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“Me.” She pointed to her chest. “I was talking to me, but I didn’t mean to do it out loud. Sorry.”

He carried her up the back steps. What was up with her face? “When did you get this rash? Are you sure you’re feelin’ all right, babygirl?” He pressed his cheek against her forehead. She was so hot it damn near fried his skin. “Shit. You’re burning up, gypsy. Why in the hell aren’t you in bed?”

“Geez! At least buy me a drink first.” She snorted out a laugh at her joke and paid for it with a sharp pain. He didn’t crack a smile. Time for a change of subject. “Why do you call me a gypsy?”

“I’ll tell you when you aren’t drunk.”

She gasped and immediately wished she hadn’t. Was there truly nothing she could do without hurting her throat? Sheesh!

He opened the back door and carried her in a bridal style over the threshold. “I do,” she said and giggled again with a hard wince at the end.

“You do what?” Chance asked. “Never mind, stop talkin’.”

Like that was the first time anyone had told her that.

She felt awful. It must be from landing backward in the snow. She must be shivering because the melting snow soaked her clothes. “Am I wet? I don’t think I’m wet, am I?” Another sharp pain in her throat made her wish she had listened to him. Truth be told, she was too giddy to care.

He groaned. “Please, for the love of all that’s holy, stop talking.”

The world spun, and her heart thumped like a bongo drum in her chest.

She needed to lie down, but in her current state, she decided a firm, muscular body would work just as well. Resting her head against Chance’s chest, she tried to breathe as the world faded to black.

CHAPTER 6

Chance couldn’t find a thermometer. Why the hell weren’t the hunting cabins stocked with thermometers? Her temperature had to be dangerously high for her to pass out like that. He’d checked her breath but detected no alcohol. He needed to get her back to the lodge.

How had he not known she was here?

After spending every spare second the past week trying to track her down, you would have thought he would check in what was practically his own fuckin’ backyard. Instead, he’d called every hotel and shelter within fifty miles. No one had seen her, of course. Because she’d been hiding in a hunting cabin on the back side of his own damn ranch.

If it hadn’t been for Grant calling him earlier that day, saying he thought there might be a squatter holed up, they might not have found her until it was too late. He kicked himself for waiting the four hours he had before driving to check it out.

She could have died. When she passed out in his arms, he’d damn near had a heart attack. He put her on the couch to make sure she was breathing and get a cold rag to put on her forehead.Once he realized how high her fever was, he knew he would need help.

Pulling out his phone, he made two calls. The first was to his younger brother, Trace. Trace picked up on the third ring.

“You got me. What’s going on? Find an animal down?”

“No, I found a woman in the cabin at the back of the north pasture. She’s burnin’ up with a fever. I’m headed to the lodge, and I need you to meet me there.”

After a short pause, Trace said, “You do remember I’m a veterinarian and not a medical doctor, right? How sick is this woman?”

“Sick enough that I’m willing to call a veterinarian who can look after her until Brad gets there. I’ll be at the lodge in ten minutes.”

He cut the call and then called thepeople doctor, Brad Weatherby. He’d grown up with Brad, and he made sure his friend had a freezer full of bison meat for just such emergencies.

Brad took his call. “I’m on my way, but I’m on the other side of the county. Take her vitals and call me back. It’ll take me at least thirty minutes to get there. Probably more like forty-five.”

By the time Chance made it back to the lodge, Trace was waiting for them. “Is this the photographer from the Friendsgiving?” he asked as he helped Chance get Joy to the couch. “Get her out of her coat. Why are her clothes wet?”

“Yes, it’s the photographer. And you don’t want to know how her clothes got wet.” The memory of her sliding off the roof would haunt him forever. She could have been killed. When he’d seen her up there, he’d almost lost his mind.

She must have climbed the tree next to the cabin, though how she reached any of the branches he didn’t want to know. As soon as she was better, he was cutting the damn thing down.

Trace glanced at him before turning his attention back to Joy. “Okay. Where did you find her?”

“In the north cabin. I’ll fill you in on the details later. She’s got a fever, and I need you to try to figure out why.”