Cheek against Colin’s strong chest, she breathed in the knowledge, the certain wryness in his voice, and steadied a little. Enough to lean back and smile crookedly at him.
“Have you gotten over despising him?”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “We’ve been coming to an understanding.”
Behind Cait, Nell chuckled. “Haven’t you noticed that he trusted Noah to take care of you?”
She had. She’d also noticed how often the two men had worked in concert.
She half turned to include her sister-in-law. “He asked me to marry him.” She bit her lip. “Actually, he didn’t ask. He told George Miller we were getting married. I thought he said it because that was part of the protect-Cait plan.”
Now Nell gave her a little hug. “From what I’ve heard about Noah Chandler, that’s further than he’d go for any other woman in the world. He’s not known for being softhearted.”
“He should be,” Cait heard herself say. “He didn’t need to make Angel Butte better for himself. He’s already successful. He was thinking about everyone else.”
Colin gave another harrumph that might have been skeptical but might not. Nell laughed again.
A lean, dark man filled the doorway to the hall. Alec Raynor, who Cait hadn’t met until two hours ago. “Still no word?” he asked.
She shook her head.
She wouldn’t have guessed he could be kind, either, but would have been wrong. His eyes rested on her. “Noah’s tougher than any of us. He’ll pull through.”
Her smile wobbled. “Thank you.”
He nodded and retreated. Either he was trying to give them privacy or was incapable of doing nothing but sitting, she couldn’t decide. So far as she could tell, he’d spent most of the past two hours pacing the hospital’s wide corridors. A few times, Colin had left Cait holding Nell’s hand and walked with the police chief. She’d seen them pass, talking quietly. Once they came back with soft drinks for her and Nell.
The double doors opened, but for an orderly to push an elderly man in a wheelchair out.
Cait sank back down into the same chair, the one that gave her the best view of those doors. Once again, Nell took her hand, and Cait held on to it, a lifeline.
“What if—”
Nell’s grip tightened. “Don’t think it.”
She could barely squeeze the words out. “He looked really bad.”
Nell didn’t say anything. Neither did Cait.
Please.
Colin rejoined them and took his seat on her other side. He laid his arm over her shoulders, his fingertips touching Nell’s upper arm so that all three of them were linked.
Please.
A nurse came out through the doors, then returned a while later. Someone on a gurney was wheeled in, his face hidden by an oxygen mask. It had to be another half hour before a man in green scrubs pushed his way through, his surgical mask pulled down around his throat. His gaze went right to them.
Cait wasn’t sure she could have stood if Colin hadn’t hoisted her to her feet.
Or spoken.
Please, God, please.
He nodded. “Captain McAllister. I gather Mayor Chandler has no family here?”
“My sister, Cait, here is the closest. They’re engaged,” Colin said.
“Ah.” He smiled. “He’s in recovery and doing well. He’s lost his spleen and we had to do a fair amount of repair work in there, but I see no reason not to anticipate a complete recovery.”
He went on to detail some of that “repair work.” There was something about a “bleed” and a cracked rib. Cait couldn’t take it in. A complete recovery. That’s what he’d said, wasn’t it?
Oh, thank God. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Her knees were suddenly so weak, she dropped back into the chair. To her shock, a sob ripped through her. She buried her face in her hands and began to weep helplessly.
Nell sat down and held her while Colin and the doctor talked quietly for another minute. Somehow Cait knew that Alec Raynor had stepped in, and probably retreated in alarm, but Colin went after him.
Cait kept crying. Cried like she hadn’t in years. No, ever.
He had been willing to die for her but somehow survived.
She cried harder.