"Thanks for picking him up," she said grudgingly.
She clicked off the line and pocketed her phone, then stood at the end of Scarlett's bed. It was late. She should bunk down on the cot the nurse had brought her, but her mind continued to froth and foam. She knew she wouldn't sleep. She was a bad sleeper when she wasn’t at home and in her own bed. And sometimes not even then.
A soft knock at the door sounded. It creaked open.
"Trey?"
Her traitor heart did a little pitter-patter as the Triple H cowboy stuck his head inside.
Scarlett shifted in her bed. The last thing Carrie needed was her daughter waking up and seeing Trey, so Carrie headed him off at the door and nudged him into the hall. She closed the door behind them with a soft click.
She pressed her hands into the cool wood at her back, leaning against them in case she had the urge to reach for him. "What are you doing here?"
He took off his Stetson and tapped it against his thigh, a sign of his agitation. His other hand was behind his back. Maybe he was trying not to reach for her, too.
She hadn't seen him in over a month, and the sight of his broad shoulders and familiar face made her want things she shouldn't. Why hadn't he stuck to their unofficial, unarticulated deal? When she had to visit the Triple H, he kindly disappeared. When he came to town, she made herself scarce. Should they happen to cross paths, they made polite, distant conversation and went their separate ways.
His appearance tonight was definitely not part of the deal.
"I heard about Scarlett and thought she might be missing Oreo." He extended the hidden hand, which held Scarlett's favorite black and white teddy bear, the one Gideon had bought her when she was a baby. Anyone close enough to know Scarlett knew she was attached to the bear. She’d even taken it to the first day of kindergarten with her, two years ago now.
"How'd you get into my house?"
It was an alpha thing to do, him thinking he knew best and acting on it, not asking permission. Actions like those had scared Carrie off in the first place. Her ex, Scarlett's dad, was a controlling, abusive man.
She couldn't cede control to a man, not ever again.
He must've read some of her feelings in her expression, because the frown line between his eyes deepened. He didn't sigh or make any other sign that her reaction bothered him. "Your neighbor let me in."
Wilma was an elderly sweetheart who fed her cat if Carrie ever had a late night away from home. But they would definitely have to have a talk about that key when Carrie got home. She was too irritated to speak, so she stared dumbly at the bear.
"Look, I didn't come up here to upset you," he said. "I just wanted to check on you guys. Maybe I should've left him with the nurse at the desk."
She took the bear, careful not to touch the man's hand. "Scarlett's better now. They stabilized her breathing, and they're sending her home in the morning."
He nodded, some of the lines around his eyes easing slightly. He'd always cared about her daughter.
And that, plus the overwhelming emotions that today had brought, brought a lump to Carrie's throat. She flared her nostrils, holding back everything she could, so he wouldn't see how deeply she was affected.
"I also brought you this. Figured maybe it might make your night better." He picked up plastic trash bag from leaning against the wall. He shoved it at her and she reacted instinctively, taking it from him. It was squishy inside.
He turned and strode away without even saying goodbye, which was fine with her, because her tears were too close to the surface to stem any longer.
She ducked back into Scarlett's room and let them fall, brushing them away with the back of her wrist as she clung to the trash bag and bear.
When the small outburst subsided, she tucked Oreo into the crook of Scarlett's arm and sat on the cot. She untied the garbage bag, pulled out her very own pillow.
Because he knew she wouldn't sleep well here, and that it might give her some comfort. Because that was the kind of man he was.
She hugged the pillow and squeezed her eyes shut as more tears threatened. She'd been so close to accepting the relationship he offered eighteen months ago.
But in the end, she hadn't been able to trust that he wouldn't hurt her. Nights like tonight just confused things.
She was better off alone.
Even if it didn't feel that way.
Chapter 2
The man woke, disoriented and with his heart pounding. Darkness surrounded him, but faint lights shone at eye-level and the pinpoints of light against the night sent his abused head spinning until he thought he would throw up.
"Hey." A soft female voice intruded into the Tilt-a-Whirl of his consciousness. He felt the sensation of a palm pressing against the back of his hand. "Matt?"
It felt like rounding a corner in a clunker with no power steering, but the man turned his head.
Kelsey.
Her car.
He blinked, and the world came into focus. He was still in the passenger seat of her car. He must've fallen asleep beneath the repeating yellow highway lights. That was the last thing he remembered.
He was shaking and drew his hand from beneath hers because he didn't want her to think he was weak. He rubbed his hand down his face, trying to breathe, trying to gain some perspective.
The ranch. They'd been coming to the ranch.
At least some things were sticking to this inside of his noggin.
A light went on somewhere outside the car, and he lifted his eyes to see someone step onto the porch. A man, but he was backlit, and Matt couldn't make out his features.
"Are you okay?" Kelsey asked from the driver’s seat. Her door was open, as if maybe she’d been out of the car and sat back down.
He wasn't, but he reached for the door handle anyway. "Sure."
The cold air was bracing when he swung his legs out of the compact car and stood. He only had to grip the top of the car for a couple of seconds before the spinning in his head settled.
Someone was coming off the porch now, and Kelsey's high beams illuminated his face. Enough for Matt to recognize Nate O’Malley, though he'd aged since the teenaged Nate in Matt's memories.
Kelsey seemed surprised to see the man who'd been a friend in high school.
"Kelsey Whitley. Didn't expect you." Nate might be hiding his surprise, but Matt clearly heard the cautious tone in the other man's voice. Why?
Nate moved toward Matt, his hand outstretched. "It's so good to see you, boss, we've been worried sick."
Boss? With his head still throbbing, it was everything Matt could do to manage one word. "Nate."
The cowboy looked at him, a genuine smile creasing his face. "You remember me?"
He shook his head. "Just...some things from high school."
Nate's expression dissolved into concern. He nodded slowly. "Well, we'll get you settled, and hopefully you'll get everything back before too long."
"Who's 'we'? You said 'we've been worried,'" Matt said.
"I'm the foreman, and we've got Brian, Trey, and Chase working the place."
Matt didn't recognize those names. Nate clapped him on the shoulder. "I'll introduce you in the morning. You look exhausted. Why don't you come on inside and head to bed?"
Three men he didn't know were bunked down on the Triple H. Maybe it should make the man nervous, but he didn't have room in his head for any more emotion. If Nate trusted them, that would have to be good enough.
"Just let me say goodnight," the man said to Nate.
The concerned lines around Nate's mouth tightened, but the cowboy faded back, moving toward the porch steps. Something was off. Something in his reaction, in Kelsey's... Matt's head continued to throb and he closed his eyes and pressed fingers into one side of the bridge of his nose.
When he opened his eyes, Kelsey was there, in front of him. She hesitated before she settled her hands at his waist. It wasn't an embrace, not really, but her touch calmed him.
He cupped her cheek.
When he was about to lower his head to kiss her goodnight, she turned her face into his palm. He buried his nose in her hair instead.
She was trembling, or maybe he was. All he knew was he could get through whatever was going to come, as long as she was by his side.
Hours later, shut up in her room at her sister Katie's house, Kelsey still felt shaken from that final embrace from Matt.
The whole night had shaken her, beginning the moment she'd stepped foot in the airport. She hadn't been prepared to see him, pale beneath his tan, his hair cut short.
Even less prepared to pretend to be one of a pair.
She should've told him the truth immediately, but his kiss had surprised and silenced her. And then, seeing him vulnerable...
She'd worried herself into a state when he'd fallen asleep in the passenger seat of her car. She’d kept sneaking glances at him as they'd passed through the one-stoplight town and streetlights had flashed across the interior of the car.
He couldn't have been comfortable with his small frame folded into her compact car. His face had lost some of the stress lines after he'd drifted off. He was just as handsome as she remembered. Maybe more. When she'd last seen him, he'd still had the lankiness of a teen, but now he was all man.
Matt was the kind of man who never let his guard down. The fact that he’d slept while she drove—instead of scanning the area around them for traffic or other dangers—showed how very vulnerable this injured Matt was.
Seeing him again had brought back everything. How much she'd loved him. The pain she'd felt when she'd walked away. The lonely, late nights when she'd stared at the ceiling, wondering if she'd made the right choice.
A knock at her door startled her. She was wedged in the desk chair. She'd been staring out the window for... She winced when she glanced at the clock. Way too long. At least she didn't have a job to rush off to in the morning.
The door opened and Katie stuck her head inside. "Thought you might be sleeping."
Kelsey shrugged. Her lamp made it obvious she wasn't.
"How was Matt?" It was a loaded question. Katie knew how serious their relationship had been back in high school. Tonight Kelsey had left her a voicemail to let her know where she'd gone.
Kelsey couldn't stop thinking about those moments when she'd woken him. His disorientation, the pain etched into his features.
And the way his expression had eased when he'd caught sight of her. Even now, it was like losing her breath to a bad leg cramp.
She shook the thoughts away. "He's...not well."
Katie crossed her arms. "What happened? I hadn't even heard he was coming home." In a town as small as Taylor Hills, the grapevine usually ran rampant. That hadn't changed.
"I think some kind of roadside bombing. Carrie didn't have long to talk." And she wouldn't have shared with Kelsey anyway. "He's had a head injury and...amnesia."
Katie's eyes widened. "So...?"
"He remembered me from high school." Kelsey sighed, jamming her fingers into her hair, squeezing her scalp. "He apparently started remembering when he saw me at the airport."
"Oh no."
Yeah. "He didn't remember everything."
Katie looked appropriately compassionate. "So when he finds out you abandoned him and broke his heart...?"
She vaulted out of the chair and went to her dresser, turning her back to her sister. "I didn't abandon him."
She'd just broken things off without giving him a real explanation. Avoided him all summer and run off to college.
"Yeah..." Katie drawled from the doorway.
Kelsey pulled a ratty T-shirt—one of her favorites from high school—from the drawer. She'd left so much behind when she'd left town all those years ago. She gripped the dresser drawer.
What was she going to do?
Matt had said some of his memories had returned when he'd first seen her. What if more returned? What if his mind was re-filling with memories right now? What if he woke and knew that she'd abandoned their relationship? That she’d run off and left him?
Just thinking about what would happen when he remembered the truth made her want to put on her running shoes and run far away. Her body was up for it, her feet itching for the pounding of pavement beneath her feet, or perhaps for the sight of home in the rearview mirror. For distance between her present and her past. But she couldn't. Not now.
She turned back to Katie with a lift of her chin, her temper flaring. "You want me to call the garbage company tomorrow and have a dumpster delivered?"
Katie struck right back. "You know I don't want that. We can't just throw away Mama's things."
Mama was gone. It still hadn't settled in for Kelsey, even after almost a week of being home. Mama's life hadn't been easy. She’d worked long hours, always on her feet, but there’d been no hint of any health problems. The heart attack she'd suffered had been a complete shock.
Kelsey had grieved, shutting herself up in her Houston apartment. She'd grieved, but she hadn't wept. Mama had never believed in Kelsey’s dreams.
When Katie called and asked for help settling the estate, Kelsey had felt guilty enough to get in her car and come. Settling the estate was a kind way to put it. What they were really doing was getting rid of all the junk Mama had accumulated. The word hoarder was a fitting description of the single mom who'd raised them.
Since she’d returned, she and Katie lived and ate and watched TV and avoided each other, somehow managing to do that from the confines of the second floor, because the first was floor-to-ceiling junk. Trash, all of it.
Except Katie's jutting jaw said she didn't agree that it was all trash. She thought they'd find a few things of value hidden among the piles. Kelsey just wanted to be done with it all. Once the house was cleaned out, she could leave Katie to run the restaurant Mama had spent her life operating.
Kelsey didn't need an inheritance, not after the endorsements she'd scored because of her silver medal.
What she needed was direction. She'd worked since she was ten years old toward her dream of being an Olympian and winning that medal.
Now she had it, and she didn't know what to do with the fifty or sixty years she had left. She was a retired athlete with an unfinished art degree and no job. Cleaning up the mess mama had left was proving to be a distraction, but in a few weeks, Kelsey would have to make some firm decisions about her future.
Decisions that didn’t include Matt Hale.
She didn't need more complications in her life, and Matt was a big one. She should've spoken up the moment he'd first set eyes on her. Told him the truth, that they weren't together and hadn't been in years. Now it was too late, but she couldn't imagine Carrie allowing him to believe it for long.
And then what? Kelsey would spend three or four weeks in Taylor Hills and be gone. She could last that long in town.
She just had to stay away from complications.
Chapter 3
"Morning, Boss."
The man dredged up a smile and a nod for the cowhand standing near the sink with a plate of breakfast food in hand. Sunlight streamed through the kitchen window and glared off of the unfamiliar granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. The kitchen had obviously been remodeled sometime between high school and now. At least the landscape outside the window appeared the same as he remembered—a softly rolling slope down to the barn.
Boss.
Words to strike fear into any guy's nineteen-year-old heart.
Except he wasn't nineteen, even though he hadn’t recaptured any memories beyond that age.
It was crazy weird. He definitely didn't feel nineteen, not with the way his knees had popped when he'd rolled out of bed, but there was a disconnect between his memories and his reality.
He rubbed his aching head.
He didn't recognize the cowboy blocking the coffeepot, but his friend Nate had also called him Boss last night.
Boss. Matt.
Neither one felt quite right. Neither had the moments of soldier-like, dead
ly precision he'd woken with this morning. One moment, he'd been sleeping soundly, the next he'd been sitting up in the unfamiliar bed, scanning 360 degrees for any sense of danger. As if the actions had been ingrained. What kind of missions had he been on during his tenure as a soldier?
He shook his head against the whirl of his thoughts. The cowhand's smile had faded a little as Matt stared, but now he shored it up again. "Here.” He stepped out of the way. “Have some coffee. Brian made it, so it'll wake you up for sure."
Brian. Another name he didn't know.
He smiled, a bit chagrined. "And you are...?"
The man's smile faltered. "Chase."
The coffeepot clinked as Matt took it from the percolator; steam rose as he poured. He hadn't had a huge taste for it back in high school. How did he take it now? Sugar? Cream? Black? Thank God the mugs were in the same spot where Uncle Pat had always kept them, a cabinet overhead.
Matt had been shocked and hit with a wave of grief when he’d learned his uncle wasn't around anymore. Nate had been the one to deliver that news last night when Matt had balked at his bedroom door—that room had been Pat's for Matt's whole life. His head was muddled, but hadn't he mentioned his uncle to Kelsey? Why hadn't she been the one to tell him Pat was dead?
He raised his mug to the cowhand still shoving scrambled eggs into his mouth and left the kitchen. Being Boss right now felt like too much to handle. Surely they didn't expect him to run the Triple H, did they?
Thinking about Kelsey was a little like tiptoeing around a land mine. He got the feeling there were things she hadn’t told him, couldn't figure out why he didn't have a wedding band on her finger after ten years. Last night, he'd been too exhausted and too emotional when the load of memories had dumped into his head to really put any effort into figuring out what he was missing.
He wandered down the sun-drenched hall toward his bedroom, or Uncle Pat’s bedroom, as he still thought of it—that had been another shock last night that he hadn't had mental space to absorb. It was located beneath the staircase toward the back of the house.
Kissing Kelsey: a Cowboy Fairytales spin-off (Triple H Brides Book 1) Page 2