Tempting the One (Meadowview Heat 4; The Meadowview 4)

by Rochelle French

  “Wow,” she said. “Sadie wasn’t exaggerating. You’re really wounded.”

  He looked down. Casts went from his fingertips to his elbows on both arms, and one leg was ensconced in a cast and hung in some traction device. The other ankle had a brace wrapped around it. “All tied up and nowhere to go.”

  “God. You look wretched. No wonder your sister called in a favor. I don’t ever think I’ve seen you look…grey before.”

  He winced. Trust Chessie to lay on the flattery. Not. “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but why are you here?”

  “Your sister called me. Apparently there’s no one available to check on you and she begged me. She was in near hysterics, so what was I supposed to do?”

  “Not come?”

  Chessie snorted. “There are few people in my life I value as much as Sadie—my parents, my brother, and Lia, to name a few. I wasn’t about to tell her no.”

  “She didn’t need to freak out,” he said, suddenly concerned about his sister. He hadn’t meant make her worry. “I’m fine.”

  “Your sister is pregnant and highly hormonal and feels terribly guilty for being stuck in New York. When she and Ethan heard about your accident, they tried to get a flight back to California, but the earliest flight wouldn’t arrive until sometime tomorrow.”

  “So Sadie called you to check in on me?”

  “Yeah, sounded strange to me, too. I’d figured that with your social life and wealth, there must be any number of people who could have checked in on you, every one of them more willing than me. But your sister claimed I was the only one available she trusted.”

  Sadie really must be worried, he figured, if she sent Chessie. He and Chessie had spent a near lifetime bugging the crap out of one another—she wasn’t exactly the top person he’d have chosen for a post-surgical pick-me-up. Not that she wasn’t a great gal—she just seemed to push every single one of his buttons. And he pushed hers. With the glee of a five-year-old boy pestering his sister.

  She shrugged her way out of her jacket and looked around the room, as if searching for a place to lay it down. All surfaces were covered in bouquets of flowers. A bunch of balloons filled an entire corner. His friends from San Francisco had heard about his accident on Facebook and had sent goodies.

  “What about your brother?” he asked, gesturing for her to place her jacket over the edge of his bed.

  “Jack and Lia are on a romantic getaway for a few weeks and quite understandably have their cell phones off.” Chessie dropped her jacket down, then pulled the blanket off of the foot of his bed where it had been dangling. She bent over at the waist, dropping her head low, and began toweling her hair dry.

  “And my folks are out of the country,” he said, “and all my friends are back in San Francisco and unwilling to drive five hours against traffic to check in on me. So my sister called you. I should be grateful, right?”

  She rolled her eyes before saying, “What are you doing in this room, anyway? I thought you were in 512.”

  “I got moved. Why?”

  “There was supposedly some hot, sexy rich guy in Room 508 that someone told me to check out. Apparently, that’s you.” She flipped her head back up and worked at untangling the damp strands.

  Aw…she’d called him hot. And sexy. Theo shot her a grin. “Yep, that’s me. Looks like it’s your lucky day. You sure you don’t want to put those condoms to use?”

  “You’re annoying. Stop talking. Besides, you’re the last guy I’d ever sleep with.” She wrapped the blanket around her shoulders, then sat at the edge of his bed. After toeing off her boots, she struggled to tug off her wet socks.

  “How long will you stay?” he asked.

  “You seem fine to me. As soon as I dry off a bit, I’ll head back out into the torrential downpour. I’ll call your sister in the morning and tell her you’re doing just dandy.”

  “Who says ‘dandy’ these days?”

  She glared at him, but a shiver had her body jerking a bit. “Be nice, Theo, or I’ll leave now.”

  “You’re soaking wet.”

  “So?”

  “And you’re shivering. You need to get warm before you head out again. That truck of yours doesn’t have heat, and it’s a twenty-minute drive from here to your place.” He nudged her with his leg. His broken leg. Pain shot through him. Damn. Not smart.

  She scoffed. “One would almost think you cared.”

  He paused, her words slicing in deep. “One would almost think,” he said, mimicking her sardonic tone.

  For a moment, she sat in silence, staring at him, then said a bit more softly, “I’m feeling a slight tug at my heartstrings. A slight tug. How long are you in here for?”

  “Too long. I think I get out tomorrow. I feel like I’m in prison. I’m confined to a narrow bed, can’t watch TV, and am at everyone else’s mercy when I eat and what I eat.”

  “Not quite a five-star hotel, is it?”

  He rolled his head on the pillow and shut his eyes. “It’s not like I meant for this to happen.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t have been flirting with the snow bunnies quite so much,” she said. “Kept your gaze on the trail, not some blonde’s tight ass.”

  Tension crawled up his spine. “Is that what Sadie told you happened?”

  She shrugged and hitched herself higher up onto his bed. “Could there possibly be a different version?”

  Yeah, a blonde had been involved, alright, but not the kind Chessie and apparently others were imagining. Nope, it had been a young boy, in fact. A kid who should never have been allowed on a black diamond run, headed straight for a grove of Ponderosa pines. When Theo heard the kid scream, he’d plowed forward, picking up speed until he got to the kid and could stop his trajectory. The boy ended up face-first in a pile of snow and wasn’t hurt. Theo, however? Smacked straight into the pine he’d tried to save the kid from hitting.

  Somehow the story had gotten tangled up in myth when he was brought to the hospital.

  “Nothing like chasing a tight ass down a mountain,” he lied.

  Chessie put down the blanket. “Aaaaaand that’s my cue to leave.”

  Something odd turned inside his gut and he struggled to a sitting position. “Wait—don’t leave. You just got here. There’s so much we could talk about. We could spend all night hanging out. I can tell you about all my adventures on the ski slope.”

  “We’re frenemies, not best buddies. I’m here as a favor to your sister, nothing more. There will be no sharing of your adventures. I. Do. Not. Care.”

  “Yeah, but for tonight, we could—” Theo tried to shift his weigh, but the movement sent his elbows sliding out from under him and he fell heavily back down on the bed. He groaned and rocked from side to side.

  Chessie laughed, although the sound was tempered with a hint of concern. “You look pitiful.”

  Theo let out a shuddering sigh. “I am pitiful. I’m so dang pitiful I could win a pity contest. Chessie, help me out here. I’m completely alone. Hang out with me for a bit and you’ll have done your good deed for the day.”

  She blew out a puff of air. “Oh, for crying out loud. I try doing my best friend a favor, come all the way over here in the middle of the storm from hell to check on her invalid brother, and instead of a polite greeting, I get comments on my condoms and a request for sex.”

  “It wasn’t a request. More like a suggestion.”

  She stood up. “You seem fine. I’m going home now, calling Sadie, and telling her that her brother is alive, well, and full of himself as usual.”

  “No, please don’t leave.”

  She paused. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m super busy, Theo, ratcheting up for the biggest contract my company’s ever seen. Hanging out here with you isn’t something I have a lot of time for. So give me one good reason to stay.”

  “I’ll give you four. I have casts on my appendages and I’m unbelievably lonely.”

  “Lonely. Right. Mr. Popular is lonely. Now that I can’t bel
ieve.”

  “I’m serious. My family is all traveling, your brother’s out of town, and my other friends live in the Bay Area. No one’s coming. I can’t even turn the TV on with these stupid casts, much less text or call anyone. I feel like I’m in some isolation chamber in jail for idiots who ski into trees.”

  “Hanging out wasn’t what I told your sister I’d do for you. Plump your pillows, bring you juice, make sure the nurses were taking good care of you—that’s why I’m here.”

  “Stay, please. I’ll owe you, big-time.”

  “Good. I’ll take you up on that bet when you get your casts off.”

  “Really?” he asked, popping his head back up, a hopeful smile forming.

  “Yep. I need help transplanting my great-grandmother’s lavender bushes from my front yard to my garden out back.”

  What the hell? “Transplanting lavender? Like, digging in the dirt and stuff like that? I was thinking a nice dinner out or sending you a crate of champagne.”

  “You can’t buy favors.”

  He snorted. “Chessie, you can buy anything.”

  A line formed in her brow and her eyebrows came together. “There are lots of things money can’t buy, and my attention is one of them. It’s transplanting lavender or nothing.”

  He shifted, then couldn’t help it—he moaned. Closing his eyes, he whispered, “Please, Chessie. Just stay. I’ll play gardener all you want when this is all over. Just don’t leave me. Not yet.”

  “You really are that lonely?”

  He nodded.

  “I’m not feeling much pity here, Theo.”

  “Please hang out for a bit, Chessie. Scratch my nose for me, change the channel, hold my glass of water so I can drink.”

  “You’re Mr. Moneybags. Can’t you hire that out?”

  He opened his eyes and glared at her. “At this time of night?”

  “Good point. So…” She gave him a long look. “You really want me to hang out?”

  He shrugged. “I’d rather go for sex, but you’ve already pulled that off the table.”

  She laughed. “You’ve just broken a bunch of bones and are on a boatload of pain meds. Pretty sure sex isn’t something you could handle right about now.”

  “You have no idea what I could handle.” He leaned back onto the pillow, then winced as pain flooded his system. “You’re right. Forget the sex. But please, for the love of god, scratch my nose!”

  The morning light streaming through Chessie’s kitchen should have cheered her, given how nasty the weather had been the night before, but Sadie’s request had her mentally seeing thunderclouds. “No, Sadie. Seriously, you can’t do this to me.” Chessie paced around the island in her kitchen, the phone pressed tightly to her ear.

  “Pretty please, with honey on top?” Sadie asked.

  Sadie couldn’t be asking this of her. Not now.

  Not ever, actually.

  “Wasn’t visiting Theo last night enough?” Chessie pleaded.

  On the other end of the line she could hear Sadie’s voice, uncharacteristically wavering. “He needs someone, Chessie, and I can’t travel with this pre-term labor.”

  When Sadie had called that morning to tell Chessie that she herself had been in the hospital the night before because she’d developed pre-term labor, all Chessie could think about was how to help her friend. She wanted to drop all her current orders and race to New York to take care of her friend until the baby came.

  Sadie, however, had other ideas about how Chessie could help. Instead of taking care of her, she asked Chessie to take care of Theo. It was an idea that more than sucked, in Chessie’s opinion.

  “I want to be taking care of you, not your stinky brother,” Chessie said. “Aren’t you supposed to be on bed rest? I could fly out to New York. Make you soup, bring you books, let you win at board games.”

  Sadie’s laugh sounded soft over the telephone. “I have Ethan to do all that for me, Chessie. Theo has no one.”

  “But what about your parents? Can’t they come take care of him?” Even as she asked the question, Chessie knew the answer. Mr. and Mrs. Courant were the very people from whom Theo got his egocentrism—no way would they stop what they were doing to provide care for Theo.

  “Dad’s on some business trip in Japan, drumming up donors for the Courant Foundation, and Mom’s in Cancun, or Cozumel, or somewhere like that on some spa vacation. Theo already asked her if she’d come help him, but she said no. Too many facials lined up, I guess.”

  Wow. Chessie’s mother would have dropped everything to come help her if she’d broken multiple bones. “What about hiring a caregiver? Certainly Theo can afford to pay someone to wipe his nose and dump out a can of soup for him, right?”

  Sadie let out a shuddery sigh. “Money can do a lot of good, but it can’t buy everything. If he hired someone, he’d just be a job to them. They wouldn’t care if they gave him soup out of a can or didn’t get him clean clothes. Or even help him get to the bathroom. They wouldn’t care.”

  Chessie held the phone to her ear, silent.

  “When I heard about the accident,” Sadie continued, “I promised him he could live with Ethan and me when he was released from the hospital and that I’d take care of him. Now I’m stuck here until the contractions go away or until the baby’s born, whatever comes first. I can’t be there, taking care of my poor brother the way I promised.” She began to sob, shocking Chessie.

  Must be the pregnancy hormones, she realized. Sadie had been more weepy lately. No way would Sadie be all sappy about her annoying brother if she didn’t have a clash of hormones coursing through her body. Still, whether Sadie’s emotional outburst was due to the pregnancy or not, Chessie had to keep her friend from getting worked up. Not with the pregnancy in danger.

  The only way to calm Sadie would be to agree to what her friend had just asked: bring Theo home to her house and care for him for the next month or so while he recuperated.

  Theo, the annoying, self-absorbed, obnoxiously flirtatious pill.

  Sadie was expecting her to have Theo live here, in her house, day in and day out for weeks while he healed. Most definitely not her idea of fun. But what else could she do? “You really want me to bring him to my house and play nursemaid?”

  “Oh god, Chessie, it would mean so much to me. You would be perfect. You’d make him homemade soup, make sure he takes his medicine, and get him to his doctor’s appointments. You’d even play board games with him. I bet hired caregivers wouldn’t play board games. They’d just stick him in some room and leave him to watch TV alone all day long.”

  Chessie leaned against the granite countertop and imagined her friend sprawled out on some hotel bed, her golden curls draped around her, clutching her belly, getting all worked up over her brother.

  No wonder Theo seemed so spoiled—he was.

  “Fine, I’ll do it,” she said. “But he’d better behave. No waking me up in the middle of the night because he wants a glass of water, no demanding I drop whatever I’m doing to bake him cookies, no monopolizing the remote. And absolutely no women.” And no more propositioning her for sex. Not that he’d been serious last night.

  Or had he?

  Sadie let out a shuddering laugh. “He’ll be good, I promise. Or he’ll have to answer to me. Although the no-women thing might be tough on him—I doubt he’s ever gone a few weeks without sex before. Just beat him off with a stick if he tries to make a pass at you. Not that he would. He thinks of you as a sister.”

  Yeah, not exactly.

  “Do you want me to call him and let him know you’ll be the one picking him up? He’s expecting someone from the home care service to meet him.” Sadie changed the subject, much to Chessie’s relief.

  “When’s he being discharged?”

  “They said this afternoon, around five.”

  Chessie shook her head. “Nah, don’t bother calling. Just get some rest. I’ll pick him up and tell him then. Does he know about the baby? About the pre-term labor?”
>
  “No—Ethan wanted to call him last night when I went into the ER with contractions, but I wouldn’t let him. Theo needed to recuperate from his surgery, and worrying about me might be harmful.”

  “Does he know you’re making arrangements for him?”

  “Yesterday evening, Ethan told him we’d arranged for a home provider. But I don’t want my brother being cared for by some stranger.” Sadie’s voice trailed off into hiccupping sobs.

  Oh, wow. Those hormones were definitely going to town on Sadie’s system. It took a lot to make strong Sadie cry.

  “It’s all right, sweetie, I’ll take care of him. Don’t worry, he won’t get canned soup here at my house.”

  “Thank you,” Sadie said. “Thank you for taking such good care of my brother.”

  Taking such good care of her brother? When this was all over, Theo owed her.

  Big time.

  * * *

  The cute nurse Theo was flirting with didn’t seem to be enjoying his attention. Instead, she was bustling around his hospital room, stuffing his belongings into a clear plastic sack. This seemed odd, because a couple of days ago she’d been one of the nurses flirting with him when he’d been brought in on a stretcher. Today, she acted as if he were an annoyance.

  Or like he smelled bad.

  He lifted his arm up for a sniff. Hmm. So maybe he was a little ripe, but still.

  The door to his room swung open and his doctor strode in, her long white coat flowing, followed by someone else. Someone in heavy jeans, a cowboy shirt, and a long Australian duster jacket. Someone whose scowl said she wasn’t too happy about being there.

  Wow. Cowgirl from Hell.

  “Uh, hey, Chessie.”

  “Hey yourself, Theo,” Chessie said, not meeting his eyes. She set a brown grocery sack down on the chair next to his bed. Probably today’s purse, he figured. His nose started to itch. Maybe he could get Chessie to scratch it for him like she had the night before.

  “Here for a repeat of last night?” He smiled widely. Maybe he could tease out a smile.

  She glared at him, making a face behind the doctor’s back. Nope, no smile.

  “You’re ready for discharge, Mr. Courant.” The doctor spoke dispassionately, focused on the tablet in her hands. “I’ll fill in your caregiver with your care instructions, and give her a refill for your prescriptions, and you’ll be on your way.”