The relief that crossed his face was so stark she felt it like a physical caress. “There was an explosion and you were close. You need to stay still. The shockwaves from an explosion can travel through the body at a rapid speed—including through the brain. It can actually move the brain in the skull. You need to stay where you are.” He spoke so clinically, but the note of worry in his voice was impossible to ignore.
“Jeez, Aaron. That’s so gross. Are you trying to freak me out more?” Why on earth would he tell her all this? She shoved his hands away and sat up. Pricks of pain stabbed her palms as she pushed against the sidewalk. Wincing, she saw the blanket of glass shards littering the sidewalk around them.
Cursing under his breath, he gently took one of her palms and started pulling the fragments from her skin. “Your car just exploded in a fiery ball. I think that should freak you out more than anything. You could have a concussion, and we need to keep you still until help gets here.” Sharp fear punctuated each word. “Not that I like just being a sitting duck,” he muttered, looking around and waving off anyone who tried to get too close to her.
“Your bedside manner sucks.” She tried not to flinch as he pulled out the glass pieces.
Maybe it was the mention of the word bed but his dark gaze flicked to hers and momentarily did that heated thing again before he returned to his task. Or more likely it was just her imagination.
“How do you know that stuff about concussions and explosions anyway?”
He paused and glanced up at the sound of an approaching ambulance. Oh, thank God, help was on the way. “I was in the Corps.”
Oh right, she knew that. “I thought the Marines had corpsmen from the Navy as their medical people.” She knew she was rambling but didn’t care. She was feeling shaky and needed to talk.
“How do you know that?” Job complete, he let go of her hand. Was it just her imagination or did he linger a moment before letting go?
“My dad was in the Navy.” Grimacing, she twisted back and forth to see if she had full range of movement. Nothing seemed to be broken. Of course, now she was freaked out about what he’d said. She kept envisioning her brain moving around in her skull like Jell-O, which didn’t help her nausea.
“Tell me about your dad.” His voice was utterly calm as he held up a hand to a concerned-looking jogger about twenty feet away, ordering the guy to move back in a ridiculously authoritative voice.
She was grateful he was keeping people at bay. He seemed almost vigilant about it, not letting anyone near—probably because he was worried that whoever had set that bomb might be around. Oh God. She didn’t even want to think about that right now. She cleared her throat. “Why?”
“Just talk to me. I don’t know anything about your past and I’m curious.”
“You’ve never been curious before.”
“I need to keep you talking in case you do have a concussion.”
The sirens were growing louder now. “I should have tried getting blown up months ago if that’s what it takes to get you to be nice to me.”
“I’m nice.” He actually sounded offended.
She snorted then winced at the rush of pain that shuddered through the base of her skull. “Holy balls, my head hurts.”
“God, your mouth.” The way he said it almost sounded like a groan.
“I think you like my mouth.” The instant the words were out she wished she could reel them back in. Oh yeah, clearly she had a concussion. Or freaking brain damage.
To her surprise, his lips pulled up in the first honest to God smile she’d ever seen from him. It completely transformed his constantly gruff expression into something that should be considered illegal. “You wouldn’t be wrong about that,” he murmured.
Wait…what? She swore her heart actually stuttered in her chest. Before she could even think of a half-decent response, he stood from his crouching position and started shouting at someone. Tegan wanted to cover her ears.
Seconds later two uniformed paramedics hustled Aaron out of the way. She wanted to ask him to stay, but knew that was stupid. They weren’t friends and even though he made her feel safe, she wasn’t going to put herself out there like that. Crouching in front of her, a female paramedic introduced herself and started taking Tegan’s vitals, all while asking her rapid-fire questions. While Tegan answered, the two paramedics helped her onto a stretcher.
She was finally able to take in the complete, horrific landscape. On her side of the street, the windows of Addie’s shop, a hardware store, and the children’s boutique clothing store had all been blown out. Tegan’s car was a smoldering mass of metal, shattered glass, and twisted plastic. The vehicles in front and behind it had also been affected by the blast, all the glass blown out and now littering the sidewalk and street. It looked like a war zone.
One of her side-view mirrors lay on the sidewalk, flames flickering along the rounded top of it. Bystanders had been partitioned off across the street as the police worked to create a barricade around the blast site.
Panic punched out to all her nerve endings. “Oh God, is anyone else hurt?”