In a Heartbeat Read Online Free PDF

mutt,” she answered, trying to keep her lips clear of the advancing dog nose.
    “Well, that mutt scared the hell out of me.” Strong fingers gingerly touched her ankle. She stiffened in reflex. “It’s pretty swollen,” he said.
    “Could be broken, or maybe a bad sprain. Can you wiggle your toes?”
    She complied, but hissed as pain radiated though her ankle.
    “I think I’d better take you to have this checked.” He laid the injured foot back down. “The problem is I’m new in town. You’ll have to tell me where to take you.”
    The voice clicked. She rolled to her back and pushed up on her elbows, ignoring the throbbing pain. The friendly gray eyes, the dimple in the right cheek. She gasped.
    “Heavens no, not you!” Her head dropped back onto his jacket. “Tell me this isn’t happening.”
    “Angela?” The name stumbled out. Recognition drained the warmth from his smile. “What are you doing here?”
    “What do you think?” She pushed Oreo away from doing a happy dance on her chest. “I should ask what you’re doing here. You shouldn’t even know this place exists.”
    “Fishing.” He stood and walked toward the water’s edge. “At least I was until your dog jumped me.” Bending, he picked up the remnants of a fishing pole from the bank.
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    In a Heartbeat
    “In October?” she asked, bewildered.
    “It helps me think,” he snarled, examining the broken halves of his pole. Slapping the two skinny sticks against his open palm, he marched back to her. “Look, is someone paying you to make my life miserable, or am I just lucky where you’re concerned?”
    Angela rolled to her knees, wincing from the pain in her ankle. “If you’ll just hand me Oreo’s leash, I think it flew out of my hand over there.” She pointed with her chin. “We’ll leave you to think in peace.”
    “I doubt that,” he muttered, stooping to collect the leash. “How are you going to walk with your ankle swollen?”
    She retrieved her boot from the ground and pushed herself up, balancing awkwardly on her left foot. “Perhaps you could find me a stout stick?” she asked hopefully.
    He mumbled something she couldn’t quite catch, but the damning tilt of his brows translated for her. Tossing his broken pole under a tree, he marched toward her. Her breath caught, her pulse pounding in time to the throbbing of her ankle.
    “Don’t you think you’ve done enough damage?” With alarming ease, he swooped her off the ground and into his arms. “You need a stick to finish me off?”
    “I didn’t mean—” She wasn’t sure what to do with her hands. At first they fluttered up to his shoulders by instinct, her boot almost whacking him in the head in the process. She opted to keep very still.
    He continued down the bank, the dog trotting merrily behind. “I said I’d take you someplace to have that ankle checked and I meant it.”
    “But we’re going the wrong way,” she protested. “My car is in the lot on the other side of the woods.”
    “My car is closer. You can have someone come back later to get your car.”
    “I can’t.” She pushed away from him slightly to make her point. “My purse is in the car. My medicine—”
    “You’re sick?” He stopped and studied her face. “You don’t look sick.”

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    “It’s personal.” She buried her head back in his shoulder so he couldn’t see her face. “I have to keep my medicine with me. It’s important.”
    “All right. We’ll drive over to your car and collect your purse and your medicine before going to have that ankle x-rayed. Any more objections?”
    She shook her head, relieved to see a car parked nearby. Perhaps with a little distance between them, she could regain some semblance of control.

    * * *

    Severe sprain, the doctor said. Keep it elevated, put ice on the swelling, and don’t walk on it for at least 24 hours. On Monday, after the swelling went down, she was