Now, however, Luke realized it had all been
a pipe dream. Instead of being open and receptive to him when he'd
gone to the lake to find her and have that talk privately, she'd
been the same way she'd been to him since her return to Bowie,
hostile and unwelcoming. He finally faced the sad fact that she was
never going to respect him. He'd always be that poor kid whose
daddy was a drunk to her...the guy she'd simply given a few minutes
of her time to make him feel like he was something special.
Luke meant what he'd said to her at the lake
today. He was well and truly done chasing her. Being able to say
that to her was supposed to bring him closure. Instead, she'd
messed up his mind with her love words, then broke her ankle and
probably cracked her skull. Now, all he felt was guilt.
Worry wrapped itself around his heart and
squeezed painfully. "Call me, dammit," he said to the empty
room.
Exhausted and wrung out, Luke had sat down
on the couch to wait after a while, and evidently he'd dozed off,
because the sound of the doorbell echoing loudly off the log walls
of his cabin startled him awake. His heart was pounding inside his
chest, and he looked around disoriented for a moment, before he
launched himself up and ran for the door. He flung it open and a
very somber, unhappy Cole stood on his porch with his hands fisted
at his side, his jaw clenched.
Before he could invite him in, Cole marched
past him, his shoulder slamming against Luke's as he did. Luke shut
the door and followed him across the room. Glancing at the clock
above the mantle Luke realized it was almost midnight. His friend
should have been off-duty about six hours ago, but was still in his
rumpled uniform.
"Did something else happen? Why the fuck
didn't you call me? How's Cassie?" Luke asked in rapid succession
as he walked to sit in a chair across from the sofa.
Cole didn't say anything, just stared at
Luke with anger glittering in his green eyes, his lips pinched
shut.
Panic raced through Luke and he shoved out
of the chair and ran over to the couch to grab Cole by the shirt
front. In a strangled voice he demanded, "What the fuck's wrong? Is
Cassie okay?!"
Cole brushed his hands off then leaned
forward to shout in his face, "If you were so fucking worried about
Cassie's condition you should have been at the hospital. They kept
her overnight for observation. I stayed until she was settled in a
room." Cole pushed against his chest and Luke stepped back a few
paces.
Cole knew why he couldn't go to the
hospital, Luke had told him what had happened by the lake, and that
as far as he was concerned he and Cassie were
done--
permanently
. That his friend didn't have more sympathy
and understanding for
him
in this situation pissed him off.
"What did they say was wrong?" Luke asked his fists clenching at
his side in frustration.
"Broken ankle and moderate concussion.
They're watching her overnight to make sure her brain doesn't start
swelling," Cole finally answered.
Panic edged back up inside him, but he
tamped it down. "Did they say she'd be okay?"
"Yeah, they think she'll fully recover in a
couple of weeks. But she needs rest, and that damned farm isn't the
place for her to get that." Cole ran a hand across his face then
sighed. "She's so fucking stubborn, she'll probably be out
wrangling cattle in the cast they put on her leg."
"You're probably right." Luke knew he was
right. Cassie was not one to sit on her laurels when there was work
to be done. She was just as stubborn as her old man.
Resignation then determination filled Luke
and he said before he could change his mind, "I'll take her up to
your dad's fishing camp up on the lake for a week."
Surprise and then wariness flickered across
Cole's face. "I thought you didn't want to see her?"
He didn't...but there wasn't anyone else to
take care of her. Imelda and Bud were pushovers where she was
concerned, she'd run right over them. Her dad was laid up himself,
so he couldn't do it.
"I don't...but I'm not a total asshole. I'll
make sure she gets the rest she needs, then in a week I'll dump her
ass back on the front porch of that ranch and walk away. Can you
take care of helping Carl and Bud with the cattle for the week?
Until we can get the paperwork done?"
"Since you're still on vacation for a week,
that's gonna be kind of tough. I'll contact that manager Bud
suggested though, and get him on board now instead of waiting. Then
I'll go by there in the evenings and help out."
"Thanks, man. Do you know what time they're
cutting her loose tomorrow?"
"They said the doctor makes rounds at
eleven, and if she's okay, they'll probably release her around
noon."
"I'll be there."
CHAPTER EIGHT
Cassie was tired of being poked and prodded.
She wanted out of this godforsaken place
now
. The nurse had
removed her IV earlier, and she was thankful. But she could
probably use another painkiller because her head and ankle were
starting to ache again. The doctor who'd been in earlier to release
her had given her a prescription for pain and another for nausea,
but those pieces of paper sure wouldn't help until she could get
them filled. She hoped Cole would get here soon to take her
home.
The doctor had had also given her
instructions on caring for her ankle and told her to rest as much
as possible. But rest was not something that was going to happen.
Even though she was banged up, she had a ranch to run, and her
daddy to take care of. And she damned well wished Cole would get
here soon so she could get to it.
Her eyes moved down over the green scrubs
she'd put on to go home and she grimaced. Last night, they'd
brought here barefoot and in her bikini, so she didn't have any
clothes or shoes to change into. Thank god, the nurse had mercy on
her and had brought the scrubs and a pair of surgical booties to
wear, or she'd have had to ride home in that split-back hospital
gown with her backside mooning the world. She'd slit the leg on the
scrubs to accommodate the bulky florescent green walking cast
they'd put on her leg. Her bikini was in a bag next to the chair
where she was sitting.
Cassie glanced over at the utilitarian black
and white clock hanging on the wall by the TV and saw it was almost
noon. Surely, he'd be here to get her soon. She owed Cole a lot for
helping her out last night. He had been there for her every step of
the way, holding her hand, encouraging her to be cooperative when
she'd gotten fussy, and comforting when thoughts of Luke made her
weepy. His kiss on her cheek before he'd left her last night let
her know that he cared about her.
More than she could say for Luke, who'd run
out on her like a rat from a sinking ship.
She looked up when a nurse came in smiling
while she pushed a wheelchair over to Cassie. "Your ride's here,
sugar."
Cassie grabbed the crutches they'd given her
beside the chair and used them to push up to stand, then pivoted to
sit in the wheelchair. "Thank goodness. I'm ready to blow this
popsicle stand!" she said then chuckled weakly.
Once she was seated, the nurse leaned over
the wheel to release the brake. Or at least she thought it was the
nurse, until she looked down and saw a muscular male arm beside her
doing the job. Cassie looked over her shoulder expecting Cole, but
saw Luke's unsmiling handsome face instead. She gasped, "Where's
Cole?"
Luke didn't answer her question, he just
stood back up then spun her around and pushed the chair toward the
door at a swift clip. When they went past the nurse's station, the
pretty nurse who'd brought in her chair smiled at him. "Be seeing
you, sugar," she said to Luke and winked. "Hope you get to feeling
better Miss Bellamy."
Cassie growled. Every woman on the planet
must be susceptible to the man. Well, she wasn't going to be
anymore. Let some other woman deal with him and his stubbornness.
Luke said he was done...we'll she was about two clicks past that.
"I asked you where Cole was. He was supposed to pick me up."
"He had other things to do," he told her
flatly when he stopped at the steel door of the elevator and leaned
over her to push the button.
Luke made it sound like she was totally
inconveniencing him and everyone else, because she'd gotten hurt.
"Push me back to the nurse's station, I'm calling a cab to take me
home."
The double doors swung open and he pushed
her inside instead, then jabbed his finger on the button for the
main floor. Anger coiled up inside of her then unfurled in her
chest.
"Ah, hell no..." Cassie pushed herself up
from the chair and put a crutch under either arm. Pain shot through
her ankle, but other than a grimacing, she ignored it. He was not
going to bully her around anymore. And she was not going to be
trapped in the truck with this angry hard man from Henrietta to
Bowie. No way.
"What the hell are you doing, Cassie?" His
hands gripped her shoulders tightly. "Sit your ass back down before
hurt yourself."
"If you haven't noticed, I'm already hurt.
Not that you'd give a shit," she said heatedly. "I'm going to call
a cab to take me home. Any obligation you felt to help me is
unnecessary. I'll call Cole and thank him for his help last night
and pay him for his trouble."
"Cole doesn't need your fucking money, and
neither do I."
"Fine then." she said and hobbled past him
when the door opened. "Goodbye, Luke."
Cassie had gotten about half way to the
information desk and a phone, when her feet were suddenly taken out
from under her as Luke swept her up into his arms. Her crutches
fell to the floor with a loud clatter and a woman in a pink striped
uniform ran over to them.
Luke smiled at her then asked sweetly, "Can
you bring those for me, sugar?"
She nodded then he headed toward the exit
with his arms tightly around Cassie. "Put me down,
now
!" she
grated next to his ear.
Luke ignored her taking long easy strides
toward the door, then went outside to his truck which was parked in
the circular drive designated for patient pick-up. The young woman
who'd walked beside them opened the door for him, and he put her on
the hot leather seat, then leaned over and jerked the seatbelt
across her and clicked it. He slammed the door, took her crutches
from the candy-striper and threw them in the back of the truck
before stomping around the truck to get behind the wheel.
"You know kidnapping is illegal, right
Sheriff
?" Cassie turned toward him to ask.
"Yeah, it's a good thing you're not a
kid
, Cassie. So stop acting like one."
She harrumphed and then sat back against the
seat and crossed her arms over her chest. All the jarring she'd
been through while he carried her, then the jarring when he dropped
her on the seat, and now the pot-holed road leading from the
hospital, made her leg ache. She reached a hand down and rubbed her
knee, because the cast prevented her from rubbing where it really
hurt. It also felt like her ankle was starting to swell in side the
cast. It had gotten tighter than it had been when she woke up this
morning, and her toes were numb again.
He glanced over at her and asked,
"Hurting?"
"Yeah, I should probably have it propped
up." She groaned as he hit another hole and the truck lurched.
He glanced at her and then back to the road
a few times, before telling her gruffly, "Lay down on the seat and
put your leg in my lap."
"No, thank you." She'd endure the pain
before she got that close to his lap, or any other part of his
body, ever again.
With his knuckles turning white on the
steering wheel, he glanced over at her again and shouted, "Quit
being stubborn, Cassie! Just do it!"
She scooted her butt to the edge of the seat
and pivoted so she could lay down then lifted her left leg up. The
cast was too heavy and when she groaned, he slid a hand under her
knee and pulled it up for her, then moved his hand to the top of
her thigh to hold it steady. Her other leg, bent beside the seat,
rubbed on his calf. Cassie swallowed hard as his heat burned
through the thin scrub pants to brand her skin.
Once she was settled, he looked down at her
with concern in his whiskey-brown eyes. "Better?"
Cassie huffed out a breath and tried to
relax. "Yeah, thanks." He gently patted her thigh then rubbed it,
his long fingers sliding along the inside seam of the thin scrubs.
She swallowed down the needy moan that wanted to escape from her
lips as electric sparks of desire traveled up her leg to her
center. What she wouldn't give for him to move his hand up, just a
little, and put her out of her misery.
She covered her eyes with her arm, so he
wouldn't see the desire she knew must be revealed there, and so she
didn't have to look at his handsome profile for the next eighty
miles.
When the bouncing finally stopped, and she
heard the humming of the truck tires on asphalt, she guessed they'd
finally reached the main road. The monotonous drone and cool air
blowing from the vent on her face, worked together to lull her to
sleep.