Expelled

by Claire Adams

  I helped Cash sit down on his bed, which was made, of course. “Stay here while I look for a thermometer.”

  He still seemed dazed and not really aware of what was going on around him. The heat his body was creating was overwhelming, like I was baking in the hot sun just by standing underneath his arm. It was worrying me a great deal because whatever this was seemed to have fallen over him suddenly. He’d seemed fine earlier in the day, if a little reserved at the situation with his uncle.

  I hurried into his bathroom, which was just as spotlessly clean as his bedroom and the rest of the house. I had no idea where he found the time to scrub every surface of his house. The man literally had no idea what it was like to take a breather.

  I opened the medicine cabinet and found what I was looking for immediately—a thermometer neatly arranged in its plastic case. Right now, I was thankful for his penchant—some might say obsession—for organization. I rushed back into the bedroom. Cash hadn’t moved at all, but he looked as though even more color had washed out of his skin. His eyes were glazed, and he kept swallowing like he was about to vomit.

  “Cash?” I asked, and his eyes lifted to my face for a few seconds. “I need to take your temperature right now, okay?” I unsheathed the instrument and stuck it into his mouth. “Hold it under your tongue.” He complied without argument or, seemingly, awareness. After about 30 seconds it beeped. I pushed my glasses up my nose and lifted it so I could read it. One hundred and three. Shit.

  “I’m going to get you some aspirin,” I said. I’d seen some in the medicine cabinet. “You need to take your work clothes off so you can get in bed.”

  “I’m not a kid,” he complained, his face convulsing into a light frown. “I’m a grown man who can take care of himself.” But he was now shaking like a leaf.

  “Just do what I said,” I replied, but gently. He was clearly not feeling well and now was not the right time to yell at him. But if he thought he was going to get away with asserting his manhood when he obviously needed help, he had another thing coming. I was a New Yorker through and through. That meant I didn’t take crap from anyone.

  “I ain’t taking off my clothes,” he muttered, without much force.

  “You’re sick, Cash,” I said in a sterner voice that drew his attention for a few critical seconds. “I’m not going to take advantage of you or anything. You can’t relax in bed with your work clothes and boots still on.”

  He hesitated for a moment, his eyes cast down to the floor, and then began to pull open his belt.

  Now that he was complying, I ran for the aspirin and filled the cup I found positioned next to his toothbrush by the sink with some cool water. I brought both back to him just as he was struggling to get out of his jeans. I paused a moment and then chastised myself for enjoying the view of his muscular legs so much that I wasn’t actually helping him. I set the cup and aspirin down, pulled off his boots, and helped him out of his jeans. I unbuttoned his shirt next and helped him out of that as well, but left his undershirt. Then I gave him two aspirin and watched as he washed the pills down with water.

  “You need to rest now,” I said.

  He was mumbling something I didn’t quite catch as I pulled him up enough to bring the covers down so he could get in. It worried me how hot he was and how much he was shivering. Hopefully, the aspirin would help. I’d monitor him closely, and if it looked like the fever was holding firm or rising, I’d call Eric to come up here and help me take Cash to the hospital. There was no way I’d be able to get him dressed and out to the car by myself.

  Once he was tucked in—I brought the covers all the way up to his chin the way my dad used to do for Paige and me when we were little—I brushed his wet hair off his forehead, frowning at the heat of his skin.

  “I won’t leave you alone,” I said. “I’ll be right here if you need anything at all.”

  But his eyes were already closing, shutting me out, and I prayed nothing would keep them from opening again.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Cash

  Several Days Later

  I wasn’t sure where I was, but I was in a hurry. I stepped out of a dark place and found myself on the edge of the farm, but most of the color had faded out of the landscape, and the sun was low on the horizon. It was confusing, like walking around in an old western, the kind where there was just music playing in the background, and all the words were typed out for you to read whenever a character opened his mouth to speak.

  I saddled up Dusty and set out for a ride. As soon as I got going, Hailey came along on Buck, smiling and dressed in full cowgirl attire, but old-timey western wear, with a full skirt and button-up top, like she was Annie Oakley or something, and was on her way to the rodeo to perform. Her blonde hair was braided into pigtails that hung over her shoulders.

  “Howdy, cowboy,” she said and tipped her hat to me. She sounded like she was fresh out of Texas, which caught me off guard.

  I looked her up and down, taking in her skirt and button-up shirt, the lasso and revolver at her waist like she was out looking for trouble and hoping she’d find it.

  “Trouble up ahead,” she said, drawing my eyes away from her.

  A man dressed all in black was approaching us quickly on horseback. As he got closer, I could see it was Eric, even with the Zorro mask he was wearing over his eyes. He had a black hat on to match the rest of his clothing and was leaned over on a black horse he was kicking up into a hard sprint to reach us.

  “He won’t leave until he takes me with him,” Hailey said, not sounding too upset about it.

  Eric pulled a shiny dark revolver from the holster at his waist and fired off a shot that missed us by a mile.

  “What the hell?” I reached for my own gun only to find I didn’t have one.

  “I’ll never give Hailey up!” Eric bellowed, his voice seeming to come from all directions as he aimed his gun at us and fired. This time, I heard the bullet whiz by me.

  “Better put a stop to this, cowboy,” Hailey said, and kicked Buck into a run, pulling her gun and letting out a deep yell as I stood back in the dust she created. I had two choices: to ride with her or lose her.

  I jumped, and that weird, sepia-toned world melted away. I was covered in sweat, and I couldn’t see where I was in the half-light. I made a panicked noise and heard a voice I recognized, this time without the Texas twang.

  “It’s okay, Cash. You’re alright now.”

  I turned, realizing where I was the instant I saw Hailey sitting in a chair she’d dragged into the corner from the kitchen, her computer in her lap and face softened with concern, the only light coming from the small lamp next to me on the nightstand. I was in my bedroom, with Hailey, and I had no idea why.

  “What’s going on?” I asked. My throat felt dry. I was exhausted and lying in damp sheets. It felt like I’d been outside working on the farm for days without a break.

  Hailey put her computer down and came to sit next to me on the bed. She felt my forehead, which confused me as well. “You’re a lot cooler.” She stuck a thermometer in my mouth before I could respond and waited it out. When it beeped, she read it aloud. “Ninety-nine point three.” She smiled, looking relieved. “That’s a lot better. You’ve been so sick and feverish for days.”

  I tried to sit up, and she kept me down with a firm hand on my shoulder. I had almost no energy to fight her, so I just let myself sink back into my pillows, feeling slightly out of breath at the effort.

  “Just stay in bed. I’ll bring you some water and something to eat. I’ve been giving you liquids, but you haven’t eaten in days. You shouldn’t jump right out of bed.”

  “I don’t know what the hell happened. I don’t remember a damned thing.” Besides the sepia-soaked dream I’d just had of Eric as an evil cowboy in black who was willing to shoot me to get to Hailey.

  “You’ve been in bed battling a fever for a few days. I’d have taken you to the hospital if you weren’t getting a little better every day.” She cut her e
yes away from mine, but it was too dim in the room to see if she was blushing. “I actually called the hospital and described what was going on with you, and they suggested I give you plenty of fluids and monitor your temperature. If it wasn’t coming down or started going up, I was to bring you in. Otherwise, it was fluids, aspirin, and rest.”

  “I’m so tired,” I moaned. It felt like I might not be able to lift my limbs if I tried. I was just that weak. My stomach felt empty, and so did the rest of my body, even my head.

  “You haven’t eaten for a while,” she said simply, her light eyes on my face again. “I can bring you some soup if you’d like. I had Eric bring some up the other day, as I was too afraid to leave you alone for the time it would take to run into town and back.”

  “My animals,” I started, but it was difficult to put my racing thoughts into words. I was just too damned tired.

  Hailey smiled gently. “Eric has been coming up every day to take care of them. He said to let you know he’ll send his bill later.”

  My lips twitched into a weak smile. That sounded like Eric, alright.

  “Thanks to him, I’ve been able to focus on helping you get better,” Hailey said. “Today is the most you’ve been awake since the day you stumbled inside dizzy and feverish.” She swallowed loudly. “I was really worried about you. Whatever happened came on so suddenly.”

  “I wish you hadn’t spent so much of your time worrying about me,” I said, though I was too tired to really be embarrassed. I wanted to take another nap but knew I’d better eat something first or I’d wake up even more exhausted than I already was.

  “I can work from anywhere,” she said with a smile. “And I decided to add a sickbed scene to the book. So, really, you helped me make my story better.”

  “Ain’t that what I’m here to do? Provide you with ample research for your book?”

  She giggled, and it was music to my ears. “Yes, you are a great inspiration.”

  “It’s all part of the experience here at the Ogden Dude Ranch.”

  That pulled another laugh out of her, this one louder and longer. “I’m just glad you’re getting back to your old self. Don’t ever scare me like that again.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” I said. It was touching how much she cared. Maybe what I felt going on between us wasn’t as one-sided as I thought. Hailey seemed like the kind of woman who would nurse her worst enemy back to health, but her vigilance touched me all the same.

  “What sounds good?” she asked, resting her hand gently on my bare arm. Her cool skin was a comfort. “Chicken noodle or tomato soup?”

  Nothing sounded great to me at the moment, but I knew my body needed the sustenance, so I went with my favorite of the two.

  “Chicken noodle, please.”

  “You got it. Once you get some food in you, I’ll help you get up, and you can take a shower while I change the sheets on your bed. You sweated the hell out of that fever.”

  “I got a plan,” I said.

  She lifted her light eyebrows, her eyes widening as she looked down at me. “What’s that?”

  “Once I’m fully recovered, I’ll cook you a meal for a change. It’s the least I can do after all the food you’ve put in my belly over the last few weeks.”

  She smiled with pleasure. “What’s your signature dish?”

  “I’m just an old cowboy, so it won’t be nothing special. Probably just steak and potatoes.”

  “That sounds amazing.” She squeezed my upper arm before rising from the mattress. “I’ll get the soup and something for you to drink. You just rest.”

  I nodded, and she left the room. I let my eyes drift shut again, and within moments, I was back in that sepia-toned dream world, riding for my life as bad guys pursued me from all sides.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Hailey

  A Few Days Later, Early September

  It didn’t take Cash very long to get back on his feet again, not that I let him jump right back into his work on the farm. He tried, but I shut that right down. Eric was a champ, taking a few days’ vacation from work and driving up every morning with a few more friends of his to get the necessary work done on the farm. A day after Cash woke up after his fever finally broke all the way, he was strong enough to take a meal sitting at the table. He insisted on going out to check on his animals, but I made him wait until the following morning when he was a little stronger, and only after he had breakfast. It calmed him a great deal to see what an amazing job Eric and his friends had done during his convalescence. I was actually able to get him to relax in bed without a fight. The following morning, he was much better, and the one after that, he was able to go back to working on the ranch.

  Now we sat at the dining room table on the night after he’d been able to get back to work—with Eric’s help, though he was going back to his own job in the morning—finishing up the steak and potatoes Cash had promised me after waking from his long, feverish sleep. He’d cooked one of the best steaks I’d ever had in my life, and I’d been all over the country, including Texas, where they had a patent on cooking every kind of beef. Or so I thought. There’d be some pissed off cowboys if they tasted what Cash was able to do with a steak.

  “This is amazing,” I told him for probably the seventh time. My food was almost gone, which was a shame, but I’d made him promise to make this again before I went back to the East Coast.

  “I’m glad you like it,” he said, smiling at me, his green eyes clear and healthy. It was good to see him back to his normal self. And it felt like we’d gotten closer by weathering that ordeal together. Besides our fun day at the rodeo, I hadn’t really had much time to spend alone with him. Granted, most of that was spent with him drifting in and out of sleep, but we’d had plenty of opportunities to talk as well. We’d even played some card games when he was stuck in bed. I really hadn’t been able to leave him alone for a second for fear of him escaping outside and trying to overdo it, so I’d had to find ways to keep him occupied. I was grateful for Eric, who’d shadowed Cash on his first two days back on the job to make sure he wasn’t pushing himself too hard.

  “This makes you a riding, roping, reading, cooking cowboy,” I said with a smile. “What else do you have up your sleeves?”

  He smiled again. He’d shaved all the dark stubble off his jaw from the days he’d been recovering. I kind of liked the rugged, grizzled look, although he looked great this way too. I kept catching myself gazing at him way too long. Watching over him while he’d been drifting in and out of sleep had given me way too much time to commit every finely formed feature of his face to memory. It was going to be painful to leave in October if I never got the chance to feel his shapely lips pressed against mine. Paige’s voice piped up in my head, telling me to go for it. But I just couldn’t. I might regret it for the rest of my life, but I just wasn’t as brave as she was. Besides, what if kissing was just as great as I imagined it to be? What if we forged some great, mind-blowing connection? What then? How would I ever leave Jackson to return to where I belonged?

  “That sounds like me in a nutshell,” Cash said, his pretty eyes shining as they looked me over. He had a way of staring that started a flame burning in my chest. But then he’d look away, leaving me to immediately question whether or not I’d actually felt something real between us. I hated this tendency in myself where men were concerned—to just go with the flow and not put my foot down to decide my own damned destiny—but had no idea what I could do to change it. I couldn’t blame it all on indecisiveness. So much of it was fear of rejection. If I told Cash I liked him, and he didn’t feel the same way, how would I continue to live here for another month? I’d have to leave right away, which meant paying out of my own pocket for a place to stay in Jackson and taking care to avoid both Cash and Eric for the rest of my stay. That was too complicated and risky when just doing nothing would allow me to remain here as planned until I was ready to go home. It felt like the coward’s way out, but what choice did I have?

  “I just l
ike it when a guy cooks for me,” I said simply, my cheeks reddening a little at the way he lifted his eyebrows at me. It felt hotter than usual in here, not that he seemed to notice.

  “You have that happen a lot?” His mouth curled into an attractive half grin that I wanted to slide across the table and kiss off. Something about the emotional intensity of the last week had stirred up all kinds of deep feelings for Cash that went beyond simply admiring how muscly and good-looking he was.

  I giggled, suddenly nervous by the stubborn turn of my thoughts. I just couldn’t get the thought of putting my hands—and lips—on him out of my head lately. It was becoming a real distraction, and I couldn’t stop blushing whenever Cash looked at me, sure he was able to read all the inappropriate—but delicious—things I was imagining doing to him.

  “Definitely not as often as I’d like.”

  Cash stared at me for a few seconds, his grin widening just a touch—seemingly reading my thoughts in that unnerving manner he had—and then he stood to begin collecting the dishes the way he did whenever I cooked. I usually sat at the table and let him clean up—though I’d gotten into the habit of cleaning as I cooked, so most of the dishes were rinsed and stacked in the sink, ready to be washed with soapy water, and the mess wiped from the countertops, as I knew how much the disorder I brought into the house drove him up the wall—but tonight I sprang to my feet. I reached to pull the plate out of his hand, but he didn’t let it go.

  “You cooked dinner,” I said before he could open his mouth to protest this shift in our after dinner roles. I pulled at the plate, but he held firm. “Tonight, you get to sit at the table while I clean up.”

  “How about you wash and I’ll dry?” he asked, grinning that sexy grin that was beginning to cause me almost physical pain whenever I saw it. I didn’t think standing next to him and feeling his body heat as we did the dishes together was really the best idea. I probably needed to start putting distance between us. This one-sided attraction was getting to be way too much to handle. I needed a cold shower and some alone time in my room.