Always Remember (16 page)

Sara’s gaze shifted to Hale. “I can’t believe he got on Diablo again. You always encourage him. I asked you to watch out for him.”

Hale clenched his fists at his sides. “What did you want me to do, Sara? Punch out his lights? Lose my job?”

“I counted on you—”

“Jeez, he’s a man. He doesn’t need you babysitting him.”

“Babysitting?”

Oh, boy.
Two adult children and a third in bed. Jessie shoved to her feet and approached the bed. “Hale’s right, Sara. Your dad’s old enough to have realized the consequences of riding that horse. If you want to yell at anyone, yell at him. He deserves it.”

A tear rolled down Sara’s cheek. With the back of her hand, she brushed it away, marched across the room, and threw herself onto the empty armchair. Jessie caught a glimpse of reaction on Hale’s face – simple anger or something more? – before he slammed his hat on his head, muttered under his breath, and strode from the room.

George cleared his throat to regain their attention. “Did he wake up after the fall?”

As she fielded George’s questions, Jessie shot a quick look at Sara.

The girl was staring at the open doorway, her brow furrowed with worry. A lover’s spat? But Sara wasn’t any of her business. The girl was Nate’s concern. His daughter.

So how come that hurt so much?

“Ouch!” Nate’s shout of pain brought Jessie around. He looked furious and dazed as he shoved George’s hands away from his head. “What’s with all the racket? Can’t you guys keep quiet?”

“Serves you right.” George leaned forward and examined each of his patient’s eyes with a small flashlight. “I hate to tell you this, bud, but you’ve lost another million brain cells. At this rate, your cattle will be smarter than you.”

“Wise guy.”

“Come to think of it, they probably already are. I don’t see any of them crazy enough to mount Diablo.”

Nate pushed George’s hands away. “Go away and leave me alone.”

“Heard the fall knocked you out cold.”

“Yeah. So?”

“You’ve got a concussion, bud. You’ll have to take it easy for a while.”

Slightly unfocused eyes fixed on Jessie, the unexpected heat and intensity making her nervous. “I’m gonna need someone to take care of me.”

She shifted from one foot to the other. “Sara can do it.”

“Sara’s just a kid.”

“Yeah. I’m too young for this kind of responsibility,” Sara piped up from the armchair.

“What about Harley? She’s a nurse.”

“Harley’s busy with your mom. So that leaves just you. What d’ya say, Jess?”

Heat flared in her cheeks and deep in her womb. Spend time alone with Nate? In his bedroom? What if things got too personal? Was he well enough to want to...? She started to shake her head.

“Someone needs to stay with him, Jessie. Wake him every few hours. It’s too much for Sara to handle alone,” George added.

They had her cornered. Was it all a conspiracy? Make the runaway pay? Hadn’t she paid enough?

“All you have to do is keep him in bed. You don’t even have to talk to him, if you don’t want.”

“Yeah. He usually just sleeps it off anyway,” Sara inserted.

Wringing the edges of her t-shirt, she sighed and gave in to the inevitable. How hard could it be to spend the night sitting at Nate’s bedside? He’d probably doze for most of it. She speared Sara with what she hoped was a determined expression. “Fine. I’ll take the night shift. But you, young lady, are going to sit with your dad all day tomorrow and entertain him.”

The girl shrugged her shoulders and pushed to her feet. “If you can keep him in bed that long, I’ll do my share of the babysitting.”

George pushed his glasses up on his nose. “Good. It’s all settled then. Forty-eight hours and he’ll be back on his feet. You know the rules, Sara.”

The girl sauntered across to the bed, leaned over, and gave her dad a kiss on the forehead. “And you know Dad makes his own.”

Jessie forced herself to sound as if her heart wasn’t lodged in her throat. “So, Doc. Do you have any advice? Just how am I supposed to keep him in bed for forty-eight hours?”

Nate cleared his throat and his smile grew wider. “Don’t worry, Jess. I’ll think of some way to keep us occupied.”

“Forget it.”

“Well, then.” Nate pushed himself up on one elbow, swung his legs off the bed, and managed to sit up. Along with George and Sara, Jessie watched open-mouthed as he grabbed his hat from the bedpost and slammed it on his head. His jaw flexed and hardened.

Stubborn man.

“
Dad.
”

“Don’t Dad me.”

As Nate pushed to his feet, the color rushed from his face. Jessie stepped into his path. He swayed toward her, wound his arms around her shoulders, and leaned on her for support.

“You need a babysitter.”

“I need you.” He whispered the words into her ear. His breath stirred her hair.

Longing and desire swept through her. “Maybe you better follow the doctor’s orders, at least for today, Nate.”

She felt his hand move down her back, settle at the indentation of her waist.

“You’ll stay?”

“Sure.” Her traitorous heart softened. She urged him to sit on the edge of the bed, pulled the hat from his head, and plunked it on top of the bedpost. “Lie down and get some sleep.”

“Lay down with me, Jess,” he said.

She glanced at Sara, saw the girl grin as if she’d planned the entire ridiculous episode. So much for keeping the young innocent. Jessie laid one hand against Nate’s chest and leaned forward, lowering her voice. “Sara and George are still here.”

“Then get rid of them. Come lay beside me and I promise I’ll sleep.”

Right. Judging by the light in his eyes, he was thinking about what else they could do in bed. She gave him a gentle push that put him flat on his back, then turned to George. His grin was even bigger than Sara’s.

“Keep looking at me with that silly smile and you’ll be spending the next forty-eight hours babysitting him.”

“Can’t. I’ve got real patients to attend to.”

“Any bits of wisdom you care to pass on? I’ve heard you’re supposed to give these head injury-types a poke once in a while. You know. Wake them up to see if they were sleeping.”

George sobered instantly and set to work packing his instruments away in his bag. “Wake him up every hour for the next twelve. And if you have any questions, just ask Sara. She’s been through this before.”

“Okay. Thanks, George.”

“No problem. I’ll be out first thing in the morning to check on him.” He picked up his case. “There. My good deed done for the day. Have to get back to healing people who are really sick.”

From the bed, Nate mumbled, “Wise guy.”

“So the king of bronco riding’s still awake.” George winked at Sara. “Hey, bud? I’ll bring Mike with me tomorrow and we can jam for a while.”

“Sure thing,” Nate slurred.

A frown flickered across George’s face. “Every hour. Don’t forget.”

Sara grabbed him by the arm. “Come on. Let’s go check on Maude.”

They were abandoning her. “Hey, when are you coming back to relieve me?”

As Sara dragged George out of the room, she threw a smile over her shoulder. “Suppertime? Is that okay with you?”

She was gone before Jessie could answer.

In the silence of the room, Nate’s voice was a bare whisper. “Jess?”

She stepped closer to the bed and leaned forward, bracing her arms on the mattress on either side of his shoulders. “What?”

He grabbed her by the waist and tumbled her onto the bed, pinning her to his side with a strength that belied his injury. She managed to rise up on one elbow. “Nate, let me go.”

His eyes were closed, but a smile hovered at the edges of his mouth. “I promised to sleep, didn’t I?”

She felt the stroke of his hand up her side, the brush of his fingers against the edge of her breast. “Stop that.”

“Stop what?” His hand inched up her back, cupped her head, and coaxed her down beside him. “Shhh. Let me get some sleep, will you?”

Sleep? She didn’t believe him for a moment, especially when she felt his hand shift and cup the bottom of her breast.

But then she felt the even rise and fall of his chest, heard him softly snore. Resting her head on his shoulder, she studied his profile and wondered how much longer she’d be able to resist the temptation he offered. Last time, it had gotten her into more trouble than she’d been able to handle. She’d lost their baby, the man she loved, and the life she’d wanted.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Nate woke to the silence of the night, to the promise of a warm body lying in his arms, to the intoxicating fragrance he identified with Jessie — sweet and elusive and mind consuming, just like the woman. He opened his eyes, shifted his head, and experienced a rush of dizziness and pain.

Oh, yeah, Diablo. Why had he mounted the beast in the first place?

Beside him, Jessie sighed. Her hand slid from his chest, downward, and Nate caught his breath, releasing it only when her hand stopped low on his belly. How had she ended up on the bed beside him?

Muscles he couldn’t ever remember noticing before made their presence known now. Nate shifted, felt a pull in his hip, stretched one leg to test the pain, then decided to test it further. Unless he rolled Jessie out of his arms, there was no way to ease into a more comfortable position.

Squinting against the glare of the hallway light, he studied her profile. With her head pillowed on his arm, her hair spread out across the white pillow, she looked like she was waiting for a lover’s kiss. Nate bent his neck and touched his lips to hers.

Her eyes, heavy with sleep, blinked open. “Oh. Where am I? What are you doing here?”

Disappointment washed through him. He hadn’t meant to wake her. He’d only wanted another taste of her delectable mouth. He rested his head on the pillow and studied her face. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to wake you.”

Guilt crossed her features. She pushed up on one elbow. “Do you need anything? A glass of water? Something for your head?”

Nate caught her by the waist. What he needed was a locked door, or Sara still in Jasper, or maybe both. He wasn’t dead and he wasn’t made of ice. He was flesh and blood and totally alive judging by the way his lower body responded to her nearness.

A wave of unexpected dizziness swept through his brain. Maybe it was the thump he’d taken on the head. Maybe it was the result of Jessie’s nearness — the softness of her body pressed against his, the yearning that spread from his loins to the rest of his body.

“Nate?”

“Ssshhh.”

Capturing the back of her head, he urged her forward. The moment her mouth touched his, fire roared through his veins. His hand skimmed along the curve of her breast, the indentation at her waist, the slight flare of her hips. With each hill and valley he encountered, a rush of memories, moments of making love with Jessie, threatened his good intentions.

He’d only meant to kiss her, to see if she tasted as delicious as he remembered. Except she tasted better, sweeter. Funny, he’d never really taken the time to appreciate the sweet taste of her mouth, the silky texture of her hair, the velvet softness of her flesh beneath his palm.

Nate stilled. Somehow he’d gotten the buttons of her shirt undone and her breast rested in the palm of his hand. He brushed his thumb against the nipple and she sighed into his mouth. Yeah, softer than velvet, every single inch of her.

This was better than any fantasy he’d ever had in his life. He was dreaming. Yeah, that had to be it. A result of mounting Diablo and hitting the ground with his head. What other reason could there be for having Jessie in his bed, touching him back?

Nate shifted to give her better access to the buttons on his shirt, felt a twinge pull at his hip, ignored it. At the first touch of her hand on his bare chest, he groaned deep in his throat. Dreaming. Just a dream.
But what a dream.

He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, in his ears, deep in his loins. He wanted to bury himself within her, lose himself in her forever. But he refused to rush, not in
this
dream, not for the space of
this
night.

He had a hazy recollection of casting off the inhibitions of daylight and welcoming the night, of shedding the barriers that kept them apart. Clothes were discarded, tossed onto the floor, until only the naked flesh between them kept their souls from becoming one. Chest to chest, thigh to thigh, her skin was so soft it flowed across his palm like water in a late summer creek.

“Jess, I’m not protected,” he managed to croak out from a throat suddenly gone dry.

“I am,” she whispered, her hair spilling across his chest as she pushed him onto his back and straddled him.

She took him deep into her body, every inch of her encasing him in liquid heat. Nate reached for her, dragging her down, fusing his mouth to hers, matching his rhythm to her own. As he felt the first contraction of her muscles around him, he wondered briefly if Diablo had finally kicked his butt for good and he’d gone to heaven.

And then he gave himself over to the magic of dreams and loving Jessie.

The steady measure of the clock on the wall echoed through the silent room as Jessie lay curled against Nate’s side, her head on his chest. Beneath her ear, she heard the beat of his heart as he drifted off to sleep. Her eyes filled with tears and she blinked them away.