15 Summers Later, page 15
“Good thing I’m not your patient, then.”
He smiled, still crouched in front of her. It would be so easy to lean forward slightly and brush her mouth against his...
“You don’t have to take my advice. If you want, I can drive you to the hospital ER up in Ketchum.”
Already the pain had begun to fade to a much more manageable level. She sighed, feeling stupid and overdramatic. “You don’t have to do that. I’ll be okay. I’m being a big baby.”
“You are far from a baby.”
Something in his low voice sent shivers rippling down her spine.
“Want me to put your sock back on?”
Despite the pain receding, Madi suspected it would be best not to mess with her toes more than strictly necessary. “No. Just my shoe.”
He loosened the laces on her sneaker further, gripped her heel and slid the shoe on. If someone had told her she could be this stirred up sitting in a barn while a man put a shoe on an injured foot, she would have told them they were making up ridiculous stories.
Yet here she was, holding her breath as if he were taking items of apparel off instead of the other way around.
Was it her imagination or did his hand pause on her ankle a little longer than strictly necessary? The heat of his skin seemed to burn through her.
Stop it, she chided herself. This was Luke. Her friend. Her boss. For all intents and purposes, he was her partner in the Emerald Creek Animal Rescue, as he had been behind her every step of the way and gave as many volunteer hours to the sanctuary as she or anyone else.
She couldn’t screw things up by letting the tiny crush she had always secretly nurtured grow into something bigger, like a true infatuation, with all the complications that would entail.
What if it was too late? a voice whispered.
She ignored it.
It wasn’t. She wouldn’t let it be. She only had to forget about this simmering attraction and do her best to keep their relationship in the friend zone. She could do this.
“Come on,” he said, rising. “I’ll help you back to the house.”
He reached a hand out and she let him pull her up.
She gingerly put weight on her foot and was relieved that the pain had eased considerably.
“I’m doing much better. I’ll be okay. Thanks for taking a look.”
She took a step toward the door, then wobbled, not because of her foot but because she was forced to rely on her weaker leg, now that the other one had been injured.
Luke stepped forward and caught her before she could stumble into something. “Here. I’ve got you. I won’t let you fall. I’ll give you a ride back to the house.”
“I can walk. It’s only a hundred yards.”
“But a hundred yards on a sore foot versus five to my pickup and five more up your steps. I think the ride is a much better plan.”
He had a point, she had to admit. Luke hooked his arm through hers, his body warm and comforting beside her as he helped her to his truck, then lifted her up into the seat.
She wanted to tell him she was fine, that she could handle this on her own, but it felt nice to lean on his strength.
He drove the short distance she usually walked several times a day. The small farmhouse looked welcoming in the darkness, with the light she left on for her dogs beaming out through the yard.
He pulled up to the porch then helped her out of the truck. She tried not to notice the strength of his arms or the heat of him or his delicious scent of sage and juniper.
She loved evenings here at the farmhouse. Crickets chirped and she could hear the distant call of a coyote somewhere in the surrounding mountains as they made their way up the porch steps.
“Do you have a key?” Luke asked at her door.
She pulled her key ring out of her pocket and unlocked the door. He pushed it open and turned on the foyer light as her old golden retriever, Mo, waddled out, followed close behind by Mabel, her little schnoodle.
“There you are, guys. Do you need to go out? Come on.”
She limped to the back door, where she could let the dogs out into the enclosed yard.
“Sorry,” she said to Luke. “I have to let them out first, especially Mo. If he gets too excited, he’ll have an accident.”
“I get it. I’ve got an old lady of my own.”
“Right. How is Ruby?” she asked of his chocolate Lab.
“She’s good. Funny as ever. She still loves to cuddle and she’s still afraid of the telephone.”
She smiled. “How old is she?”
“Eleven now.”
“Mo is twelve. That’s getting up there for a golden.”
“He’s still doing okay, though? Anything I need to look at on either of your dogs?”
She shook her head. “I think you’ve done enough tonight, Dr. Gentry. Put away your stethoscope. A goat, a miniature horse and me with my bruised toe. That’s a full evening, especially after a party. Believe it or not, you don’t have to take care of the whole world.”
His smile. “It’s a hard habit to break, one I think I inherited from my dad.”
“He was a good man. And so are you.”
On impulse, she reached up to kiss his cheek. She couldn’t have said why she did it. Maybe it was out of gratitude for his constant generosity of spirit toward her and all the animals she loved or the deep well of gratitude she felt for all his help with the animal shelter.
They had been friends long enough that casual physical affection between them wasn’t all that unusual, though perhaps more rare these days.
This brush of her lips against his skin somehow didn’t feel casual.
He had a hint of evening stubble on his jaw and he smelled even better this close.
He gazed down at her, eyes wide with surprise. They looked at each other for a long time, the only sound their mingled breathing.
The moment seemed to stretch out, delicate and fragile, then an instant later, Luke shifted his mouth to hers. Her breath caught, tangled with his as his mouth brushed across hers with aching slowness.
What was happening right now?
Madi reeled, dizzy with shock. Luke Gentry was kissing her—her—in her kitchen, his arms holding her close, as if she were infinitely precious to him.
She forgot about the dogs, about her sore toe, about anything else but him and this moment.
She hadn’t kissed a man in a long time. Not since her summer fling the previous year, when she had dated a cute cowboy who had come to town to work as a wrangler at one of the dude ranches nearby.
Luke did not kiss like that guy, whose name she couldn’t even remember right now.
In fact, she could not remember ever experiencing another kiss like this one, where she felt every heartbeat echo through her, and was certain the world outside this farmhouse had suddenly tilted on its axis.
She didn’t want to stop. She wanted to stay forever right here in his arms, where she felt safe and warm and cherished.
They might have stayed there kissing until the morning, if Mo hadn’t barked softly to be let in from the other side of the door.
At the sound, Luke froze. His eyes flew open and she could see exactly when the soft, dreamlike state lifted and reality returned.
The expression in his gaze shifted from one of hazy desire to something closer to astonished dismay.
The mouth that had been so delicious on hers sagged open for an instant, before compressing into a tight line.
As he dropped his arms from around her, Madi felt something inside her begin to shrivel, something soft and vulnerable and wonderful that had flared to life during the kiss.
“That was... I shouldn’t have... We shouldn’t have...”
She should probably say something to ease the extreme awkwardness that has suddenly blossomed between them, but she could not for the life of her, think of any words beyond wow, which she didn’t think would be quite appropriate.
Why had he kissed her? More to the point, why had she responded as if this was the first kiss she’d ever had that actually meant something?
“I don’t know what just happened.” Luke raked a hand through his hair. “You kissed my cheek and...you always smell so good and I couldn’t resist.”
She stared at him, feeling as if every single rational thought had completely flown out of her head.
“I... What?”
He grimaced. “I know. It was completely inappropriate. I’m your employer. I should never have taken advantage of you like that.”
He was concerned about kissing her because she worked for him? That thought had never even crossed her mind. Their relationship was so multilayered, the fact that she was a vet tech in his office seemed a minimal issue.
“Technically I work for you, I guess. But only for another few weeks.”
He did not look happy about the reminder. “Still. I shouldn’t have kissed you. It was a gross abuse of power.”
“You currently pay my salary but it’s not as if you hold my entire professional future in your hands. And I’m sorry you find my kisses gross,” she muttered.
He gave her an exasperated look. “You know that’s not what I meant. I don’t know what came over me. I’ve always been very careful not to...to let myself think about you that way.”
She wasn’t quite sure how to interpret that admission. “What way? Like a woman?”
“Like a woman at all available for the kind of relationship where we could kiss and...other things. You’ve always been like a sister to me.”
“I’m not your sister.”
He gave her a wry, tight smile. “Yes. I’m fully aware. But our lives are deeply intertwined. We work together, both at the clinic and here at the rescue. You’re best friends and roommates with my sister. You come to my mother’s house for dinner every month. For all intents and purposes, you’re part of the family.”
She couldn’t argue with him. They should never have kissed. Everything he said paralleled what she herself had been thinking.
He gripped her hand in his, his feature set. “You’re important to me, Mad. I care about you. My daughter cares about you. My mom would adopt you if she could. I don’t want to do anything to screw that up for everyone.”
Had one kiss made things irrevocably awkward between them? She couldn’t bear thinking that.
Luke was exactly right. Since the day he and his family had rescued her and Ava, Madi had always been careful to lock away any romantic feelings for him. But how could she help but fall a little in love with a man who had pulled her out of the line of fire and covered her body with his?
He probably didn’t think she remembered. They hadn’t spoken of those moments and he likely believed the gunshot wound she had sustained had given her short-term memory loss or something.
She remembered everything, though. The smell of gunpowder, the baying of the dogs, the frantic shouts and searing pain as she had been shot.
Luke had been solid and strong, even though scared himself, she knew. He had shoved Ava and Nicki behind a rock, yelled for his brother to take cover and had picked up the family’s rifle before covering Madi, who was bleeding copiously from the bullet that had struck her temple and lodged under her skull.
We’re going to get you out of this. I promise. Just hang on, kid, he had whispered to her as he fired the rifle in the direction the shots were firing.
She remembered the cries and shouts as his shots and his father’s managed to keep their pursuers at bay.
She also knew he had risked his life for her, as his father had. Luke had no way of knowing a helicopter full of federal agents from multiple agencies had been deployed to rescue her and her sister as soon as Dan Gentry had made that first satellite call a half hour earlier, after they stumbled onto their camp.
He had continued protecting them all with single-minded focus.
She drew in a shaky breath. “Okay. Here’s what we have to do. We both need to forget the last fifteen minutes ever happened.”
He made a rough sound of disbelief, low in his throat. “How do you propose we do that?”
“Easy. We just focus on all the reasons why that kiss should not have happened. You’re right. The various strands of our lives are interwoven. You are too important to me. I don’t want to lose that. I can’t lose that.”
Something flickered in his gaze, something hot, surprising. She did her best to ignore it.
“We simply have to rewind back to when I unlocked the door. You helped me inside, we put the dogs out, then you went on your merry way for the night. That’s how I will choose to remember this evening and I...I suggest you do the same. It’s the only way we can go back to...to our regular life. To the way things were.”
He sighed. “I wish it were that easy. It’s not, especially when I’ve wanted to kiss you for longer than I care to admit.”
She childishly shoved her hands over her ears. “Stop it. I’m not listening. Don’t tell me things like that, Luke. Now that’s one more thing I’ll have to forget.”
He released an unsteady breath. “I’m afraid you’re right. It’s the only option, if we want to maintain the status quo.”
She nodded, even as everything inside her ached to step straight back into his arms.
“For the record, it was a pretty unforgettable kiss, but I’ll do my best to put it out of my head.”
Unforgettable. That seemed a tame word for something she feared would be seared into her memory.
“I should head back. Everyone will be wondering where I am and what animal distracted me this time.”
“I am not sure they would believe you if you said the animal was me,” Madi said.
He gave a rough laugh, studied her for another few seconds, then shook his head. “Good night. I’ll see you tomorrow at the office. Where everything will be professional and comfortable and not weird at all.”
“Actually, I’m off tomorrow, remember? Dentist appointment in the morning, then I’m working at the rescue the rest of the day.”
“Right. I’ll see you Tuesday, then. Good night.”
After he left, she let the dogs inside, then headed for the living room.
As soon as she sank onto her favorite spot on the sofa, Mo jumped up on one side and Mabel jumped up on the other.
She hugged them both to her, grateful to have these two in her life and their constant, steady, uncomplicated love.
17
The mountains become both our refuge and our battleground. Scaling steep cliffs, navigating dense forests and surviving on meager rations, we cling to each other like a lifeline. The whispers of the wind carry tales of freedom, and with each step, we etch a path away from the Coalition’s suffocating grasp.
—Ghost Lake by Ava Howell Brooks
Ava
Ava stared at the ridiculous array of pregnancy tests spread out in the bathroom.
Morning sun filtered through the gauzy curtains, lighting on all those plus signs.
So this was happening. She couldn’t pretend otherwise now, even in her head. Seven—no, eight—positive pregnancy tests couldn’t be wrong.
She was pregnant. The word echoed in her mind like a secret she had been keeping from herself for weeks.
She and Cullen would become parents in roughly thirty-five weeks, according to her quick mental calculations.
She could picture a girl with his brown eyes and compassion or a boy with that same sweet smile and quick sense of humor.
“Hi, little one,” she murmured, pressing a hand to her abdomen. Already she was linked to the tiny life growing inside her, a life that would depend on her for everything.
What a strange dichotomy, that she felt so connected to Cullen in this moment when they were further apart than they had been since they first met, by both distance and circumstances.
She had to tell him.
She huffed out a breath. She didn’t want to. The pregnancy would change everything between them, could become either a lifeline or a wrecking ball.
What would he think when she showed up out of the blue with news like this? Would he be happy? Terrified? Angry?
Maybe she could wait. Couldn’t she keep this news to herself a bit longer, at least until she had time to process what it would all mean herself?
He was busy with his dig. That was important to him, an amazing chance, and she didn’t want to risk distracting him.
Besides, he had been clear that he needed breathing space, time to figure out whether he could forgive her for keeping huge chunks of her life secret from him.
That alone was exactly the reason she had to tell him now about the pregnancy. If she wanted her marriage to survive, Ava knew she had to be open and honest with him. No matter the consequences.
She studied her hand splayed over her abdomen, where no outward sign gave a clue as to the miraculous changes happening inside her.
She had to tell him now, but how? She didn’t want to go up to Ghost Lake by herself. Any mountain terrain would have intimidated her. That one was literally the stuff of her nightmares.
She could ask someone to go with her. Grandma Leona? She quickly discarded that.
What about Madison?
Ava stared at her pale reflection in the bathroom mirror. Why would her sister help her? She was more likely to laugh in her face if Ava asked.
It was a ridiculous idea, wasn’t it?
Maybe, maybe not. Madi had been gracious enough to invite her to be a volunteer at the shelter. Ava knew Madi had a hard time refusing any creature, animal or human, who needed her.
With fresh resolve, she gathered up all the pregnancy tests, threw them in the bathroom trash, then pulled the liner bag out, tying it securely and carrying it out to the bin herself. She didn’t want anyone else discovering she was pregnant until she’d found the chance to tell Cullen. This was his child. He deserved to know first.
