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don’t know how to make it up to you.”
    â€œI’ll just add it to the list of things you can’t fix.” The words were out before she’d thought them through. Before she realized she was digging her embarrassing hole even deeper.
    â€œYou know, you chose not to go with me,” he said softly. “I wanted you to come to Brazil. You turned me down.”
    She hadn’t had a choice, but to be fair, she’d never really explained that to him. “I’m just cynical when it comes to you, I guess.”
    â€œI probably deserve that.” He didn’t have to elaborate. All the old angst hung between them like a line of limp, damp laundry. It was depressing. She didn’t want to argue anymore.
    â€œHow’d it happen?” She changed the subject, nodding her head toward his leg, which extended straight out in front of him under the table.
    â€œA run-in with a bulldozer.”
    It wasn’t at all what she’d expected. “A bulldozer?”
    â€œI was down in Brazil on that rain forest project. They were going to clear-cut a whole new area near where we were working. No one was paying any attention to the science we were doing. I got fed up and I joined some locals in a protest to try to stop it. I lay down in front of a bulldozer. The driver saw me, but he just kept coming.”
    â€œAnd you just stayed there.” He shrugged and she stared at him in disbelief. “You were always stubborn, but that’s taking it to a new level!”
    There was regret in his wry smile. “I figured he’d stop at the last minute.”
    â€œBut he didn’t.”
    â€œNope. Went right over my leg as I tried to scramble out of the way.” He took another drink and looked out over the bar instead of at her. “Scariest game of chicken I ever played.”
    She tried to picture what it would be like, to have a bulldozer coming toward her, intent on murder. To feel it crush you. She shivered.
    â€œThe locals carried me on a stretcher for a couple hours to the nearest village,” he continued “Then I was put in the back of a truck for the ride to the hospital.
    â€œIt took hours to get there—I honestly didn’t think I’d make it. I passed out from the pain. When I woke up in the hospital, they’d pieced my leg together. Then I came back to the states and convalesced at my parents’ house for a few months, listening to them tell me all the ways I’d disappointed them.”
    â€œI’m sorry you got hurt.” Even in her bleakest moments she’d never wished him this kind of pain.
    â€œMe, too. I had a lot of time to lie in bed and wish I’d never taken that job. That I’d stayed in the States. With you.”
    The words she’d wanted to hear for so long, right there between them on the table. Now that they’d been said, Nora realized that no matter how many times she’d imagined him saying them, she’d never imagined her answer. She stared at him, but he was still looking out over the bar, lost in memory. Maybe he didn’t even realize what he’d said. The gulp she took of her vodka went down with a burn and she coughed.
    The sound seemed to bring Todd back to the present. If he was self-conscious about his confession, he masked it with a smile. “On the upside, I got a pretty big settlement. Turned out the guy who drove that bulldozer worked for one of the world’s biggest timber companies. I had money to buy my ranch and my machine shop. Plus, now I can predict the weather with my leg.” He took a swallow of beer, grinned, and the cocky college boy she’d loved was suddenly right there in front of her.
    She couldn’t help but smile back. “So you’re the guy I call when I want to know if rain is coming?”
    â€œSo far I’ve been right ninety-seven percent of the time. I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet.”
    She laughed outright.