“Thanks,” Geo said before cutting the connection.
Setting the phone in the cup holder where it normally sat, he turned his attention to driving in the growing traffic. By the time he arrived at the front door of the ranch, he had not come up with any brilliant plans. How could he break down the emotional walls his beautiful Sunflower had built on their drive back into town and get her to admit that they were perfect for each other? He had hoped their night out on the range would bring them closer together.
And it had, until the sun came up. On the drive back to town she had retreated behind a wall of polite, remote coolness as if the last three days had never happened. It was then that lightning struck, and Geo realized that Sunny had taken his heart home with her.
Now he just had to figure out how to get it, and her, back.
Chapter Ten
“Okay, Sunflower, time to wake up. I need to see those pretty blue eyes.”
The gentle, deep voice was familiar, but Sunny was so out of it, she could not put a face on the voice. Fighting the drugs that wanted to pull her back to unconsciousness, she lifted eyelids held down by heavy weights and looked into a face she had not expected to see again. Especially so soon after leaving him behind in Texas.
“There they are,” Geo said as he brushed hair back from her face. “Welcome back, baby girl.”
“Why…you…here?” she managed to get out through a throat that felt like she had swallowed sandpaper.
“Where else would I be when my sweet Sunflower is having surgery? We’ll discuss your not telling me everything about it when you’re feeling a little better. For now, you need to rest and recuperate, so I can take you home with me.”
Sunny frowned, trying to make sense of his presence, and his words, but she was too befuzzled by the drugs that still had a mighty hold on her. Closing her eyes, she relaxed, allowing sleep to carry her off, but not before she sighed. “Love you, Geo.”
She thought she heard him chuckle and brush a kiss on her forehead. “I love you, too, Sunflower.” But it could have been her sleepy, drugged-up imagination.
The next time she was conscious of what was going on around her, the nurses were trying to get her to move from the recovery room bed to a bed in a room. But she was too loopy to cooperate with their instructions.
Before she ended up on the floor between the two beds, strong arms eased under her back and knees and carefully lifted her. Geo’s spicy, sexy cologne wrapped around her, cutting the antiseptic hospital scent, as he carried her a few steps before placing her onto another bed. When he moved to back away she reached up, grabbing his shirt and pulling him close again.
“You smell so good,” she whispered.
A darkly masculine chuckle was his only response. After prying her hand from his shirt, he laced their fingers together then stepped aside so the nurses could get her settled. Once they left, he pulled a chair up and sat down beside the bed.
Sunny tried to stay awake, tried to answer Shey’s questions, tried to keep the dream of Geo actually being beside her alive. But the anesthetics were too strong, and she lapsed back into sleep once more.
It took a full twenty-four hours after the surgery before Sunny opened her eyes and really knew what was going on around her. Looking around the room, she was stunned at a man’s head resting on the bed beside her shoulder. The mussed-up black curly hair looked familiar, but she could not fathom why he was there.
Before she could piece together the short conversations she thought they had had during her drugged-out delirium, the door opened and two nurses entered, followed closely by Shey.
“Good morning, Miz Carlyle,” the older of the two said, sounding much too chipper for this early in the morning.
“Shhh, he’s sleeping,” she admonished, her throat raw and her lower belly sore.
“No, he’s not,” Geo said, lifting his head from the bed.
He looked tired and ruffled, but much too good for Sunny’s peace of mind.
“Miz Carlyle, we need to get your vitals, and then we need to get you up and to the bathroom. While you do that, we’ll change the sheets, and then bring your breakfast,” the nurse who was obviously in charge vibrated with a brisk, almost prickly, energy that made Sunny tired just being in her presence.
By the time she was back into bed with clean linens and a breakfast tray of clear liquids sitting in front of her, all she really wanted to do was go back to sleep. But Geo and Shey were here, and falling asleep would not be the polite thing to do.
Once the nurses left as abruptly as they had arrived, Sunny rolled her head and looked at the man who had remained silent but supportive during their stay. “Why are you here?” Though she was certain she had asked the question before, she had no idea what the answer had been.