Page 13

Fiona ran her fingers over his arm and felt him stir again. “Oh, oh, oh, he’s coming to.”

Emma frowned. “You said he was dead.”

“Don’t argue with me! He groaned and his hand moved. Help me get him into your car.”

“But if he has injuries, couldn’t we make them worse?”

Fiona took his hand. “He’s ice cold. But you’re right. We shouldn’t move him.” She looked up at Emma. “What am I saying? We can’t stay here all night, waiting for someone to come along. Help me get him into your car.”

The dead guy groaned.

Both she and Emma gasped.

“Are you all right? Where do you hurt? Can you hear me?” Fiona asked.

The guy’s eyes popped open, pretty green eyes. They seemed to draw Fiona into their bottomless depth. She blinked as he stared at her, then felt his hold over her withdraw as he looked up at Emma.

“She hit you,” Fiona said, quickly. Though she hadn’t meant to sound like a five-year-old who wanted a parent to know she hadn’t done the bad deed.

Emma rolled her eyes and folded her arms.

A slight smile curved the guy’s lips upward at the corners when he looked back at Fiona.

Was he delirious? In shock? What was there to smile about? He was mostly dead only seconds before. Even if the car didn’t break any of his bones, he would surely be in lots of pain, bruises, internal injuries even, maybe.

“I’m hungry. Do you want to go to the Burger Joint?” he asked.

His dark, deep voice made Fiona think of Tux at the dance. She’d never seen a guy in a tux, accept at the prom in Dallas last year. And now two in one night? Still, she reasoned the guy had to be half out of it. Whoever heard of a guy getting hit by a car, dying, and then wanting a burger?

“We have to get you to a hospital,” Fiona said, taking his hand to help him up.

“Do we have to?” Emma squeaked. “I mean, you heard him. He has got to be fine if he’s hungry.”

“Emma, he was dead…I mean, unconscious.” Fiona didn’t want to make him feel worse than he had to be feeling about it already. “That means we need to take him to the hospital and get him checked out. He’s probably in shock. If we feed him, no telling what might happen. What if he has internal injuries? The food could go someplace it shouldn’t.”

“I feel perfectly fine,” he said, and allowed Fiona to help him up. “Really, I haven’t eaten in a while. Would you mind joining me at the Burger Joint? I hate eating alone.”

“See?” Emma said, tilting her chin up. Then she frowned. “Mom said I couldn’t let anyone ride in the car except for you, Fiona.”

“She probably said you couldn’t drive the car until you got your license either.”

Emma frowned. “Alright. That was if I was driving. If you’re driving, it could be okay.”

Fiona shook her head, but she still held onto his hand. If he was alright, why was he so terribly pale?

“Please?” the guy said.

Fiona took the keys from Emma. “Alright, but I think that you eating anything before a hospital checks you out is a horrible idea. Don’t blame me if you die on us again.”

“In your capable hands, I’m sure you would bring me right back to life again.” He smiled at her. “My name is Ruric, by the way.”

She opened the back door for him. “I’m Fiona, and this is Emma. You probably ought to lie down in the backseat until we reach town.”

He moved to the passenger’s front door. “If you don’t mind. I might get queasy sitting in the back.”

Emma shook her head. “Whatever.”

Anything should have suited Emma as long as Fiona didn’t take Ruric to the hospital. Still, Fiona worried he wasn’t quite all right.