored the jibes from my coworkers when I came into the café on my day off to eat. The food was too good to pass up, and I was getting used to a big breakfast early in the mornings.

Trails wound into the woods from the motel, and I hadn’t been hiking in years. I always did like exploring, though, and having been at the motel for over a week, I knew none of the regulars ever went back there. The only reason the trails were there was because a family of deer showed up in the evenings around dusk.

So, after breakfast, I dashed over to the drugstore where Mrs. Cole’s husband worked, found some bug spray that hopefully might keep the ticks at bay, and then went for a walk.

The smell and quiet of the woods hit me the moment I slipped through the undergrowth. Damn, I had forgotten how healing this kind of place was for me. The trails were open and clear, which I was thankful for.

I was reticent to walk in heavy underbrush, though, knowing copperheads liked this terrain, especially with all the mice the downtown buildings must attract.

I’d only gone a short distance when I heard someone shout, “Shit!” and then yelled, “Ouch!”

He said a lot more, but even I didn’t want to acknowledge when someone used the Lord’s name in vain. I could do without any bad luck brought my way.

“You okay?” I asked, then immediately regretted saying it, thinking I might’ve accidentally run up on one of the meth heads doing a backwoods deal.

“Hey, over here!” I heard, and the educated accent eased my concerns about running into a thug.

I pushed my way down the path that wound along the side of a gully and into the ravine. I’d only gone a few feet when I spotted my silver fox—yeah, like he was mine—sitting on the ground.

“Hey, you okay?” I asked when I saw him holding his ankle.

He shook his head. “No, I tripped trying to step over that fallen log. I think I sprained my ankle.”

“Here, let me help you up. See if you can put weight on it.”

Too many years caring for my big-ass family caused me to lean toward nurturing rather than concern for myself, so I didn’t hesitate to kneel next to the man and help him up.

When he put weight on the ankle, he sucked in air. “It hurts, but I don’t think it’s broken.”

“How can you tell?” I asked.

He chuckled. “Let’s just call it hopeful thinking.”

I smiled. “Well, best we get you to the doctor. Can you lean on me while I lead you out?” I asked.

He nodded, and we slowly made our way out of the woods and into the light of day.

Fortunately, we emerged on the backside of the town, where two of the café’s regulars, Dr. Gib and Dr. Ash, ran a medical clinic. We weren’t more than a block from there.

My injured silver fox didn’t complain when he saw where I was taking him, thank goodness, because I didn’t have any more minutes left on my phone to call anyone, and he hadn’t pulled his out. That was a bit weird since I’d have thought he’d call someone right away.

Before I could think about that, I had him sitting in the waiting room, filled to the brim with crazy kids running around and a couple of old folks coughing up a lung.

I grabbed one of the face masks they had set out for patients, determined not to get sick when I’d just started working, then explained to the lady behind the desk that I’d found the guy, who was currently bent over in pain, after he fell in the woods.

“Dr. Ash,” the woman hollered toward the back, “we’ve got an emergency.”

I’d seen Dr. Ash quite a few times while working at the café, and he’d introduced himself once when he and Dr. Gib had come for lunch. So, I felt comfortable enough to explain what’d happened.

I looked around self-consciously as the folks in the lobby fell silent when I relayed everything to the doctor. I hated that I’d shared the man’s private business in public, but hell, with the pain he was clearly in, he needed medical attention.

“Okay, thank you,” Dr. Ash said, and with my help, we took the man to an exam room.

“I don’t got no more minutes on my phone,” I said as I was leaving, “but if anyone needs me, I’m over at the Daylight Motel.”

“No, wait, you’re leaving?” the man asked.

I stood in the doorway, not sure what to say. “Um, yeah, do you need me to stay?”

He nodded and then sucked in a breath as Dr. Ash lifted his foot onto the exam table.

“Oh, okay,” I said and went to his side. “Don’t you have someone you can call? That man—”

I stopped. Maybe he was up to something in the woods that he didn’t want his man to know about. It was none of my business anyway. He looked like he was about to respond when Dr. Ash pulled off the guy’s shoe, and I saw his face contort with pain.

“Easy does it,” I said and reached over to pat the guy’s shoulder.

When the sock came off, I noticed scars and wondered what had caused them, but quickly pushed that out of my head, knowing that was none of my business either. I stood next to him as the doctor examined his foot and said he needed X-rays, which was no surprise. I’d broken a lot of bones growing up, playing hard and running wild across the fields behind my granny’s place.

I still doubted such a short fall would break his ankle. Hell, I’d had worse falls at work this week and had a couple of bruises to show for it. But I figured he might’ve managed to twist the ankle.

Once the doctor left to get someone to take the X-rays, I took that as my cue to leave. “I-I’ll leave my number at the desk, but I should probably go.”

The man didn’t try to stop me this time. “Thank you for your assistance today,” he said. “I’m Ruther. You’re Clyde, right?”

I smiled and nodded. I didn’t like giving my name to strangers. I’d spent enough years on the road to know how easy it was to be vulnerable. It was too late, though. I’d already told him when I’d run into him the day before. At least now I could put a name to his face as well.

I hesitated and almost went back to shake his hand or something, and felt a magnetic pull toward him when the look of longing swept through his handsome features again. I knew if I let myself, I’d buckle under my own attraction. “If the doctor needs me for anything,” I said, intentionally making sure I didn’t say if he needed me, “he can find me at the motel.”

I left without looking back. I couldn’t get caught up with this guy. I just couldn’t. No matter how much I wanted to ignore the warning bells in my head.