Sienna pulled back and looked into Chris’s dark blue eyes. He had blond hair that was beginning to turn gray at the temples. He had wrinkle lines around his eyes and mouth, meaning he probably laughed a lot. His nose was crooked, it had obviously been broken in the past, possibly even in the riot he’d talked about. He still held on to her wrist, as if she were a lifeline, and she supposed she was.
“I’m not leaving you until you’re out of here,” she vowed.
“I’m okay,” he said immediately, but Sienna could tell he wasn’t.
“Of course you are,” she agreed. “Tell me about Tony,” she demanded.
He hesitated, then one side of his mouth quirked upward. “You’re trying to distract me,” he accused.
“Yup,” she admitted without prevarication. “So…Tony?”
She watched Chris force himself to change gears and think about his son rather than his predicament. As he talked about how proud he was of Tony and what he did in the Army, she silently assessed him.
His heart rate was a little elevated, but that was normal under the circumstances. His skin had good color and he wasn’t cold, which was good. He was talking without issue, so he probably didn’t have a collapsed lung. The cut on the side of his head was sluggishly bleeding, but nothing that she was too concerned about. Head wounds typically bled a lot, and if nothing else, the bleeding would help clean it out. He’d need stitches, but those were simple enough to put in. His arms were moving just fine and he had a good grip on her wrist. She couldn’t assess his legs from her position and because the steering wheel was in her way, which concerned her somewhat.
“You’re not listening to anything I’m saying, are you?” Chris asked after a pause.
Sienna’s eyes flew up to his guiltily. “Of course I am.”
He chuckled—and she could only stare at him in shock. When he smiled, his entire face lit up. She loved the sound rumbling up from his chest as well.
Ashamed of herself for feeling even the smallest iota of attraction for the man when he was literally trapped by the tons of steel around them, she tried to control herself.
“How old was I when I found out I was going to be a father?” Chris quizzed.
Sienna grinned cockily at him. “Twenty-one. You liked Tony’s mom, but weren’t sure you wanted to spend the rest of your life with her. But you married her anyway and then your son was born.”
“Okay,” he agreed disgruntledly. “I guess you were listening.”
“I’m a woman,” Sienna said smugly. “We can do more than one thing at a time. How do your legs feel?”
“My feet are tingly,” he answered immediately. Then asked, “Is that bad?”
“I won’t lie. It’s not great, but it’s not terrible either. The fact that you can feel them is awesome.”
“But I’m stuck.”
Not wanting him to get fixated back on that and possibly make his claustrophobia flare again, she said, “I met Randy when I was thirteen and he was seventeen. I didn’t know it wasn’t appropriate then, and even if I did, I wouldn’t’ve cared. I loved him and thought he loved me too. Turns out, he loved having sex…it didn’t matter who he had it with. When I was eighteen, I moved in with him. We thought we were so grown up. When I turned up pregnant, he decided that maybe he didn’t want to be an adult after all.”
“He dumped you? That asshole,” Chris growled. “Miranda and I weren’t the best husband and wife, but we always worked together when it came to Tony.”
Sienna didn’t want to admit how good it made her feel to hear him get pissed off on her behalf. “Yeah, he dumped me. But don’t feel sorry for me or my daughter. I moved back in with my parents and they helped me raise Sarah. They encouraged me to go to our local community college. I had plans to be a nurse, but from the first ridealong I did on an ambulance, I was hooked. I loved how the paramedics swooped in to do what they could to keep the person alive until he or she reached the hospital. It was a huge adrenaline rush. I got my EMT license first, then went on to get certified as a paramedic. I haven’t looked back since.”
“From where I’m sitting, you’re good at what you do,” Chris said with a small smile.
Sienna returned the grin, but didn’t respond verbally. She couldn’t believe she was having as powerful feelings as she was toward this man. It was crazy. But she couldn’t deny that she wouldn’t mind getting to know him better once they went back to Tennessee.
“Thanks,” she said after a moment.
They sat there in the cocoon of the wrecked car, staring intently at each other, and Sienna wondered what Chris was thinking.