Kitabı oku: «Captivating A Cowboy», sayfa 2
“Did you fall?” He cupped her face gently in his palms and studied the bruise blooming on her cheek.
“Yes,” she said with a catch in her voice.
He dropped his hands from her face. “Off the ladder?”
She shook her head. “I was standing on a chair.”
“Did you black out?” This was not the time to tell her how foolish she had been. Besides he could tell by her voice she had already told herself the same thing.
“No. I remember every last detail.” She attempted a laugh but it came out as a little sob.
Tony didn’t want her to fall apart so he patted her briskly on the knee and said, “You’re doing fine.”
Julie nodded and seemed to pull herself together.
“Tell me what else hurts besides your cheek.”
“It hurts when I move my arm.”
She had a dark green towel in her lap. She’d been cradling her right arm with her left hand. “Okay. What part of your arm?”
“My shoulder.”
She had on an oversize blue shirt. “I need to unbutton your blouse, okay?”
She gave him a lopsided smile. “Is that the best line you have, cowboy?” she asked with a little hitch in her voice.
He returned the smile, relieved she still had her sassy sense of humor. “It’ll have to do for now.”
He unbuttoned her shirt and gently eased the fabric off her shoulder, trying to ignore the electric-blue lacy bra strap.
He ran his fingers lightly along her clavicle, stopping at a big lumpy spot. There was no doubt the bone was fractured. Swelling and discoloration had already begun.
Carefully he pulled the shirt back in place and buttoned her up. “You broke your collarbone.”
“I was afraid of that. I heard a snapping sound when I hit the floor.”
“What else?”
“I have a cut on my elbow. I think I landed on the corner of the bed frame.” She glanced down at her left arm.
He needed some space. She was leaning with her left arm against the wall. “I’m going to help you up and we’re going down into the kitchen so I can get a good look at your arm.”
“Okay.”
“Can you walk?” He couldn’t carry her without hurting her and he needed to assess her overall condition.
Her chin came up. “Yes.”
He stood up and backed down a step to give her the room to stand. She braced herself against the wall and swayed a bit.
“Dizzy?’ He grabbed her hips to steady her, braced to catch her if she fainted.
“A little.”
There was no color in her face and her skin looked clammy.
“I’m going to get beside you.” Tony stepped up to the same stair she was on and reached under the back of her shirt, grasping a handful of the waistband of her pants.
“Just take it slow.”
She nodded and started down the steep stairs, wincing as each step jarred her arm.
He guided her to a kitchen chair and she lowered herself gingerly. He knelt on the floor beside her and pulled the towel away from her arm. A jagged gash about three inches long lay across the elbow joint along the inside of her arm. The towel was so dark he hadn’t noticed the blood.
He went blank for a moment and then pulled himself together. On missions he’d acted purely on his training. It was different with Julie. She shook him up.
Tony pulled himself together and said, “It’s still bleeding. I need to put some pressure on it. Where are the clean towels?”
“The drawer next to the sink.”
He found a stack of white dish towels and made a thick pad with one, pressed it against the cut, then wrapped it tightly with a second towel.
He slid into the chair next to her. “Okay, that should hold you until we can get it stitched up.”
She raised an eyebrow and gave him a long look. “You want to do it? My grandmother’s sewing box is in the living room.”
He shook his head, knowing she was kidding. He had put stitches in before, but that was when there were no medics around. Her beautiful smooth skin deserved more of an expert than he was.
She stared at him. “Where did you learn to do all this?”
“Navy. I went through some medical training.” He helped her to her feet, grabbing hold of her waistband again. The skin on her lower back was smooth and warm. He wondered if her panties matched her bra. He had always been a sucker for those lingerie ads.
He shook his head, disgusted with his thoughts. He must be more hung up on her than he’d thought to be considering jumping her bones on the way to the hospital. “Next stop, Redwood City emergency room.”
Since the accident and Jimmy’s death he’d been numb, unable to feel any real emotion, but taking care of her this afternoon had changed that.
He wasn’t sure he was ready.
She twisted until she could get up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Thank you for coming to my rescue.”
The sisterly kiss sent a zing through his system. “No problem,” he said and led her out to his truck, knowing his comment was probably the biggest lie he had ever told.
His instincts had always been good. This woman could cause him plenty of problems, the kind he had never dealt with before.
The kind that involved his heart.
Chapter Two
Exhausted and fighting tears, Julie stood on the sidewalk beside Tony and contemplated the steps leading to her front door.
They reminded her of Mount Everest.
He had a firm grip on the upper part of her left arm. At least he was no longer hauling her around by the back of her pants.
“Thank you. For everything.” She tried to pull away from his big warm hand. She wanted to get in the house before she fell apart. The last thing she wanted to do was cry in front of him.
Tony didn’t let go. “Let’s get you in the house.”
She looked up at the dark windows. “Thanks, but I’ve taken enough of your time.”
He ignored her and urged her up the stairs. “I’ll help you get settled.”
She didn’t want to be rude after he had rescued her, but she needed to be alone. She never let anyone see her cry.
Through the haze of medication that didn’t quite block the pain, she was beginning to realize she wouldn’t be able to work on the house for quite a while. The doctor had trussed her up like a Thanksgiving turkey, with her arm in a sling strapped to her chest to immobilize her broken collarbone.
She couldn’t finish fixing up the house on her summer vacation.
The utter frustration of her situation overwhelmed her and she groaned. At least her anger at herself helped overcome the urge to cry.
Tony dipped down until his face was level with hers. “Julie? What’s wrong?”
If she’d had a good hand, she would have smacked him. What wasn’t wrong?
She shook her head. This experience had turned her into a shrew. “Let’s just get in the house.”
Tony opened the door, flipped on the light in the foyer and led her across the threshold.
She needed to get him out of the house. She just wanted to go to bed and wallow in misery for a while. Tomorrow she’d think about what she was going to do.
“I really appreciate everything you’ve done. I’d like to pay you for your time.”
He looked amazed at her comment, then his mouth thinned into a grim line. “Pay me? You’re not in L.A., lady. Folks in small towns help each other.”
His angry attitude took her by surprise. She didn’t need to be reminded she wasn’t in L.A. Stiffly she said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it as an insult.”
She just wanted him out of the house so she could fall apart. “I’ve taken up enough of your time.”
“My time isn’t your problem. Come on, I told you I’m staying until you’re settled.” Gently, his touch a contrast to his voice, he grasped her arm and started toward the stairs.
Immediately she stiffened up, anger catching up with distress. Getting rid of him was starting to look as tough as getting gum off the bottom of a shoe. Digging in her heels, she decided to be direct. Hinting hadn’t worked. “I’m fine. You don’t need to stay.”
Tony dropped her arm and studied her for a moment. “So, you’re fine, huh?”
She nodded. “Yes,” she said through gritted teeth.
“How are you going to get undressed?”
Julie hadn’t thought about that. Her chin came up. “I’ll manage.”
He took off his hat and tossed it onto the knob on top of the banister. “How are you going to get your bra off?”
Good question, she thought, feeling slightly embarrassed. How was she going to get undressed? One arm was strapped to her chest and she couldn’t bend the other at the elbow because of the stitches.
He threw her a smug look that irritated her. “Do you have any female friends in town?”
She hadn’t made close friends except for Lynn, and she lived in New York now. When she’d been sent to live with her grandmother after her parents died, she’d resented being yanked from her home and friends in L.A. and been pretty much of a loner all through high school.
The only person who came to mind was Betty, Lynn’s mother. She’d heard Betty was off visiting her son in New Mexico.
“No.” Darn him. At least now she was so angry she no longer felt like crying.
“Come on,” he said briskly, urging her up the stairs. “Things are going to look much better when you get a little sleep.”
Julie didn’t think she had ever met a guy who seemed to relish being in control the way Tony did. It rankled. She was used to taking care of herself.
Most of the time.
A little voice in her head reminded her she wasn’t doing such a good job.
Her collarbone ached and her stitches burned. Lacking the energy to fight him any longer, she gave in and let him lead her into her old bedroom.
The chair lay there on its side, surrounded by the ledgers.
“What do you sleep in?” he asked matter-of-factly, ignoring the mess.
“There’s a nightshirt in the top dresser drawer.”
He left her side to rummage through the drawer and came up with a pink flannel nightshirt with the words Uppity Woman scrawled across the front in red. “This?”
She nodded and he laid the shirt over his arm and came back to stand in front of her. With sure fingers he unbuckled the strap around her middle that held the sling close to her body.
“I’m going to take the sling off. I need you to do nothing. Concentrate on keeping your arm perfectly still, okay?”
Julie nodded. That shouldn’t be hard. It hurt when she moved even a little.
He slipped the sling off. “You doing okay?”
“Yes.” For all his muscles he had a gentle touch.
“Now I’m going to unbutton your shirt.” His big hands were quick with the buttons.
For the second time today he had his hands inside her blouse, she thought. It was getting to be a habit.
He slid the shirt off her left shoulder and eased it over her left arm, past the wide elastic bandage covering her stitches.
“Now, let me do all the work here. You just think about holding still.” He slid the shirt off her right shoulder and eased it down her arm.
She sighed when he had it off. He had such warm, careful hands. Slick as a whistle, he hadn’t hurt her at all. She glanced down to see her nipples puckering through the blue satin of her bra. She wanted to be as cool about this as he was, but her body wasn’t cooperating.
Keeping his eyes on her face as if he couldn’t be bothered to look at all the skin he’d just uncovered he said, “Turn around.”
His voice sounded low and husky.
He wasn’t quite as detached after undressing her as he’d like her to believe. Good, because she wasn’t detached at all. Obediently she turned.
He stood so close behind her she could feel the heat of his body on her bare back.
He unclasped her bra and slid the straps down her shoulders, over her elbows and her hands, then dropped it like it was a poisonous snake.
Her heart thudded in her chest. What was wrong with her? She barely knew the man and she wanted to feel his hands on her.
It must be the pain medication.
“You’re doing fine.” His breath feathered the hair behind her ear.
She shivered.
“Cold?” He reached around her from behind to slide her right arm into the sleeve. The back of his hand grazed her bare breast.
He cleared his throat. “You’ll be covered up in just a minute.”
She was anything but cold. He brought the shirt behind her back and gently eased the fabric over her stiff elbow.
“Okay, turn around.” Hands on her shoulders again, he turned her toward him.
She looked up into his face as he did up her buttons and had the oddest sensation of being a desirable woman and a cared-for child all in the same moment.
He eased her into the sling and strapped her up, then stepped back. “There. All set.” He was back to his matter-of-fact tone again.
She kicked off her shoes. Julie wanted to hear the husky desire in his voice she’d heard before.
A little devil in her made her say, “Help me with my jeans?” Besides, she thought, how was she going to get the snug denim off without help?
She could see beads of sweat on his upper lip just before he leaned over and fumbled under her nightshirt for the fastener on her pants. His position gave her a great view of his hair, thick, dark and slightly wavy.
He eased the zipper down, hooked his thumbs into the waistband and slid the denim over her hips. She could feel the trail of heat down her body left by the touch of his hands.
He backed up and heaved a sigh as she stepped out of her pants.
“Anything else?” He rubbed the heel of his hand over his chest as if he was in pain.
Julie looked down at her bare toes, hiding a smile. Just one more thing before she let him off the hook. “Ah, my, ah…panties.”
She glanced up at him and swore she saw his eyes cross for an instant. It was all she could do not to smirk.
“Sure.” His voice was gruff. He reached up and hooked his work-roughened fingers over the elastic and slid the satin down her legs.
Satisfied he had been punished enough for being so controlling, she kicked the panties over with her jeans. “Thanks.”
He skirted around her as if she was on fire and pulled the covers down on the bed. “Get in. I’ll go get you a glass of water.”
He pulled her prescription of pain pills out of his shirt pocket and smacked the bottle down on the bedside table before he left the room.
Awkwardly Julie scooted under the covers. She lay back against the pillows and thought about what she’d just done. It was petty to harass Tony like that, but people who thought they knew best annoyed her. Plus, she was so angry at herself for fouling up all her summer plans she’d taken out her anger on him.
She supposed she needed to apologize, but she didn’t know how to do that without embarrassing both of them.
One more thing she would have to deal with in the morning, she thought as her eyes slid closed.
Tony came back with a glass of water and found Julie had fallen asleep. He pulled the covers up to her shoulders, turned out the overhead light and switched on a small lamp on the dresser across the room.
He wasn’t going to wake her up to give her a pill to make her sleep.
He didn’t want her awake.
Getting her undressed had been harder than most of the missions he’d been on for the Navy.
He picked up the scattered ledgers and righted the chair. Then he draped her jeans and shirt over the chair, along with the blue bra and matching panties. Her clothes were still warm and smelled like her. With a groan he settled into an overstuffed chair and watched her sleep. She looked so young and innocent lying there.
Hah, he thought. About as innocent as Eve when she teamed up with the serpent in the Garden of Eden.
And he wanted a bite of the apple.
The woman knew just what caliber ammunition she carried. She thought it was safe to mess with his head because she’d been injured.
She was right.
There was time, and Tony was a patient man. She needed him because she wouldn’t be able to work on this place for weeks. By the time he had the house in shape and Julie had mended, he planned to show her what happened when you played with fire.
Tony dozed off with a smile on his face.
Chapter Three
Julie woke after a restless night. She felt like she’d been hit by a truck. Groaning, she tried to lift her hand to rub her gritty eyes, but she’d forgotten her arm was strapped to her waist. She tried her other arm and found her elbow so stiff from the stitches she couldn’t reach up.
She closed her eyes and fought back frustration, furious with herself for being so clumsy. Her plans to get the house fixed up to sell during her vacation would be on hold for at least a few weeks, if not longer.
Her wonderful timetable was ruined, her dreams on hold.
A tear leaked out from under her lids. She was about to give herself a talking to for being such a weakling when she heard her bedroom door creak.
Before she had time to be frightened, Tony stuck his head in the room.
He grinned, managing to look bashful and incredibly handsome at the same time.
“I didn’t want to wake you.”
Quickly she turned her head and wiped her eyes on the pillow case. No way was she going to let him catch her crying like some wimpy little female. He walked in and brought the smell of fresh coffee with him as he handed her a steaming mug.
“Ah,” she closed her eyes and drank in the aroma. “You stopped for coffee. Thanks.”
She sat up and used her feet to scoot herself against the headboard.
She frowned as she noticed the coffee was in a mug from her grandmother’s kitchen.
“Where did you get the coffee?”
He grinned at her again. “Out of the coffeepot.”
Besides being extremely good-looking, the man had a killer grin. She wished he would stop using it. It ruined her train of thought.
Julie guided her thoughts back to the conversation. “I have a coffeepot?”
Tony nodded. “In the cupboard above the sink.”
She really hadn’t paid much attention to the kitchen. “And ground coffee?” Her grandmother had been a tea drinker as far as she remembered.
He shrugged his wide shoulders. “I did have to go to Valley Grocery for that.”
Julie peered at the travel alarm clock beside the bed. “How long have you been here?”
“All night.”
Oh, swell, she thought, noticing for the first time he had the same clothes on he’d worn yesterday.
That would give the town gossips something to chew on.
She’d known him less than two days and he stays over. “I thought we agreed you were leaving,” she snapped.
Tony didn’t look the least bit upset at her annoyed tone. “I told you I was staying. You might have needed something in the middle of the night.”
Vaguely Julie recalled Tony coming to check on her, but she’d been so groggy from the pain pills she had no idea what time it might have been. And since when did she care what the neighbors might think?
She realized she liked knowing he’d been there and it made her temper rise. She hadn’t expected him to stay and she didn’t want to impose. She could take care of herself.
“Well, thanks,” she said grudgingly. “That was nice of you. But I don’t want to keep you from your work.”
“No problem. It’s raining and I can’t work on my house today.”
She glanced out the window and noticed the storm for the first time. “Don’t you have a regular job?”
“No. I’m building a house on my land.”
She wanted to ask how he managed that without regular employment, but didn’t know how to do it without sounding like she was prying.
Tony raised an eyebrow and the corners of his mouth turned up in a sly little smile. “Need help getting dressed?”
Obviously he’d recovered his composure after the teasing she’d given him last night. It was her turn to blush. “Ah, I think I can manage.”
“The doctor said you can leave the sling off during the day. You just have to be careful.”
Good thing, she thought. There was no way to get out of the nightshirt trussed up the way she was.
He turned and headed out her bedroom door. “I’ll wait for you downstairs. Give me a yell if you need help.”
Julie sipped on the coffee and pondered her options. She could drive back to L.A. or stay here until she healed. Then she remembered her apartment had been sublet for the summer and her car had a stick shift. No way could she make the twelve-hour drive home even if she did have a place to live.
Okay, she would stay here in Ferndale. She scooted to the side of the mattress and wiggled around until she got her feet on the floor.
There had to be things she could do to the house one-handed, so the next few weeks wouldn’t be a total loss. Julie finished the coffee, feeling better now that she had the start of a plan in her mind.
She struggled out of the sling and awkwardly managed to get into a pair of panties and sweats. A bra was out of the question, and so apparently, was brushing her hair and putting on socks. She could ask Tony’s help with the socks, and even her hair, but she would have to go braless. There was no way she’d ask him for help with that.
Remembering the way she had acted last night brought a blush to her face. She must have been out of her mind to tease him like that. She barely knew him. Maybe she could blame her behavior on the pain medication she’d taken on the way home.
She made her way downstairs and found Tony sitting in the kitchen, slicing into a coffee cake.
She inhaled the smell of cinnamon and nutmeg, her mouth watering. “Tell me you did not bake that this morning.”
He laughed. “No. Mrs. Smithy dropped it off.”
Julie didn’t recognize the name. “Why?” Why would someone bring Tony a freshly baked coffee cake at her house?
He slipped a wedge of cake onto a plate and pushed it across the table towards her. “Because she heard you had been hurt in an accident.
Julie searched her memory. “I don’t even know who she is.”
“I think she knew your grandmother. Besides, this is a small town. Folks do nice things for each other in small towns.”
He’d made it very clear yesterday that he thought small towns were highly preferable to large cities. He saw this gift of food as a good thing.
Julie frowned, looking down at the plate. She viewed it as an intrusion into her privacy. By now everyone in town probably knew that she had been clumsy enough to fall off a chair.
The coffee cake smelled so good she decided not to let the reason it was in the middle of the kitchen table get in her way of enjoying it. She set her socks, brush and a rubber band down on the chair beside her and settled in to savor some home baking. Awkwardly she forked up a mouthful.
Tony watched her uncoordinated movements and nodded in approval. “The more you use that arm the less stiff you’ll be.”
She smiled at him. “Thank you, Dr. Tony.”
He cut a huge piece of cake for himself and sat across the table from her. After he had demolished half his piece of cake he paused and cleared his throat.
Julie glanced up, waiting. Obviously he was working his way up to saying something.
Finally he said, “Julie, I know you wanted to do all the work on this house yourself, but you aren’t going to be able to manage for a while. Why don’t you hire me? I could use the money.”
She was tempted. By hiring him she could get done even sooner that she had first planned and get back to L.A. Even if she hadn’t broken her collarbone she had no illusions that she could do the work as well or as fast as someone with experience and skill.
Hiring him would solve part of her problem, but there was a hitch. She hated to admit it, but her plan to do over the house herself was based on a lack of cash.
He had made a nice offer and he deserved an explanation, even though she didn’t want to give him so much personal information.
“I can’t afford to pay you and buy materials and supplies. I get paid ten months a year. I’m really strapped for cash.”
Tony shrugged one muscular shoulder. “No problem. Pay me when you close escrow. I’m saving money for stock.”
“Stock? You play the market?” She couldn’t picture him buying and selling, gambling on the stock market. He was too…steady.
He looked puzzled for a minute, then he laughed. “No. Stock as in horses.”
“Oh.” She felt silly. Hadn’t she nicknamed him cowboy? Of course he meant horses.
“When I get my house built, I’ll start on the barn and corrals. I’m going to raise and train horses.”
Julie studied him for a moment. Horse rancher. It fit. “Let me think about it, okay?”
“Sure.” He stood up and scooped up her plate and his, carrying them to the sink. She watched him walk across the kitchen, admiring the fit of his worn jeans. The man did have one fine body.
He finished rinsing the plates and she quickly looked down at her folded hands as he turned toward her.
Tony stopped beside her chair. “I have to go check on Mrs. Trimball’s place, then I’ll be back.”
Betty Trimball, the minister’s widow and the only person in Ferndale she could call a friend, lived three blocks away.
She scooted her chair back across the worn linoleum. “When does Betty get back?” Julie wanted to see her again. There were very few people she felt that way about.
“A couple more weeks.” Tony squatted down beside her chair, took hold of her ankle and propped it on his thigh. He drew her sock onto her foot, and repeated the motion as he put on her other sock. The feel of his big square competent hands on her skin sent shivers up her legs.
In one fluid motion he stood up and picked up her brush. He drew the bristles through her hair in steady, firm strokes. Between the warmth of him at her back and the feel of the brush against her scalp, she had to brace herself to keep from sliding out of the chair.
She noticed he was very careful to be gentle over the lump on the side of her head where she had smacked her skull against the floor.
Where had he learned to deal with long hair? she wondered. An unexpected stab of jealousy spiked through her. Why did she even care?
“Ponytail?”
“What?” She tried to get her thoughts back to what he had asked.
“Do you want your hair in a ponytail, or down?”
She almost asked him how he wanted it. Stupid. Why should she care what he preferred?
“Ponytail.” She picked the elastic band off the chair beside her and held it up as far as her stiff elbow would allow.
She felt him twist the rubber band around her hair, and then he handed her the brush.
He still had a hold of her hair and he gave it a teasing little tug. “I’ll stop by before I head home to see if you need anything.”
No one had cared enough to ask her if she needed anything for a very long time. The tears that had snuck up on her earlier threatened to return. It had to be the pain medication. She blinked them back and stood, turning to face him.
“Thank you. For everything.”
He shoved his hands into his pockets, shrugged and dipped his head in an endearing little boy kind of way. “No problem. See you later.”
He was out the back door and into the summer rain, leaving her feeling that her thank you had been inadequate considering all he had done for her in the past twenty-four hours.
Julie settled back in her chair and pondered what she should do. If she hired Tony she could get the work done by the time she had to go back to L.A. That way the house would be on the market. If she waited to do the work herself, she would probably have to make at least a few extra trips back up to Ferndale. She wouldn’t be able to put the place on the market until late fall, if that soon. With the price of gas and wear and tear on her car for extra trips, it made sense to hire Tony.
The thought made her feel uneasy. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him to do a good job. After all, wasn’t he building a house all by himself? It was just that she had planned to do it alone. Be her own boss, make her own decisions.
She had already seen him in action. He liked to be in control of a situation.
She began to argue with herself. She would still be in charge. She could help him out as he worked. That would speed things up. He had the skill and expertise, and she could learn from him.
She sat for a long time as her fingers fiddled with the bristles of her brush. Money and control weren’t the only problems, she thought.
She was attracted to him.
Very attracted.
If she hired him to work, they shouldn’t start a relationship that had nowhere to go anyway. He had made it clear he liked small town living, and in a matter of weeks she would head back to her life in Los Angeles.
She stood up and gingerly stretched her sore muscles, then headed upstairs, her thoughts still swirling. So the real question was, could she work with him and maintain her distance? Just be friends?
Of course she could.
She’d been around plenty of good-looking men. Even had a few who were friends. She laughed at herself. Was she turning her rescuer into some kind of irresistible knight on a white horse?
He was just a guy.
She set her brush down on the dresser and surveyed the damaged ceiling that she’d stripped yesterday. Just the thought of lifting her arms over her head to apply the plaster made her wince.
Julie made her decision. If she and Tony could come to reasonable terms, the ceiling would be their first project.
The sound of the front doorbell interrupted her thoughts. She headed down the stairs. A middle-aged woman stood on the porch holding a dish covered with foil. Julie thought she looked vaguely familiar but it was hard to tell through the wavy old oval glass window in the door.
She opened the door and the woman smiled. “Julie, I don’t know if you remember me. I’m Jane Arnold.”
As soon as she spoke, Julie remembered. Jane Arnold had been one of the adults who led the youth group at the church. “Of course I remember.” Almost, she thought.
Mrs. Arnold held out a covered casserole. “I heard what happened. I made you some chicken.”
Of course. Hadn’t she predicted that the whole town would know? Julie remembered her manners. “Won’t you come in?”
Ücretsiz ön izlemeyi tamamladınız.
