It was the same voice he remembered from years ago. ‘You are walking too fast, Ryan Henry. Wait for me!’

And he always had.

‘You want to have me arrested?’ Ryan’s stern face quirked into a smile. ‘Hey, Abbey, I’m a doctor and I might just be useful here. Let me examine you before you have me hauled away in handcuffs.’

‘I think…’ Abbey cautiously raised her head a little and winced in distress as Ryan helped her into a sitting position. There was still pain in her voice. ‘I think there’s gravel stuck in my cheek.’

‘There is.’ Ryan looked at her face and he hardly saw the gravel rash. Abbey had had the promise of beauty when she was eleven. The promise had been fulfilled, and more. ‘It’s not too bad, though. It’ll scrub out and shouldn’t scar. What else hurts, Abbey?’

‘My leg. Yikes, my leg…’ Abbey grimaced. Ryan’s arm was around her shoulders now and she found herself putting her face against the soft linen of his shirt. Finding comfort in the solidness of him.

As she’d found comfort in his company all those years ago.

She peered out from the folds of his shirt, along the line of her leg. ‘Ryan, it’s dislocated,’ she whispered. ‘Just look. The patella’s way out of line.’

‘The patella’s way out of line… ’

That wasn’t what a non-medical person would say. They’d have said the leg was broken or that it looked funny, with the kneecap sitting out of line with the rest of the leg.

Had Abbey done nursing, then? Ryan wondered briefly. The Abbey he remembered would have made a good nurse. Cheerful and bouncy and never one to let life’s knocks get her down.

‘Let me see.’

Making sure she was able to sit unaided, Ryan shifted so he could examine her leg. One look told him it was out of position. Ryan’s hands moved gently down over the injured limb and he knew she was right. It was at least dislocated. She’d be lucky if there wasn’t a break as well.