“That’s okay.” Stone looked at her. “He always says you’re a better doctor than him.”

“Whoa. He said that?”

“Yeah, which means you must be really good.”

Oddly touched that her father would say such a thing about her, much less anything at all, she didn’t respond. She and her father didn’t know each other well. Other than the matching MDs, they had nothing in common. Her dad liked the slow, laid-back style of doctoring in a small town, while she preferred the busier, more interesting, fast-paced ER life. Oil and water…“What happened to you, Stone? Did someone do this to you?”

“No.” His voice was low and hoarse, as if it hurt just to talk. “I’m okay.”

Wasn’t that just a Wilder for you. Tall, built and sexy, and so completely full of shit. Out of the three brothers, she liked Cam and TJ best, mostly because they spent most of their time out of town.

But Stone…well, he was charming and charismatic as hell, but he was also as wild as his name implied-her least favorite quality in a man, tough or otherwise. And Stone was as tough and impenetrable as they came, the kind of man who could be dropped anywhere on the planet and get on just fine. An admirable characteristic, sure, but she preferred a quiet, more sophisticated guy, preferably another doctor, who understood her world.

Not that it mattered. He was a patient not a prospective lover, and she directed him to an examination table. Not that she could “examine” much with all the mud. “We need to get those dirty things off,” she told TJ, and left him to it while she pulled a gown from a drawer.

Stone lay back willingly enough when TJ pushed him down to a prone position. “Just the Band-Aids is all…Tell you what, you give me a box, and in return I’ll take you on an outdoor adventure. Name it. Anything you want.”