by Annie Rains
This trip was supposed to be relaxing, and some parts had been so far. She and Kaitlyn had chatted and watched a couple of movies last night, and they’d gotten more time to catch up after breakfast. But now Josie had reached her limit being unplugged. She needed her phone back, and once she found Tuck, she intended to give him a piece of her mind.
Josie sat up on her bottom, feeling pain spark behind her right knee. She pulled her leg in front of her to take a better look. A bright purple bruise was already forming around her inner knee, reminding her of when she’d taken a bad spill on the track in high school.
This isn’t good.
She looked up at the path ahead. How was she supposed to walk back to the B&B like this?
Glancing around, she found a stick that she could use as a cane. It was thick enough to hold her weight and long enough so that she didn’t have to hunch. She moaned and squeaked in pain as she unfolded her body to stand. She took one baby step forward and heard the stick crack under her. Her arms flew out as she toppled side to side, desperately trying to stay upright on one good leg. After a moment, she placed just the big toe of her right foot down to balance. Instantaneous pain rocketed up through her knee and settled in her forehead.
She stared down the path. How far had she gone? Maybe a mile. She’d seen those shows on TV where people got lost in the woods. There was a slew of things that could happen from this point on, and none of them were on her to-do list for this minivacation.
There was no way she was going to be able to walk back so she’d just…scoot along on her butt like a crab. It would be dirty and more than a little embarrassing if Kaitlyn or any of the guests saw her. She’d just stop scooting and yell for help once she was close enough to the inn for people to hear her, she decided. Yeah.
They didn’t call her the queen of good ideas for nothing. Actually, Kaitlyn was the only one who called her that, but it was true. In times of stress, Josie was the one who could find a solution, and considering her limited options right now, lowering to her bottom and dragging herself back to the inn was her only choice.
CHAPTER THREE
There were two items that Tuck had been avoiding all morning, and he was about to check them off in quick succession. Call Beverly Sanders back and see why she wanted to talk to him, and return Josie’s phone, which was now dead.
He climbed into his Jeep and glanced over at Shadow in the passenger seat, giving her a gentle pat on the head. Seeing that she was secure, he backed out of his driveway and headed toward Mistletoe Lane and the Sweetwater B&B. He’d already pulled up Beverly Sander’s contact information and only needed to tap Dial as he drove.
As he listened to the phone ring, he readied his greeting. The call went straight to voicemail. Even better.
“Hi. This is Tuck Locklear returning your call. I’ll be home after five o’clock this evening if you would like to talk to me then. Have a nice day.”
He disconnected the call and enjoyed the remainder of the quiet drive. As he pulled into the driveway of the inn, an uneasiness spread through his gut and chest. Perhaps he should’ve swung by before his first appointment this morning.
He checked the watch he wore on his wrist. It was just after noon. Maybe he’d taken this little irritation too far.
“Tuck!” Kaitlyn said when she opened the door with her young golden retriever at her side. Mitch had brought the dog to Tuck’s place for a sort of playdate with Shadow a few weeks ago.
The pup brushed against his jeans, no doubt leaving behind a scent that would leave Shadow restless all day. Tuck dipped to pat the pup’s head and then returned to standing. He faced Kaitlyn, whose smile had now twisted into a stern line.
“I told Josie to give you the benefit of the doubt, that you didn’t realize you still had her phone.”
“Pleading the Fifth,” Tuck muttered. He pulled at the thin silver chain he wore around his neck as if it were suddenly choking him, even though he’d been wearing it since his grandfather had given it to him as a child. The circular pendant held an engraved image of a bear, reminding him of his character—temporarily derailed by his beautiful passenger yesterday. Releasing the chain, he pulled Josie’s phone out of his pocket. “Will you return this to her, please?” If he was lucky, he could sprint back to his Jeep and avoid any altercation.
“Actually, I need your help. Josie went for a walk on the trails out back over an hour ago and hasn’t returned. I’m starting to get a little worried about her.”
Tuck stiffened.
“Mitch is working at the police station, and Gina is out doing errands this morning.” Gina was Mitch’s mom, and she helped run the bed and breakfast. “I’m all alone here so I can’t really leave the guests. Mr. Cooper is on oxygen, and he keeps trying to light up a cigarette. I’m afraid he’ll burn down the inn when I’m not looking.”
“You want me to look for Josie on the trails?” Tuck asked. He was never one to turn down a request for help but his mind was thinking in sonic speed about a way to say no to this one.
“Please,” Kaitlyn said. “I walk the trails every afternoon, and it shouldn’t take more than an hour. The path is clearly marked so I can’t imagine she veered off.”
“Maybe she’s just nature-watching,” he suggested.
Kaitlyn frowned. “Josie doesn’t nature-watch.”
Tuck’s mom, who educated the community and anyone who’d listen on the Cherokee culture, would call this justice. She always taught him that good deeds were rewarded and that the bad were punished. Having to meet a woman scorned on a beaten path alone was some form of karma.
Tuck massaged his forehead and then reluctantly agreed. “Let me grab Shadow from the vehicle. She’d probably love to take a hike anyway.”
“Thank you so much. I’m sure Josie is fine, but…”
“But she’s new here and doesn’t have a phone.” He shoved Josie’s cell phone back into his pocket. He’d grab his own from the Jeep’s console just in case.
A couple of minutes later, with Shadow at his side, he set off behind the Sweetwater B&B. It was a beautiful March day. From the hiking trail that Kaitlyn and Mitch had added here, one could appreciate nature at its finest. And from various breaks in the trees, Mount Pleasant could be seen reaching up into the low-hanging clouds. Maybe he should start using this trail for some of his physical therapy patients. He had his own path along Blueberry Creek but he’d found that a variety of environments made for good distraction when someone was in physical pain. He’d talk to Kaitlyn and Mitch about it later.
But first, he needed to find the city princess.
After another ten minutes or so, Shadow paused, probably sensing a squirrel or rabbit, and then took off running around the next bend. Tuck kept his pace steady until he heard a woman’s shriek. Breaking into a jog, he stopped short of a disheveled Josie on the ground. Judging by the markings on the dirt path behind her, she was dragging herself.
She looked up with a dirt-smudged face and a fiery glint in her blue eyes. “You!”
Shadow, always eager to help, nudged her damp nose to Josie’s cheek, the equivalent of a canine kiss. Josie pushed the dog away from her face and then grimaced.
“Are you hurt?” He’d tried not to notice her soft curves yesterday but now it was unavoidable as he scanned her body for the source of her pain. These were the mountains. It was only March so he doubted she would’ve been bit by a rattlesnake, but there were other critters that could’ve snapped at her flesh.
She was wearing shorts that stopped midthigh, giving him a delicious view of her toned legs. There was no question she worked out in some way or another. Guessing by the shape of her calves, she was a runner.
“It’s my knee,” she huffed, pulling her right leg out in front of her. “I tripped on one of the tree roots out here.”
Tuck closed the distance and squatted in front of her to get a better look. He gently touched the flesh along the inner kneecap.
She clutched the back of her thigh. “Ow!”<
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“You’ll need to take a trip to see Dr. Miles to make sure you haven’t torn any ligaments. He’s a good doctor. I work with him a lot.” Tuck looked around. “I’m surprised the path had any roots. It seems pretty smooth out here.”
Josie averted her gaze. “I might have stepped off the path.”
“You what? Didn’t you see the signs telling you not to? You could’ve gotten attacked by a wild animal or gotten lost out here. There are stories of people vanishing out in the mountain forest, you know?” Although every time Tuck heard those stories, he’d wondered if the lost people just didn’t want to be found. On occasion, he’d thought to himself how wonderful it would be to disappear from the world himself. He had survival skills though, and he seriously doubted that Josie did.
“If I had gotten lost, I’d just call someone,” she said, her expression now tight with more than just pain. “Oh, wait. I couldn’t because someone stole my phone.”
Tuck sighed dejectedly. “I didn’t steal your phone. You left it in my Jeep. And it wouldn’t have done you any good out here anyway. I doubt there’s reception.” He pulled her cell phone from his pocket and handed it over.
When she took it, she tapped the screen quickly and then huffed. “We’ll never know because it’s dead.”
“Of course it is. It meowed with your incoming text messages to me all night.” Tuck took that moment to straighten and return to his feet, just in case Josie decided to attack him like a feral animal.
“Not all night,” Josie objected. “Kaitlyn took her phone with her to bed.”
He laughed and then asked, “Can you walk?”
“If I could walk, would I have been scooting on the ground?”
Tuck massaged one side of his temple. He was going to have to carry her the half mile back to the inn. That presented all kinds of problems. He doubted she was heavy, but he was attracted to her, even if he didn’t want to be. And she smelled like a field of honeysuckle. Holding her close wasn’t a good idea, and he suspected she’d hate the suggestion as much as he did.
“Why are you staring at me like that?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.
He hadn’t realized he was. “I have to get you back down the trail. If you can’t walk, then I’ll need to do it another way.”
Josie seemed to process this. “Don’t Mitch and Kaitlyn have a golf cart or something you can use to come pick me up?”
He resisted explaining to the city princess that this wasn’t a golf course. “No. And they don’t have a horse and carriage either. My Jeep won’t fit down these trails so it looks like I’ll have to carry you.”
“Carry me?” Her eyes widened, and her pretty pink mouth popped open. “No, no, no, no. I’ll walk.”
“You just said you can’t.”
“I was mistaken. Can’t isn’t in my vocabulary.” She shifted around, grimacing and squeaking in pain until she was on her feet. At least she was wearing sneakers. The pallor of her skin told him there was no way this woman was going to make it down that path without him though, no matter how determined she was.
Not waiting for her to come to her senses, he grabbed her arm and draped it around his shoulder, pulling her body flush against his side as she stood. A buzz of awareness came alive in his stomach, like a beehive disturbed.
“What are you doing?”
“Helping you. Again.”
“I don’t need—” She stopped talking when he turned and leveled her with a look. Their faces were so close that it would have been all too easy to find a different method to silence her. Without thinking, his gaze dropped to her deep-pink lips. Did she taste as sweet as she smelled?
He quickly looked away. Mitch was right. He’d been celibate too long. Long enough to be at risk for making a paramount mistake—because that’s exactly what kissing Josie would be.
* * *
This must be what natural childbirth feels like.
Josie had been walking for nearly half a mile, doing her best not to limp and make unattractive noises every time her right foot went down.
Instead, she was distracting herself by stealing glances to the side and admiring Tuck’s profile. His silky black hair was pulled back today, making a short ponytail. And there was no doubt about it—a man with a ponytail was hot.
“I thought you said we were only half a mile away,” she said in a strained voice.
“We were. We’re almost there. See?” He pointed at a bend in the path. “Once we round that corner, we’ll be able to see the B and B.”
If she weren’t in so much pain, she might have jumped for joy. Instead, she felt like collapsing. For a moment, that’s what she thought was happening when her body was swept up in Tuck’s arms and secured against his chest. He was gentle, keeping one arm under her knee to keep it extended.
Shadow woofed from the ground below.
Josie looked up at Tuck, whose face was only inches from hers. At this distance, she could peer into the depths of his eyes. There were splinters of light brown softening the deep-cocoa color.
“You were starting to lean into that knee,” he explained. “I don’t want you to make it worse.”
“Oh. Thank you.” She hesitated on her next comment because she was still upset with him about her phone. “And I’m sorry,” she finally said. “You must have things to be doing right now other than rescuing me.”
“It’s okay. I’ll call my patients once I get you settled inside and let them know I’m running late.”
Patients. Guilt flooded through her. She hadn’t even considered that he might be missing work because of her. “I saw a bird,” she heard herself say.
His gaze lowered to hers, and at this distance, just a look felt strangely intimate for two people who barely knew each other.
He lifted a brow without saying anything.
“It was pink and purple. Gorgeous,” she said. Why am I so nervous all of a sudden? “That’s why I stepped off the path. I’ve never seen a bird like that one.”
“A purple finch,” he said.
“Oh.” Some part of her had thought the bird was one of a kind. That no one would believe her when she said she’d seen a brightly colored, magical little bird. Now she felt a bit silly. “So, there are lots around here?”
He nodded. “There are a lot of great birds around here if you want to take up bird-watching.”
Take up bird-watching. There was an idea for a future article. She’d likely have to head off into the country to find a multitude of birds though, and who had time for that?
“Here we are,” Tuck said.
Josie blinked the bed and breakfast into focus and smiled.
“We need to get your leg up and put some ice on that knee. Hopefully Kaitlyn has some NSAIDs.”
“NSAIDs?”
“Aspirin or ibuprofen. If not, I’ll go get you some from the first-aid pack I keep in my Jeep.”
Kaitlyn flew out the back door when they were only a few feet away. “What happened?” she asked, searching Josie frantically. “Why are you carrying her?” she asked Tuck.
Instead of immediately responding, Tuck walked past Kaitlyn into the living area of the inn and then gently placed Josie on the couch.
Both relief and disappointment swam through her. Josie had gotten quite cozy in Tuck’s strong embrace.
Josie looked past Tuck at Kaitlyn. “I’m fine. I just tripped and busted my knee.”
Kaitlyn gasped. “Did you step off the path?”
“She was following a bird,” Tuck said, one corner of his mouth drawing up in a half grin.
“A very pretty bird,” Josie defended, but the corners of her mouth pulled up as well.
“Oh, there are some great birds down here.” Kaitlyn grabbed a couple of pillows and helped Josie position them behind her head. “The bluebirds are my favorite.”
“You’ve only been here a few months, and you’re already one with nature?” Josie asked teasingly.
“I put out bird feeders so the guests can watch them. I have
a book that tells you what they are, if you’re interested.”
Tuck had walked out of the room. He reappeared now with a glass of water and two white pills. “Here.” He handed her the water and medication. Then he sat on the edge of the couch and gently felt around her kneecap.
Josie gritted her teeth, even though he was gentle. “You’re good with your hands,” she found herself saying. “But I’m not flirting, just pointing it out.”
Those brown eyes of his seemed to dance as he looked up at her. “You need to get checked out by Dr. Miles. It looks like more than a contusion to me. Are you able to take her?” he asked Kaitlyn.
She shook her head. “Gina went grocery shopping. She won’t be back for at least an hour. Can it wait?”
“You guys, this is silly. I don’t need a doctor,” Josie said, even though her knee begged to differ.
“I’ll take you myself,” he told Josie and then turned back to Kaitlyn. “Can Shadow stay here with Mr. Darcy?”
“Of course. Mr. Darcy has been needing another playdate. I’m sure the guests would love an extra dog to love as well.”
Tuck pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “Great. I just need to cancel the rest of my appointments for the morning and then we can go. I’ll call Dr. Miles and let him know we’re coming.”
Josie inwardly grimaced. She hated for Tuck to cancel his work on her behalf but what choice did she have? She was out of her element here in the North Carolina mountains, in more ways than one.
* * *
Tuck had been sitting in the waiting room of Dr. Miles’s office for almost an hour. Going into an examination room with Josie had felt a little too personal for two people who only just met yesterday. Then again, he’d already held her in his arms, memorized her smell, and was having fantasies about the feisty city princess.
The waiting room door opened, and Josie hobbled clumsily out with a bulky air splint around her right knee. Dr. Miles followed behind her and smiled at Tuck.
Tuck rose to his feet. “How is it?” he asked Josie, knowing Dr. Miles couldn’t tell him directly because of patient confidentiality laws.