Just Down the Road (40 page)

He hadn’t said good-bye or wished her well. He’d simply frowned at her with that look that said she’d be back asking for his help. She almost felt sorry for him and wondered how long it would be before he realized he was wrong.

A few minutes later, when she and Jamie walked into Tinch’s room, Addison couldn’t help but smile. Her blue-eyed cowboy was back. The bruises and bandages did nothing to take away from his good looks, and he was grinning at her like he’d been waiting for her to show up for years.

“Hello, handsome,” she said.

“Strange way for a doctor to greet her patient.”

Jamie rushed close and handed Tinch a muffin he’d carried all the way from Winter’s Inn. “These are great,” he said as he dropped the crumbles across the sheet.

Tinch laughed. “Got any milk to go with that, son?”

“I’ll get it, Dad.” Jamie ran for the door. “Noah showed me where the nurses hide it.”

Both Tinch and Addison went still for a moment, almost afraid to allow the boy out of their sight. Then they breathed and smiled at one another. The danger was over.

He took her hand and pulled her to him. “Now that we don’t have to guard him every minute, are you going to
disappear on me? I kind of got used to you sleeping on the other side of my bed.”

“You still owe me a date. I think I’ll wait around until you pay up.”

He touched his lip with his thumb, as though considering whether kissing her would be worth the pain.

She straightened. “Don’t even think about it.”

“You’re asking the impossible, Addie.”

“I’m your doctor and I plan to make sure you are completely recovered before …”

He grinned. “Before what?”

“Before I attack you again.”

He studied her a minute before saying, “Draw up the papers, Doc, I’m checking out of this place. I think you just cured me.”

Addison laughed. “Two, maybe three more days in here and then at least a week’s rest before you can go dancing.”

T
RUMAN
F
ARM

N
OAH NEVER LEFT WHEN HE TOOK
R
EAGAN HOME FROM THE
hospital. They were both exhausted, but there were things that needed to be done, and, Noah realized, things that needed to be said.

After they got back to her place, he made her a sandwich while she took a shower, and they ate out on the porch, watching the first winter storm come in from the north. Both had too much on their mind to notice the cold. They were both from the land, a part of the weather and the sun’s passing and the storms.

For the first time in a long time, it felt good just to relax and breathe. He could think of nowhere else he’d rather be right now.

“One of the carpenters told me the sheriff had a neighbor bury Old Dog out by the orchard,” Reagan said between bites. “Tell her thanks for me.”

“I’m sorry about the dog,” Noah said after they’d both been quiet for a while. There didn’t seem any need to keep the conversation flowing.

“He’d seemed lost since Uncle Jeremiah died.” Reagan leaned back and tried to prop her feet on the porch railing like Noah was doing, but her legs weren’t quite long enough. “You think dogs go to heaven? I can’t imagine Uncle Jeremiah being happy there if Old Dog isn’t by his side.”

“Sure, dogs go to heaven. Horses do, too, but I’m not so sure about bulls.”

Reagan laughed. “What about ducks and chickens and alligators?”

Noah grinned. “Ducks, yes. Chickens are too dumb to go anywhere, and no alligators, not even the cute little ones.”

They spent a while in senseless conversation. Noah liked making her laugh. He decided Reagan hadn’t laughed enough in her life, and he knew she hadn’t loved enough.

When it finally got too cold, they went inside. He said good night and took a shower before turning in. He hated the little room down the hall from Reagan, but this was as close as he was likely to get. The space must have been furnished for a kid, with a little nightstand, a little dresser, and a little desk. The bed was the only thing in the room big enough for him.

With the lights out, he bumped his way across the room and finally crawled into bed. A second later he almost jumped out of his skin when he bumped against another warm body.

Reagan was sound asleep in his bed.

It took Noah a few minutes to calm down and another ten to decide what to do. Maybe it was the thirty hours he’d gone without sleep. Maybe it was the flannel PJs she wore, but he decided to just sleep.

He pulled her close against him, took a deep breath capturing the clean smell of her hair in his lungs, and relaxed.
She’d come to him, he thought, and for right now that was more than he’d hoped for.

Just after dawn he felt her poke him in the shoulder again and again like she thought she was a morning woodpecker.

“What?” he grumbled.

“What do you have on?”

“Nothing,” he answered. “Why?”

“I want to get out of bed, and I can’t crawl over you if you don’t have anything on.”

“Why not? You’ve got enough layers on for both of us. Last night I felt your foot in my back and I thought a squirrel was in bed with us.”

He pulled up the covers. “It’s freezing in here. Didn’t you turn on the heater last night?”

“Didn’t you?” She punched her pillow and settled in. “Get out of bed. I won’t look. Once you’re decent, I’ll climb out.”

“I’m still asleep,” he mumbled. “And, by the way, this is my bed. I have a right to sleep in or out of whatever I want.” He fought to keep from laughing.

She kicked him with one of her squirrel socks, and he turned to face her. “Rea, if you didn’t want to sleep with me, why’d you climb in my bed last night?” He raised one eyebrow. “Hey, wait a minute. You didn’t touch me while I was asleep, because I’d hate to miss something like that.”

“No, but I could have. You slept like a dead man. I don’t think you rolled over except when I poked you to get you to stop snoring.”

“You didn’t answer my question. Why’d you get in my bed?”

He watched her bite her bottom lip and had about decided she didn’t know the answer when she finally said, “I wanted to. I know you’re not ready to settle down, and I don’t think I want to either, but I want you in my life.” She stared at him and slowly added, “I want you, Noah.”

“As a friend?”

“No. I want more.”

He brushed his hand over her wonderful, wild hair. “Are you sure?”

She nodded.

“I love you, Rea,” Noah said, realizing how completely he meant it. He’d thought it every day for a long time, and finally it just slipped out. “I really love you. It didn’t just happen, I’ve always felt like this.” The words he was using weren’t enough.

She cupped his cheek with her small hand. “I love you too.”

“Like you love winter and blackberries and Big?”

“No.” She kissed his nose. “Like I’ve never loved anyone. I crawled in your bed last night because I wanted to show you how much, but when you came to bed, I got scared.”

“But you stayed. That’s a start, Rea.”

“I stayed. I’m not going anywhere. Big is right. I can’t let something that happened to me as a kid rule my life.”

Noah frowned. “Tell Big to get out of this bed.”

She giggled. “He’s not here. There’s no room.”

He pulled her close. “I’m so glad you’re next to me, Rea, I can’t even be mad at Big. But I don’t want to hurry you, honey. A lot has happened, your uncle dying and all the mess at the hospital.”

She covered his mouth with her fingertips. “None of that has anything to do with why I’m here. I feel like I’ve had a few endings in my life lately, but I think I’m ready to see what’s just down the road. We’ve got years to love and fight. We might as well get started, because from the first moment I met you I had a feeling you’d always be there waiting for me.”

“So you’ll be my girl?”

She smiled.

“My woman. My one true love?”

“If no matter where you go, you always come home to me.”

“You’ve got my word.” He held her to him.

“Noah,” she giggled. “You’re naked.”

“Get used to it, Rea.” He kissed her neck.

“Well, I’m staying, but I plan to sleep in my pajamas.” She sounded nervous, but not frightened.

“All right, honey, but those socks have got to go.” He slid his hand down her leg and tugged off first one and then the other.

She giggled, promising he’d regret his action when cold feet touched his back.

Noah wanted to take his time loving Reagan. He never wanted anything he did to frighten her. “We got all day, Rea,” he said as he began unbuttoning her PJs. “And I promise, I’ll keep you warm.”

She didn’t try to stop him. He could feel her shaking, so he stopped and talked to her as his fingers moved slowly over first the flannel covering her body, then beneath to her skin.

When he finally pulled the material away, he couldn’t help but smile. “You’re beautiful, Rea, just as I always knew you would be. I’m going to love you until the day I die.”

With the sun coming through the windows, he made love to her slowly and with great care. As he knew they would, they seemed to fit together perfectly.

Afterward, he lay back feeling more content than he ever had in his life. He might need the excitement of the rodeo, but he also needed the loving peace of Rea by his side. He just wanted to hold her next to his heart.

After a long while he felt her moving by his side. “How about we take a nap before we go down for breakfast?”

She wiggled in close. “I’m starving, but I can’t get up because now I’m naked.”

He laughed. “I can see there could be a problem. You know, at some point one of us is going to have to see the other one completely naked. That is, if you plan on sleeping with me again.”

“I do,” she whisper. “And the other part. The not sleeping. I thought that was wonderful.”

“You did?”

“Sure. Maybe you wouldn’t mind doing it again after we have breakfast.”

Noah jumped out of bed, pulling one of the blankets with him as he went. “I’m starving. Maybe we’d better cook breakfast.”

Rea reached for her top and pulled it on beneath the covers, then climbed out of bed.

A few minutes later, as he watched her cooking eggs and toast wearing a top that
almost
covered her bottom, Noah tried to think of food, but all his mind could do was remember the way she’d felt and all his eyes could do was stare at that inch where the top didn’t quite cover her.

He forced down breakfast and carried her back upstairs in a run. This time when they made love she wasn’t afraid. This time they laughed and teased and became true lovers.

A few hours later, Noah decided he’d be the first man in history to die from lack of sleep, but at least he’d die happy.

S
ATURDAY

O
CTOBER
15

T
YLER PICKED
K
ATE UP FROM THE AIRPORT THREE DAYS
after Brandy Lee Smith was born. He couldn’t wait to tell her all about what had happened that morning at the hospital and how he’d stopped a kidnapping. She’d be so proud of him.

When she walked toward him, Tyler couldn’t stop smiling. As always, she was in her tailored gray suit with her high-necked blouse. She looked very much like what she was, a major with a very important job, but he knew her in a different light. He knew her curled up next to him as they watched movies and offering silent help when he worked a funeral. He knew her when she laughed at night as she knocked on his open door, knowing he’d welcome her into his bed.

He almost laughed, thinking he knew her best after they
made love and she always whispered
I love you
before falling asleep.

He caught himself before he yelled,
Marry me, Kate!
In the six months they’d been truly together, he’d tried every way he could think of to get her to set a date. He knew her retirement from the army was on her mind. She’d joined right out of college, and it was the only life she’d known. “Hello, darling,” he managed as she neared. “Welcome home.”