by Becky McGraw
"Why?" She scooted over a few inches to put some space between them. The temptation to reach over and rub her hands over his smooth skin was too great. "Is everything okay at the ranch?"
"Yeah, it's fine," he said lazily then picked up her sunscreen and poured a glob in his hand and started smoothing it over his chest. "Lay back down and relax, darlin'."
How the hell was she supposed to relax watching him rub lotion all over his delectable body? This was torture of the highest form, and she didn't think she could take much more without losing it. It was bad enough trying to resist him when he was fully clothed.
Cassie licked her lips and tried to drag her eyes away from him, but couldn't. As if pulled by a magnetic beam, her eyes followed his hands down his chest to his chiseled abs then to the waistband of his shorts. When he pulled the hem of his shorts up to rub lotion on his firm thighs, she groaned then stood and jerked her towel up from the ground.
Grabbing the handle of her tote, she said angrily. "I'm leaving."
Luke looked up at her and she saw his throat work a couple times before he said, "Well at least you're telling me this time."
"And just like before, you'll have the floozy you slept with last night to console you," Cassie spat then turned her back to him and headed up the path into the woods.
She heard a fierce growl behind her, then rustling and before she knew it she was on the ground and Luke was on top of her, pinning her there. He rolled off of her then took her shoulders and turned her over to face him. Cassie was so stunned she couldn't do anything but stare at him like he'd lost his mind. He most likely had, she thought. Luke had never been rough with her. Not that his tackle had been rough, even when he was subduing her she felt the care he'd taken not to hurt her.
Fierce emotion filled his icy brown eyes and a muscle worked at his jaw. He grabbed her shoulders and leaned down into her face to say in a grating hiss, "Listen to me well, Cassandra Bellamy. I. Did. Not. Cheat. On. You! And it pisses me the fuck off that you even think I did. And I didn't sleep with that floozy last night." Luke shoved her shoulders and then stood.
He put his hands on his hips and bent at the waist. "Maybe you did me a fucking favor running off ten years ago, because I would have asked a woman who thought I was a piece of trash to marry me, and she would probably have laughed in my face. Or if she'd said yes, I'd have found out what she thought of me too late. So, thank you for saving me that humiliation....goodbye, Cassie."
Luke stood up straight, his shoulders and face hard and unyielding, then turned and walked back to pick up his shirt, shoes and towel. Without another word, he gave her a disgusted stare as he walked around her and then up the trail at a fast clip.
His words and the solemnity of his tone finally ripped through the confused stupor that had claimed her. The fact that his goodbye rang with such finality settled in her heart and she was afraid she'd never see him again. She vaulted to her feet and ran after him. "Luke, wait!" she yelled, but he was too far ahead to hear evidently, or he was ignoring her. "Luke, don't just say that shit and run off. Please stop!"
She picked up her pace to a jog, but he still he outdistanced her. His fists were clenched at his side and he took long ground gobbling steps up the steep incline. "Goddammit Luke, stop! I love you!"
She saw his step falter and he slowed down a second, then he clenched and unclenched his fists, before he started moving again at the faster pace and yelled back to her. "That doesn't mean a damned thing to me now. Those are words, your actions say something entirely different. I'm done, Cassie."
"No, Luke don't say that! Just stop and let me talk to you," she begged and then tripped on a tree root, her ankle rolling painfully. She felt something snap, before she fell on the soft packed dirt on her face, hitting her head on another root in the process. The pain shooting up her leg was excruciating and she rolled onto her back and grabbed her ankle, rocking back and forth and moaning.
She heard Luke yell, "Fuck!" from down the trail, and then he was at her side running his hands over her body then down her legs to her already swelling ankle. It was obvious he was beyond angry and didn't really want to help her, but he'd come back and she was thankful. "I think it's broken," she told him and moaned again.
"Oh, this is fucking perfect," he said shortly then reached into his shorts and pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. "Cole, get your ass down to the lake. Cassie needs you to take her to the hospital for an x-ray."
Cassie felt nauseous and rolled onto her side away from Luke, just in case she had to throw up. He really wasn't going to help her, she thought dejectedly. He was pawning her off on Cole. Her heart shattered into a million pieces and silent tears rolled down her cheeks onto the ground. She curled up into a tight ball of misery and sobbed quietly. Luke finally finished his explanations to Cole, then grabbed her shoulder to turn her over.
"Just leave me alone," she said in a whisper. "Go, ahead Luke. Cole will help me."
"Cassie stop being dramatic and turn over, so I can look at your pupils. Did you hit your head when you fell? Do you feel nauseated?"
"Yes and yes...but it's no big deal," she told him weakly. "Cole will take me to the hospital...just go away." Cassie closed her eyes against her pain and let the black dots that had been filling her vision turn into a dark curtain of peace.
When Cassie woke up she was being wheeled on a gurney from an ambulance through glass double doors with big red letters spelling EMERGENCY. The scent of antiseptic hit her in the face when the two men beside the gurney pushed her inside. She gagged and said, "I think I'm going to be sick," before putting her hand over her mouth praying she wouldn't be. An IV tube pulled in her arm and she dropped it back beside her.
One of the men walked away and spoke briefly with a nurse. He came back and handed her a small rectangular pan. "Here you go, hon. Use it if you need it. I told the nurse to see if the doctor would order something for your nausea."
Cassie licked her dry lips then thanked him. "Where's Cole?"
"Is that the Sheriff's deputy who was with you when we got there?" She nodded and wished she hadn't, because pain sliced through her head causing another wave of sickness to surge to her throat.
"He was following us and will be here in a few minutes."
"Thank you." Cassie gripped the pan the medic had given her and turned her head to the side closing her eyes to focus on not getting sick.
They wheeled her into a room, transferred her to a bed carefully, then zipped a curtain around her. The other medic that had helped her picked up a call button from the rail on the bed and put it in her hand. "Ring this if you feel sick again, or need anything. A nurse will come to help you." She nodded and gripped the small white cylinder, her finger hovering over the button. Cassie hated feeling helpless. She couldn't stand hospitals or being sick. If anyone thought her daddy was a terrible patient, they hadn't seen her down.
The curtain around her parted and an older brunette woman in scrubs walked in with a long syringe filled with liquid. She was followed closely by Cole, his face pale and his lips pinched into a tight line. He stood over to the side to give the woman room.
The needle was so big, Cassie cringed and said, "If you think you're sticking that in my ass...you better think again," she told her flatly with misery lacing her tone.
The nurse chuckled and walked around the bed to the IV pole and slid the needle into the tube. "This is for nausea, and it goes in your IV, not your, um..."
"Ass..." Cassie filled in the blank and then said, "Good. When is the doctor going to get in here? If he can patch up my ankle, I'm good to go." Just mentioning her ankle made it throb. Her toes were cold and numb, and the pain was as intense as an earache. Her head hurt just as bad.
"I'm afraid it's going to involve more than that, sweetie. You probably have concussion, and your ankle looks to be pretty badly broken. We'll have to wait for the doctor to find out when you'll be released."
Cassie gritted her teeth and pushed on her forearms to
sit up. Pain sliced through her ankle and head a the same time, bile surged up into her throat and her vision blurred around the edges. She moaned and then laid back against the hard bed and closed her eyes.
Cole was at her side in a flash, and leaned over her. "Stop being a horse's ass, Cassie and let them take care of you."
She swallowed hard and nodded gingerly then opened one eye to look at the tall blonde man she considered a friend. "Where's Luke?"
Pushing against the bed, Cole stood upright then shoved a frustrated hand through his hair, anger pulsing from him like heat from a woodstove. "Not here," he ground out.
She looked into his angry eyes and said in a hurt whisper, "He really meant it then..."
Her throat went dry and she felt a hot tear slip down her cheek. Luke didn't love her anymore...he didn't even care enough to make sure she was okay. It was a hard pill to swallow, and something she couldn't face right now. Turning her face away from Cole, Cassie pulled the sheet up to her chin and closed her eyes.
She felt a thumb gently rub her cheek and then smelled the distinctive woodsy aftershave that Cole wore when he leaned next to her ear and said fiercely. "He loves you, Cassie. He's just hurt--he'll come around. Trust me, darlin'."
Well if he did, he sure had a fine way of showing it. No, she had a bad feeling in her stomach that Cole didn't know his best friend as well as he thought he did. Luke was sending her a message by not being here. And she'd received it loud and clear.
***
Luke paced back and forth in front of the fireplace in his living room. His hair was standing on end from the many times he'd run his hands through it waiting on Cole to call and give him an update on Cassie's condition. He wasn't related to her so the hospital wouldn't tell him anything.
It had been the hardest thing he'd ever done in his life to leave her in his best friend's care and not go to the hospital with her. But he'd had to do it. For his own sanity, he could not keep going on this emotional merry-go-round with her.
After he and Cole had a long talk about the situation with Cassie when they got back here last night, his friend had convinced him to give her another chance. To go after what he wanted, because obviously their ten year separation had all been a result of a misunderstanding. By the time they finished talking, his anger and resentment toward Cassie had subsided, and he was on board with trying to work things out with her. They'd even formulated a plan to help him do that. He and Cole were going into the cattle business together....buying Carl Bellamy's herd.
Cole's intention was to invest his inheritance wisely, and Luke's goal was to set himself up where he made enough money to provide for Cassie properly...to feel like they were equals financially. Then, Luke planned to sit her down and explain what happened that night, and see if she apologized for misjudging him. If she did, he hoped they'd be able to heal the past and see if there was a future for them. He'd thought maybe he'd finally be able to ask her to marry him, ten years too late.
Carl Bellamy agreeing to sell him the herd when he asked earlier today, meant he was able to check off his first goal. The man had been more than willing to sell him the herd and lease him the grazing land he'd need to work them. Truth be told, the old man looked relieved.
Luke knew that buying the cattle would help Cassie out and take some of the burden off her shoulders. That had been part of what drove him to the decision. Her daddy was getting on in years, and wouldn't be able to run the cattle part of the operation for much longer anyway. He also knew from his conversation with Bud and Carl that it was Cassie's dream to raise horses...not cattle.
His deal with Carl would help her do that much sooner than if they waited for the calving and sales. Carl and Bud had both told him that if Cassie was able to start the horse farm, she was planning on staying in Bowie. News that thrilled him, and made him determined to make sure she could.
It was like the sun, moon and stars were all aligning perfectly to help him.
Now, however, Luke realized it had all been a pipe dream. Instead of being open and receptive to him when he'd gone to the lake to find her and have that talk privately, she'd been the same way she'd been to him since her return to Bowie, hostile and unwelcoming. He finally faced the sad fact that she was never going to respect him. He'd always be that poor kid whose daddy was a drunk to her...the guy she'd simply given a few minutes of her time to make him feel like he was something special.
Luke meant what he'd said to her at the lake today. He was well and truly done chasing her. Being able to say that to her was supposed to bring him closure. Instead, she'd messed up his mind with her love words, then broke her ankle and probably cracked her skull. Now, all he felt was guilt.
Worry wrapped itself around his heart and squeezed painfully. "Call me, dammit," he said to the empty room.
Exhausted and wrung out, Luke had sat down on the couch to wait after a while, and evidently he'd dozed off, because the sound of the doorbell echoing loudly off the log walls of his cabin startled him awake. His heart was pounding inside his chest, and he looked around disoriented for a moment, before he launched himself up and ran for the door. He flung it open and a very somber, unhappy Cole stood on his porch with his hands fisted at his side, his jaw clenched.
Before he could invite him in, Cole marched past him, his shoulder slamming against Luke's as he did. Luke shut the door and followed him across the room. Glancing at the clock above the mantle Luke realized it was almost midnight. His friend should have been off-duty about six hours ago, but was still in his rumpled uniform.
"Did something else happen? Why the fuck didn't you call me? How's Cassie?" Luke asked in rapid succession as he walked to sit in a chair across from the sofa.
Cole didn't say anything, just stared at Luke with anger glittering in his green eyes, his lips pinched shut.
Panic raced through Luke and he shoved out of the chair and ran over to the couch to grab Cole by the shirt front. In a strangled voice he demanded, "What the fuck's wrong? Is Cassie okay?!"
Cole brushed his hands off then leaned forward to shout in his face, "If you were so fucking worried about Cassie's condition you should have been at the hospital. They kept her overnight for observation. I stayed until she was settled in a room." Cole pushed against his chest and Luke stepped back a few paces.
Cole knew why he couldn't go to the hospital, Luke had told him what had happened by the lake, and that as far as he was concerned he and Cassie were done--permanently. That his friend didn't have more sympathy and understanding for him in this situation pissed him off. "What did they say was wrong?" Luke asked his fists clenching at his side in frustration.
"Broken ankle and moderate concussion. They're watching her overnight to make sure her brain doesn't start swelling," Cole finally answered.
Panic edged back up inside him, but he tamped it down. "Did they say she'd be okay?"
"Yeah, they think she'll fully recover in a couple of weeks. But she needs rest, and that damned farm isn't the place for her to get that." Cole ran a hand across his face then sighed. "She's so fucking stubborn, she'll probably be out wrangling cattle in the cast they put on her leg."
"You're probably right." Luke knew he was right. Cassie was not one to sit on her laurels when there was work to be done. She was just as stubborn as her old man.
Resignation then determination filled Luke and he said before he could change his mind, "I'll take her up to your dad's fishing camp up on the lake for a week."
Surprise and then wariness flickered across Cole's face. "I thought you didn't want to see her?"
He didn't...but there wasn't anyone else to take care of her. Imelda and Bud were pushovers where she was concerned, she'd run right over them. Her dad was laid up himself, so he couldn't do it.
"I don't...but I'm not a total asshole. I'll make sure she gets the rest she needs, then in a week I'll dump her ass back on the front porch of that ranch and walk away. Can you take care of helping Carl and Bud with the cattle for the week? Until we ca
n get the paperwork done?"