Zoya’s P.O.V
Cam and I were able to call an ambulance as quickly as possible to attend to the patients and bring them safely to a better facility, and soon, the brothers were taken away to the nearest hospital downhill. I could only hope that they were able to receive the medical attention that they needed.
One of the rescuers went along with them, in case they were needed to detail the cause of the fall or the events that happened after. And I think Harvey was glad that he didn’t have to go alone.
I stood there; arms crossed over my chest, and followed the ambulance with my eyes, watching as it drove farther and farther away, until it finally disappeared from my line of sight. Cam stood next to me as we stared at the departing vehicle.
“Zoya?” a voice startled me from my reverie. I turned to see that it was the sheriff, Ezra.
I exchanged a look with Cam, my expression perplexed, while she looked more eager, though for what I did not know. And then all I got from her was a nod before she was gliding back inside the clinic, leaving me alone to deal with Ezra.
“Yes?” I prompted when I realized that he seemed to be waiting for my response. Perhaps he thought that I would be indifferent toward him considering the hostility he had been treated me with. Lucky for him, I knew how to be civil and no, it had nothing to do with his rank.
“I’d like to exchange a few words with you,” he said, his voice stiff, like he was being coerced to talk to me mostly against his own will. But his body language told me a different thing; it seemed more like he was just nervous, like he was afraid that he had done something to wrong me. “Can we please talk over lunch? My treat.”
It’s not that I was a body language expert, but when you deal with patients and their guardians on a daily basis, you do get accustomed to some of their body language.
I considered his words for a long moment. It could be a good thing, this talk. Perhaps we would then be able to air out whatever was troubling us and fix the awkward air between us? Maybe then he’ll tell me what it was about me that he hated.
However, there was a lingering hesitation in the back of my mind. For some reason that I could not explain, Sam’s voice appeared in my head, like a warning, an alarm. I shook it off and decided to go with my rational thinking.
“Alright,” I told him with a small smile and a nod. “I’ll take you up on that offer. On one condition.”
He tensed, like he was waiting for me to deliver an ultimatum, or a verdict. He looked like was waiting to see if I would indict or acquit him. “Anything,” he said.
I paused, feeling an odd sense of amusement at his nervousness…before I decided to spare him my mercy.
“Let me take a shower first,” I said, stifling a laugh when I saw him visibly relax. “I feel sticky from all the blood and dirt. Why don’t we meet at the diner later? In, say, half an hour?”
“Sounds good,” he replied with a slow nod, like he was distracted. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Cam listening in on our conversation with open curiosity. When she saw me watching her, she winked. I did not know what to make of that interaction.
“Okay,” I said, “See you.” I did not wait for him to respond and turned away immediately to walk over to where Cam was standing next to the other rescuers. As I left, I think I heard him mumble a, “See you.”
“I heard you have plans for later,” Cam was the first to speak as soon as I got into earshot, her eyes dancing with mischief as she looked at me excitedly. “Don’t worry about the paperwork for this incident. I’ll handle everything. You can head home early; you can clock out early since it’s your first day. I can just contact you if there’s an emergency anyway, so don’t worry about it.”
I got the feeling that she was only being this lenient because it was the sheriff who invited me over for a meal, and as she said, everybody respected Ezra, and it seemed that she herself was no exception. Still, I did get the feeling that she definitely had some kind of ulterior motives to set me up with Ezra.
“Okay,” I sighed, rubbing at my temples. “Thank you.”
“No problem,” she told me, and it sounded like a dismissal, so after giving her one last smile, I turned to head inside the clinic, where I took a quick shower in the bathroom attached to my chamber.
Thankfully I always had a pair of extra clothes with me in the back of my car, in case of emergencies like this, and I quickly changed into the shirt and the jeans, letting my hair dry out naturally because the only thing I did not have here was a hair dryer.
Once I felt fresh and renewed, I went back out and waved goodbye to Cam, who was having a nice chat with one of the rescuers before I headed to the diner. I didn’t take my car with me because the clinic was right opposite to the diner and I could always walk back here to get my car.
I spotted Ezra before I even stepped into the restaurant. He was sitting in one of the booths by the glass wall, overlooking the view outside. He saw me as well, and we locked eyes. For a second, everything in me seemed to come to a halt…like I was entranced by the way his hazel eyes looked at me, as if he could see right through to my soul.
But then he blinked and shook his head, and the spell broke just like that, leaving me confused by my own behavior. What had just happened?
But when I looked up next, he waved me over, and I finally moved to open the door and get inside the restaurant.
I don’t know what just happened between us right there, but Ezra seemed to be a man hiding several mysteries, and one of them was the fact that he couldn’t seem to stand my existence for some unforeseeable reason. Even though that hostility seemed to have reduced bit by bit in the last hour or so, I still needed to know why he felt like that towards me. He had genuinely raised my curiosity.
And I really hoped that this lunch date would end up with me getting to know him better, and finally we could be on good terms.
Usually, I didn’t care about the whys and how’s when someone showed open hostility towards me. But Ezra was different. And I wanted to know myself as to why I was so bothered by his indifference.