by Liz Isaacson
“Designated Driver,” he repeated. “I hated that nickname. But at the same time, I’m sort of proud of it. Now. I’m proud of it now.”
“Surely you could’ve been the one picking out pretty girls,” she said quietly.
“Probably,” he said. “But it’s not really my scene, you know?”
Their eyes met, and Vi definitely felt the charge racing between them.
“In fact,” he said. “I haven’t had a girlfriend in about ten years.” His eyes dropped to her mouth, and everything inside Vi stilled. “Haven’t kissed a woman in longer than that.” He was whispering by the time he finished speaking, and Vi’s mind had gone completely blank.
His words sounded like English, but they didn’t make sense.
He was a billionaire. Good-looking. Talented. He could’ve kissed a different woman every morning, noon, and night if he’d wanted to.
And Vi hadn’t been out of the dating game for nearly as long as he had, and she knew desire when she saw it in a man’s eyes. Knew Todd wanted to kiss her.
So she tipped forward and let her eyes drift closed just before she touched her lips to his. And wow, even with two broken legs and a long drought, the man still gave her the best kiss of her life.
Chapter Seven
Surprise pulled through Todd, though he’d seen Vi coming. It was quickly replaced by heat and desire, and he curled his fingers behind her neck and up into her hair as he kissed her.
No, he hadn’t kissed anyone in a great long while, and wow, he didn’t want to kiss anyone but her again. Her, over and over.
Todd had been searching for something in his life, and he couldn’t help wondering if it was Vi Everett. If he should’ve been searching for a someone all this time.
“Oh, sorry.”
Vi pulled away at the voice, and they both looked toward the doorway, where Margo stood. She blinked and ducked back out the way she’d come, the door practically slamming behind her.
Vi giggled and sat back in the recliner. “Well, at least she knows now.”
“Knows what?” Todd asked, missing the taste of her, the warmth of her body hovering gently over his.
“That you’re kind of off-limits.”
“Am I?”
She swatted his shoulder. “You just said you weren’t into that scene.”
Todd flinched away from her and chuckled. He sobered and looked into those blue, blue eyes. So blue he thought he could dive in and swim around for a bit. “I’m not, Vi. Okay?”
She nodded. “Okay.” She laced her fingers through his and leaned her head back. “So tell me more about your family.”
Todd marveled at the simplicity of his first kiss in a decade. At this beautiful, bold, brilliant woman who seemed to like him.
Him.
Him, when it was always someone else. Him, when it had always been Taylor.
Taylor. Hey, she’d asked for some stories about his family, and he had the best ones about his little brother. She’d find out anyway, so he said, “So my brother, Taylor, is a few years younger than me. Once, I was dating this barrel racer named Genie. You can laugh at that.”
Todd waited for her to make a quip, which she did. “Did she grant wishes?”
“His,” Todd said in response, expecting the crack about wishes. “She cheated on me with him.”
Vi’s smiled disappeared. “Oh, that’s not a good story.” She squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry.”
“And I haven’t dated since.” Todd hadn’t meant to spill his entire pathetic dating history in the first real conversation with Vi. But he couldn’t take the words back now, and she matched her story with one of her own.
“Not one of my sisters,” she said. “But a best friend. She even set us up.”
“Wow,” he said.
“Yeah, wow.” She grinned at him, and the nurse came back in. Awkwardness descended as Margo checked his machines and added more medicine to his IV.
Todd didn’t like the watery feeling the drugs gave him, and he hated that they’d make him fall asleep. But Vi looked at him after Margo left and said, “Go ahead and rest. I’ll be right here when you wake up.”
And for a man like Todd, who’d never had anyone there right when he needed them, those were the best words he’d ever heard.
Todd had been in the hospital for six solid days, and if he had to go back in that tiny room, he was thinking of making a run for it. Which was ridiculous, what with the thighbone fracture in his left leg and the much more minor tibia fracture in his right. He couldn’t walk, and there was no way he could actually run.
But he couldn’t go back in that room either.
Thankfully, Vi pushed him outside under the open sky and said they were discharging him in about an hour. “So you don’t have to go back inside,” she said.
He hadn’t said anything to her about it, but perhaps she’d picked up on his excitement to get out, go somewhere, do something. He had never been one to sit on the couch and watch TV, and the stations in the hospital weren’t entertaining at all.
Vi had come every day before breakfast and she stayed until well past dark. She’d only slept in the room with him on that first night, and then he insisted she go back to the lodge. After all, he didn’t need her there, not getting the rest she needed, just because it soothed him.
In addition to all he’d spilled about his love life and his family, they’d spent some time talking about their careers, and he realized she was a much bigger celebrity than he was. After all, he was only known in certain, specific circles. But everyone knew who the Everett Sisters were.
She sat beside him while the nurse went over the at-home care plan, while the follow-up appointments and physical therapy sessions were set. Then she drove him back to the lodge, which felt more like home than his trailer ever had.
He cast it a look, wondering if maybe he could somehow limp up the few steps, go inside, and stay there until he didn’t have to rely on Vi for help.
But he knew such thoughts were ridiculous. He couldn’t even stand up, not for at least two weeks the doctor had said.
Two weeks.
It might as well be two lifetimes.
Vi pushed his wheelchair up the ramp and into the lodge, and he supposed he should be grateful the place was already equipped for the handicapped.
Inside the lodge, the air smelled like bacon, and his stomach roared. Vi had been right; the food at the hospital wasn’t all that great. She smuggled in something delicious every morning, but those calories were gone by lunch, if not sooner.
“Celia’s been here,” Vi said, pushing him through the doorway and turning down the hall to the right. The steps leading into the basement sat on his right, but she turned him left and pushed him through the wide archway and into the dining room. The kitchen spread out on his left, and she moved in front of him and pushed the table and chairs back a little to make room for him.
“Baked potato soup,” she said.
“How do you know that?”
She pointed to the fridge. “Celia left a note.”
Todd hadn’t met Celia yet, but he already liked her. “I’m starving.”
“Is there ever a time when you’re not starving?”
“Yes,” he said, but if she asked him when, he wouldn’t be able to answer. Was it his fault he had a fast metabolism?
“Hmm,” she said as she opened the fridge and took out a bowl. A few plastic bags followed, and before he knew it, she placed a bowl of soup in front of him. It was so pretty, with the white creamy base and the crispy bacon, bright orange cheddar, and green onions. He smiled at it and then her. “Thanks, Vi.”
She sat across from him at the table and dipped her spoon into her own soup. “I’m okay in the kitchen,” she said. “I mean, not like Celia. But I can put together some great pork and beef meatballs.” She gave him a flirty smile, and Todd’s pulse accelerated.
They ate in companionable silence for a few minutes, and then Vi asked, “What are you going to do now?” s
he asked.
Todd looked up from his bowl. “Now?”
“Well, you have money. Are you going to hire a nurse or anything?”
Hollowness filled his chest and made the bacon in his mouth tasteless. He had no idea what to say. He hadn’t thought about hiring a nurse, because, well, Vi was here. He wouldn’t be alone, and she could help him. She’d been there when the nurse had gone over all the details for his at-home care.
Todd felt the ghost of her lips against his, and he wanted to kiss her again. Be brave the way she’d been when she’d tipped toward him. He thought of all the times he’d allowed himself to be tied to the saddle, atop an angry bull. How he’d nodded at the cowboys on the rungs, how the bell had rung, and he’d burst from the gate with the bull.
“I was hoping you’d help me,” he said simply.
“I’m not a nurse,” she said.
And she’d have to help him in and out of bed. Get him all his meals. Bring him coffee and water and his pain medication.
Maybe he should hire a nurse.
“I mean, I don’t mind helping out,” she said nonchalantly. “I got you out of the car okay.” She dipped her spoon into her bowl again and then froze. “Didn’t I?”
Todd had heaved himself from one chair to the other while she held the wheelchair. She had helped put up the leg braces, and she did move him from one place to the other.
“Of course,” he said, realizing he’d been silent a moment too long.
“And I checked the bathroom by your room. It has a shower sprayer, so you should be able to bathe yourself.”
Embarrassment filled Todd, and he nodded and ducked his head, wishing with everything in his he had his cowboy hat. He didn’t even know where it was.
Doesn’t matter, he told himself. He could buy another one.
He couldn’t believe he’d been thrown off a ten-year-old horse. He’d gone twenty-one years without getting hurt while riding bulls.
Humiliation kept his head down as they finished dinner. He was about to put his bowl in his lap and wheel himself into the kitchen when someone knocked on the front door.
Vi barely had time to say, “Who could that be?” before voices filled the air.
“It’s Graham,” Todd said. “And his family.”
Vi stood and met them in the doorway, taking both kids by the hand and saying, “Of course there are treats in the cupboard above the fridge. Let me get them down for you.”
Graham came over to Todd. “How are you feeling?”
“Okay, actually,” he said.
“This is my wife, Laney.” Graham stood back. “I guess you met her last week. She’s the one who found you.”
Todd couldn’t find the woman’s face in his memory, so he smiled. “Thank you,” he said.
“She had a feeling,” he said. “And all the horses knew, of course.”
Todd nodded. “I hope I didn’t hurt Goldie.”
“Oh, she’s fine,” Laney said with a genuine smile. “Back with her friends as if nothing happened.”
Todd wished he could be as lucky, until he realized he didn’t really have any friends. Not anymore. He’d never realized how isolated his life was when he was part of the rodeo. It felt like a big family, but as soon as one person left, the ranks closed in.
He knew now that he’d missed men after they’d left, but he’d made no effort to keep in touch. Touring and training consumed every available moment, both mentally and physically, and outside relationships were difficult.
“Vi, they don’t need soup. We already ate.” Laney stepped over to the kitchen, and Graham went with her. Todd wheeled himself around to watch them, and he liked the way Vi grinned at the kids and gave them more bacon when they asked for it even though it was clear Laney didn’t approve.
Graham and his family only stayed for long enough for the kids to eat a few bites of soup, and then he said, “Well, it’s time for the movies. Come on, guys.”
That got even the toddler off the barstool and headed toward the door, and Laney laughed with Graham as they watched their kids.
A keen sense of longing hit Todd in the gut, and he realized he’d like to have a family someday.
A quick glance at Vi revealed that she was watching him. “Tired?” she asked.
He nodded, not really that tired but ready to be alone. He hadn’t truly been alone in days, and he just needed a few minutes.
Vi rounded the counter and positioned herself behind his wheelchair. “I’ve moved your stuff upstairs, and I asked Celia where the fresh sheets were. Your bed is ready, and your bathroom has towels in it.”
She pushed him down the hall in the opposite direction from the steps leading into the basement. They passed a doorway on his right and headed straight toward one in front of them. But Vi turned the corner, and pushed open the door right on the corner of the hall.
“Bree lives in that bedroom,” she said, indicating the one at the end of this new hall. “But she’s gone for a few weeks. Beau and Lily live here, but they’re gone too.”
“And you’re still up on the second floor?”
“Yep,” she said, pushing him into his new bedroom. At least the bedspread wasn’t pink. There wasn’t much room for anything but him, the bed, the dresser with the TV, and the wheelchair, but Todd decided that was okay. After all, he’d spent a lot of years living in a trailer.
A really nice trailer, but still. A trailer.
“This bed is really high.” He put his palms flat on the quilt, and they were up at his shoulders. He wasn’t sure he could get out of the chair by himself, and he didn’t want to tell Vi she hadn’t helped all that much in the car.
“I want to change anyway,” he said. “So I’ll manage.”
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Yeah.” He just wanted her to go.
She obviously got the message, because she said, “I’m a text away,” stepped out, and closed the door behind her.
Todd sighed, his exhaustion almost overwhelming him. But he still needed to use the restroom, change into something more comfortable to sleep in, and get himself into that giant bed.
Chapter Eight
Vi sat in the living room, wanting to be close to Todd in case he texted. Twenty minutes passed. Then thirty. Her phone finally chimed, and she saw his name before swiping open the message.
I need a little help. Do you mind?
Did she mind? She was already halfway down the hall. She knocked before entering his room, and she found him in basically the same position she’d left him in. He wore a different pair of gym shorts, and a gray T-shirt that was certainly two sizes too small.
She couldn’t believe she’d kissed him in the hospital all those days ago. Since then, they’d held hands and talked, and she usually kissed his forehead before she left for the evening. But she hadn’t locked lips with him again, and she really wanted to.
“The bed is too high,” he said again. “I can’t get myself up.” He looked at her like she’d suddenly grow some biceps and be able to lift him from the chair and into the bed. But the last heavy thing she’d lifted was her coffee mug. Fine, maybe his suitcase.
And he definitely weighed more than a suitcase.
“All right,” she said, a plan coming together in her mind. She said a prayer as she walked around the bed and got up on it. She knelt in front of him and said, “Turn yourself around, and I’ll pull you from behind.”
Anger flashed in his eyes, but he did as she said.
“Now push yourself up with your hands, and I’ll pull you right up.” Vi sounded so confident, but she doubted she’d even be able to move him an inch. “Ready? Three, two, one, push.”
She almost got clocked in the face when he pushed off. He was so much stronger than her, and she caught him under the arms and pulled with everything she had.
To her great surprise, he came right up onto the bed—and into her lap.
“Well,” he said with a chuckle. “This wasn’t quite what I had in mind when I s
aid I needed help.” He twisted to look at her. “But I can’t say I’m complaining.”
She shook her head, her breath coming quick and her pulse ricocheting around inside her chest. She’d done it. She’d helped him.
He tipped his head further back, and she kissed him. It was a slow, passionate kiss that only lasted a few moments.
Then he broke their connection and said, “Thanks, Vi. I feel like an idiot.”
“You don’t have to,” she said.
“I can’t even get in bed by myself.”
“I don’t mind helping. And it’s only temporary.” She slid out from underneath him and gently moved his leg so he was resting in what he said was a comfortable position. She put another pillow behind his head and went across the hall to get a few more from Beau and Lily’s bed.
She put them on either side of him and pulled the blankets up. “All good?”
“Yes,” he said, his voice quiet again. “Thanks, Vi.”
“Of course.” She swept her lips across his forehead again and headed out of the bedroom. Once in the safety of the hall, with the door closed, she pressed her back into the wood and sighed.
She couldn’t believe the powerful connection between her and Todd, and she hoped she’d be able to make his recovery as easy as possible. And to do that, she needed to watch several more videos on how to care for someone with two broken legs.
Before she did that, though, she hurried upstairs and barricaded herself in her bedroom. She stood at the same window Todd had last week, her frosting spoon in one hand and her phone in the other.
Rose took forever to pick up, and when she did, she said, “I’m out with a man, Vi. This better be good.”
“I kissed Todd Christopherson,” she blurted. That was about the middle of the story, but Vi hadn’t known where else to start.
“Give me two minutes.” Rose hung up, and Vi opened her tub of frosting and dug out a plentiful spoonful.
Rose called back in only sixty seconds, and she said, “You better not be lying.”