“Sheriff said you had laryngitis. Suppose I should have listened. But I was worried and he wasn’t real forthcoming with details.”
For that she was grateful. She didn’t want anyone to know how sick she was.
She stayed silent.
“Press is sniffing around. You missed a show. Bishop had a fit. I know you weren’t performing, but you were supposed to make an appearance. He wants to know where you are.”
“No.” She swallowed and took another drink of water. “Nothing. Scheduled.”
“I know that. I told him you’d asked me to keep it quiet, that you were visiting friends. He says your cell is off.” He snorted. “At least he hasn’t figured out you have two.”
“Don’t. Tell.” She was angry at Cale, angry in ways she couldn’t find words to express even if she could talk.
“I won’t tell, but you be careful. Keep a very low profile. Heidi Bowers has you in her sights. She’s covered your non-appearance, using a ton of innuendos about where she thinks you’ve gone.”
“Great.” Weariness seeped over her and she closed her eyes. “Throw. Her. A bone.”
“Distract her, you mean?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll see what I can do. In the meantime, you rest and get that sheriff to loosen up with the details so I won’t have to badger you for answers when you should be resting. I’m signing off now.”
“Okay. Bye.” She pushed the off button and handed the phone back to Carlee, frustrated with her voice, her health, and her vulnerability.
“Bad news?”
Leia rotated her neck and took a few moments to draw in the oxygen-rich air through her nose. Her lungs didn’t hurt half as bad as they did when she’d first been admitted, but she was a far cry from being better. She shook her head to answer Carlee’s question. Just the same old stuff on another day and boy was she getting fed up with it.
“Nap.” She handed Carlee the remote and pulled the covers around her.
Carlee shoved a chair closer to the bed and sat, flipping through the channels. Looked like Carlee didn’t plan on going anywhere while Leia was under her watch either. Like father, like daughter.
She drifted off, giving into the need for sleep.
She woke some time later to darkness in her room and the smell of soup. Her stomach actually growled.
“That’s what I like to hear.”
She opened her eyes and something deep inside loosened. Zach was back. His lips touched her forehead.
She closed her eyes and reveled in the sweetness of that action, longing for a time when it could be more, when she could actually tell him how she felt. “Missed. You.”
“Don’t talk. It hurts my throat.” He grinned, then scolded. “You really should stay off the phone.” He swept her hair out of her face.
Carlee, that little rat.
“Banning. Reporter. Looking for me,” she mouthed, looking him directly in his stubborn blue eyes.
He drew back, any hint of playful banter gone. “They aren’t going to find you here. There’s no way. I’ve been careful.”
“Me. Too.” She reached up and stroked his face, giving in to that vulnerable need, wanting to feel better so she could touch him, hold him.
He sank to the edge of the bed, mindful of her oxygen. “I talked to the doctor today. She says if you keep improving, you can go home in a couple of days.
She drew a sharp breath that hitched into her lungs.
There was nothing at home except emptiness. There wasn’t Zach there holding her in the night, scolding her, making her feel like she belonged.
She needed his love and his support.
She froze mid-shift in bed.
She looked over at Zach, easily dishing soup into a bowl.
The bottom dropped out of her stomach.
She was in love.
With everything stripped away, the emotion was so easy to see. She’d been acting on that feeling for months, every decision putting her closer to him without risking the acknowledgment to herself. She’d fallen at first sight, the rightness of his presence beside her in April clicking into place. Yet, she had been holding back because this man would either make her blissfully happy or hopelessly wrecked.
Tears welled and slipped down her face.
Hiding them was as impossible as drawing a full breath of air.
CHAPTER NINE
Zach swiped away the tears at the edge of Leia’s eyes. “I thought you’d be happy.”
“I am,” she mouthed, but her eyes gave her away.
“Liar.” He shifted so he could cup her face. “What’s wrong?”
She shrugged and turned her eyes away, staring out the window.
He floundered for a minute, not sure how to proceed. He just wanted her well and protected. He thought this would make her happy. “Beau’s taking care of getting your driveway cleared. Fiona’s filling the fridge. Carlee went home and gathered a ton of DVDs. She’s ready to go over there now. I told her we had to wait until you were ready. Don’t want the whole town knowing what we’ve planned. No one knows you’re home.”
She turned back to gape at him. Finally, she mouthed at him. “You’re going home with me?”
“Of course I’m going home with you. You are much better, but you’re not going to be alone. Can’t have you collapsing on my doorstep again.”
The look on her face said it all. She’d expected him to abandon her once she was released. Didn’t say much for her friends, or for him for that matter if she didn’t know that he wouldn’t do that.
He shifted to sit in the chair beside the bed so he could see her face. “As sheriff, it’s my responsibility to make sure you’re okay, much the same as I do for Grannie Dunn. As your friend, I want to protect you and give you someone to lean on for a bit. Anything wrong with that?”
She shook her head, but her face still suggested she was miserable with his answers. “If you want to do something else, just tell me.”
She closed her eyes. It wasn’t long before he was listening to her deep breathing. He leaned back in the chair, one that was too comfortable for a hospital chair and closed his eyes, too. Between Carlee, work, the weather, and the hospital for Leia, he wasn’t getting as much sleep as he needed either. He gave an involuntary yawn and wondered what he could have said to make her happy with the arrangements.
You might have told her how much you care about her.
But he shied away from that simple answer, trying to rebuild walls, any walls to protect something he wasn’t sure he was ready for.
He hadn’t slept long when he heard the bed squeaking and he looked up to find Leia dangling on the side. He shot out of the chair like a bobsled down an icy run. “What are you doing?” He gripped her arm to steady her.
“Nurse….dangle,” she croaked. “Strength up.”
He helped her ease back down on the bed. She was shaking like a newborn puppy away from its mother. “There’s no need for strength. Wheelchair takes you to my truck. My truck takes you to your driveway. I carry you to your bed in a warm house with a big pot of Aunt Fiona’s chicken noodle soup on the stove, and you rest some more with Carlee and I at your beck and call. Simple.”
Leia closed her eyes, sagging against the pillows.
Zach sighed. Simple. Not so much.
Leia stood under the spray of the shower and calculated how long she had before Zach got back and yelled at her for being out of bed. Seriously, over the last week the man had made so many rules about what she could and couldn’t do and what she should and shouldn’t eat, she was ready to bean the sheriff with her guitar.
The first few days she was too blasted tired to complain. Sleeping night and day had her internal clock all messed up. She desperately needed a new routine. Yeah, she got that she’d exhausted herself to sickness, that she hadn’t stood up for herself and stopped it. But the man running her professional life had contributed to her current situation. She’d learned her lesson and didn’t need another man running her
life. She could manage by herself.
Only problem with all that bluster? Her knees weren’t agreeing. While the hot water pounding on her felt like sin under a waterfall, her knees were shaking and her head spinning.
All her arguments would mean nothing if Zach came back and found her passed out in the shower. The wheezing from her lungs when she exerted herself still didn’t sound pretty and she didn’t even want to fathom the lectures.
She gingerly shampooed her hair and rinsed, then twisted the shower off and carefully opened the door. She wrapped a towel around her and took the pressure off her knees by sinking to the toilet seat. Toweling dry her hair and slipping into a clean night shirt was beyond her.
“What the hell are you doing?” Zach’s voice through the closed door rang with irritation. She didn’t even have enough energy left to be startled.
“I’m fine,” she rasped, her voice on the mend.
The door swung open and slapped against the wall. “Sure you are.” He looked tired. He looked grumpy. He looked concerned and sexy and smelled good, too. Female parts that should have been dormant from exhaustion and sickness took a long, sensuous shiver.
“I have to get out of bed sometime.”
Zach crossed his arms and leaned against the doorway, his gaze stuck completely on her face. “I agree. Just not when I’m not in the house. You know how many people die in the shower?”
She licked her lips. “No. How many?”
He grimaced. “Smart ass. About 16,000 deaths a year from falling.”
She gaped at him. “I’m not even going to ask how you know that.”
“I’m a sheriff and an emergency medical technician. You need help getting dressed?”
He said it so innocently with a heavy dose of professionalism. Those shivery parts were starting to be offended that his eyes hadn’t at least strayed to her legs or her breasts. Then she realized he was trying too hard. Unfortunately, she wasn’t feeling strong enough or sassy enough to take advantage or she’d drop her towel and see what kind of reaction she got.
“No, I can manage.” She gripped her towel with one hand and reached across the counter top with the other for her clean night shirt.
Zach hesitated a moment, then shut the door. “I’ll be waiting out here.”
Implied was that he expected her to fall and he’d have to jump to the rescue. Again she was tempted to tease him, but the reality of falling was just a bit too near for peace of mind.
She dropped the towel and struggled to get her night shirt over wet hair. In the time she’d chattered with him, her body had dried, but her hair was another matter. She pulled the shirt in place and bent to towel her hair and started to cough from the exertion.
The door popped open. “Come on. I’ll help you to bed.”
She gave him a “do-you-mind” stare that he ignored, and before she could grab her brush, he lifted her and carried her to the bed. “Next time, wait for me. What did you think washing your hair? It’s six degrees outside.”
He stomped over to the thermostat and turned the dial.
She finally managed to contain her coughing. “I’m not going out in six degrees. It’s warm enough in here. I needed a shower, Zach, and it’s time I was out of this bed.” The pleasure at having stood under such a hot, stimulating spray was rapidly dissipating under the ogre’s glare.
“Yesterday, the doctor said your lungs still rattle like a Gatling gun. You need to take it easy. Fiona dropped off more soup and some homemade bread.” He didn’t wait for her to respond, but left the room. Probably to bring her a tray.
The only thing about being so sick that didn’t suck was Fiona’s cooking. For sure, she could understand why the woman had become famous. But this eating in bed thing had to go. It took longer than she wanted for her to find some sleep pants, her slippers and a robe. It would have helped if she hadn’t been coughing every two minutes. She grabbed her brush and followed him down the hall to the kitchen and heard him on the phone.
“I’m not being that way, Denise.” He stood at the stove, juggling the cell phone and ladling some soup. “I just want to make sure you are coming this time. I don’t like you making commitments to Carlee that you don’t keep.”
Leia debated disappearing back to her room, but she probably wouldn’t make it without having to sit down which would still leave her within earshot. Anyway, she still didn’t want to eat in bed.
This conversation would explain why Zach had been so grumpy for the last few days. She’d asked him a couple times and he’d refused to talk. Seems it was okay for her to unload on him, but not the other way around and that just wasn’t going to work for her. She’d had a lot of time in that bed when she wasn’t sleeping to wonder about her feelings for him and where this could possibly go. Of course, she didn’t reach any conclusions because Zach was working twice as hard as her pneumonia at keeping her in bed alone and at an arm’s length. She slipped onto a stool at the breakfast bar.
“When have you done that? Are you serious, Denise? Let’s talk August when you planned to take her for two weeks to California. You bailed. How about her birthday in June? You bailed.”
Leia shivered at his scathing tone.
“I’m sure she doesn’t understand why breaking news stories come before your plans. She just hides how upset she is from you. So from now on, don’t tell her you’re coming unless you truly are. That’s all I ask.” Zach dropped the ladle and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
A long stretch of silence followed. Zach’s shoulders stiffened more and more as the silence continued.
“Fine. I’ll tell Beau to reserve you a suite at the lodge.” He pulled the phone away and stared, then dropped it on the counter. “Figures.”
He turned to stare at her, apparently more than aware that she’d entered the room. “She hung up on me. Guess she didn’t like the rules.”
Leia had her own feelings about Zach’s rules, but not when it came to Carlee. This topic, though, she wasn’t going to wade into. “Soup smells good. Can I please eat at the counter?”
He gave her a half-smile. “That hurt much?”
“Yeah, actually it did. It is my house. I should get to make some of the rules.”
Zach tipped his head and gave her a hard stare. “Just don’t fall off the stool.”
Leia snorted. “That’s it?”
“I’m not unreasonable,” he answered, sliding her soup in front of her. “Just protective.”
As hell.
But she didn’t say it.
“Where is Carlee?”
“Friend’s house. Staying for dinner.”
Leia stirred the thick potato soup, watching the bits of ham and potato roll off the spoon. “I suppose my secret is out.”
“Around town, yeah. Kinda hard not to be with Grannie Dunn living on the corner.”
“She’s a good neighbor. No press?”
Zach snorted. “She’s a vigilant neighbor. Her and her Remington. Thirty years younger and she’d have my job.” He walked back to the stove and removed a loaf of bread from the oven. “No press. Yet.”
She blew on her soup. “Where’s my cell phone?”
He took a knife and sliced the bread. He stopped to dish himself some soup and then brought all the items to the breakfast bar. “I have your cell phone. Banning calls a dozen times a day.”
“I don’t suppose you’d give it to me.”
“Sure.” He rounded the counter and pulled out a stool. “After we eat.”
She silently gazed at him. When he reached for his spoon, she eased her hand over top of his. His hand froze, lifeless under hers, yet warm.
“Thank you. I know this hasn’t been easy, but I’m fine now. You don’t have to protect me,” she whispered.
He looked at her, somber. “When you can sing again without wheezing, I’ll stop.”
She nodded and squeezed his fingers. “Okay, but at least let me deal with Banning.”
The mulish expression on his face suggested he wo
uld refuse, instead he turned his hand and squeezed hers back. “Deal. Eat.”
He released her hand and pulled away, taking a bite of soup. “I haven’t told Carlee about her mother yet. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t share that.”
She picked up her spoon, her fingers tingling. “No problem.”
Zach was a man of many silences and this was no exception. He steadily ate his soup, eagle-eyeing her every bite. If this has been a date, it would have been an utter failure. But it wasn’t a date. If she was reading his vibe right, he wasn’t interested. And yet he kept staring at her lips.
The urge to protect herself emotionally warred with the dare to risk. She’d ventured forth with her voice and made herself a superstar, and yet emotionally as a woman, she’d always played it safe. The tabloids said otherwise, but the truth was Leia may have dated, but she didn’t share herself with all that many.
If she could believe his actions, Zach wasn’t tempted in the least by her, a thought that burned her feminine pride to crispy critters. Why was she so tempted by him? Why did she have to fall in love with a man who played things so close emotionally?
“Looks like pretty weighty thoughts,” he rasped out, then cleared his throat. “Not good for the digestion.”
She swallowed crooked and coughed. “Not good for the digestion? That does not sound like you.”
“Aunt Fiona, actually. It’s her favorite saying. Nothing is good for the digestion that doesn’t include laughter and merry making.”
She frowned at the edge of bitterness behind the happy words.
“Did you grow up with your aunt?” She knew pitifully little about his family, little about each other for that matter.
“Yeah, I was ten when my parents were killed. We lived with Fiona from that point on.”
Leia took a sip of water. “Must have been nice to be able to stay together.”
He gave her a long look, reticent as always. “Yeah, it was good.”
They ate in silence then, frustrating Leia no end. Her voice wouldn’t let her talk non-stop to fill the gaps so she had to be content
Aggravated with the man, she finished off her soup along with the crusty bread. She glanced at the apple juice he’d put in front of her. “Any chance a girl could get a cup of coffee?”
Pumpkins, Cowboys & Guitars Page 58