Debbie Macomber - Orchard Valley Brides: Nora, Lone Star Lovin

To Dorothy Tharp,
in appreciation for her many talents

T his cowboy was too young to die!

Norah Bloomfield stared down at the unconscious face of the man in Orchard Valley Hospitals emergency room. He was suffering from shock, internal injuries and a compound fracture of the right fibula. Yet he was probably the luckiest man shed ever known. Hed survived.

The team of doctors worked vigorously over him, doing everything possible to keep him alive. Although she was busy performing her own role in this drama, Norah was curious. It wasnt every day a man literally fell out of the sky into their backyard. Whoever he was, hed been involved in a plane accident. From what she heard when theyd rushed him in, hed made a gallant effort to land the single-engine Cessna in a wheatfield, but the planes wingtip had caught the ground, catapulting it into a series of cartwheels. That hed managed to crawl out of the wreckage was a miracle all its own.

She tightened the blood-pressure cuff around his arm and called out the latest reading. Dr. Adamson, the surgeon in attendance, briskly instructed her to administer a shot.

Their patient was young, in his early thirties. And handsome in a rugged sort of way. Dark hair, chiseled jaw, stubborn as a mule from the looks of him. His clothes, at least what was left of them, told her he was probably a cowboy. She suspected he rode in the rodeo circuitsuccessfully, too, if he was flying his own plane.

She glanced down at his left hand. He wasnt wearing a wedding ring and that eased her mind somewhat. Norah hated the thought of a young wife pacing the floor, anxiously waiting his arrival home. Of course, that didnt mean he wasnt married. A lot of men didnt wear wedding rings, particularly if they worked with their hands. Too dangerous.

His leg was badly broken, and once he was stabilized, hed be sent into surgery. She didnt have a lot of experience with compound fractures, but her guess was that hed need to be in traction for the next few weeks. A break as complex as this would take months, possibly years, to heal properly.

Norah wasnt scheduled to work tonight, but had been called in unexpectedly. She shouldve been home, had planned to be home, preparing for her oldest sister Valeries wedding. Half of Orchard Valley would be in attendanceit was widely considered the event of the year. And five weeks after that, her second sister, Steffie, would be marrying Charles Tomaselli, in a much less formal ceremony.

There was definitely something in the air this summer, Norah mused, with both her sisters planning to get married.

Love was what floated in the air, but it had apparently evaded Norah. There wasnt a single man in Orchard Valley who stirred her heart. Not one.