That surge of jealousy came through once more. “Are you fucking kidding me? Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
“You know, I’m not used to you threatening to kill me twice in one conversation. You certainly weren’t this mad when I revealed what Maria was. Makes me think she wasn’t really important to you. At least not as important as this girl.”
Nothing was more important to him than Ellie. Her happiness. That was what came first. Even before his own.
“Clint, stop fucking around and just tell me what’s going on. Why did you have to put Ellie to bed?”
“Because she just vomited everywhere and she was worn out.”
“She’s sick?” His heart beat rapidly. He had stood and headed towards the door before he even realized what he planned to do. He put on his boots with one hand and reached for his truck keys.
“Migraine by the looks of it,” Clint said. This time he had a note of concern in his voice. “And I would say this isn’t the first time she’s had one. Don’t know if she had them before the concussion or not, but she needs to get them checked out.”
“She promised she would go to the doctor.”
“But that doesn’t mean she did.”
Bear paused took a deep breath. “She never went to the doctor?”
“Nope. Like I told you, she needs a good spanking. She tell you that she can’t access that trust fund yet?”
What? What was she living on?
“We haven’t really been talking. She did say she had a job. I thought it was to meet people.”
“Oh yes, her job. The one she has to walk to because her aunt’s car is a stick and she can’t drive it. Not sure if she had insurance on that other piece of crap she was driving. Oh, and my jacket is the only piece of decent clothing she has.”
Shit. Shit. Shit. He climbed into his truck and started it up.
“I thought she was taken care of. She had a nice house, a trust fund, a car.”
“Yeah, well, sometimes it’s not stuff that a person needs.”
This was his fault? Of course, it was. He’d left her. The call switched over to Bluetooth and he put his phone down and started down the driveway.
“Of course, she should have told you all this. You did tell her to contact you if she needed anything or was in trouble.”
He had.
“She was walking along the road, not paying any attention to her surroundings. Anyone could have walked up to her and hurt her.”
“I should never have left her.” He punched his fist against the steering wheel, feeling sick to his stomach. “Have you called the doctor?”
“I rang Doc and he said the best thing for her was just to sleep it off in a dark room with silence. I told her about Maria.”
Fuck. This was why Clint shouldn’t be allowed off the ranch. “Well, you’re just stacking up the friendship points today, aren’t you?”
“I just thought I should come here and check on her. I feel responsible for her too.”
“You went to interfere. Maybe see if you could do a bit of matchmaking.”
“Hey, if the ranch ever goes under at least I’ll have a second career choice to fall back on.”
“Yeah, I’ll buy a domain name for you now. Interferingbastard.com.”
“Hope my customers are more appreciative than you.”
13