by Robin Wells
All the same, a secret, less sensible part of her had been on the constant lookout for him. At night, the memory of his kisses had burned in her mind, making her toss and turn until the sheets were snarled and the covers were twisted. She knew her behavior was illogical, but knowing that only increased her sense of irritation and frustration.
Luke looked up and met her gaze. Even at this distance, she felt blistered by a burst of attraction. Determined not to show it, she raised her hand and waved. He straightened and waved back, then headed to the shore to meet them.
The bottom of the canoe scraped loudly on the small, smooth rocks as Manuel grounded the craft. Luke stretched out a hand and helped Josie climb out. His grip was warm and strong, and the feel of it sent an unwanted thrill chasing up her arm. She deliberately avoided his eyes, not wanting him to see the effect his touch was having on her.
“Did you have a good trip?” he asked.
“Wonderful. The fall foliage is just incredible.” She held up the camera hanging around her neck. “I shot two rolls of film.”
Luke smiled. “The trees really put on a show this time of year. Autumn has always been my favorite time for float trips.”
Josie swallowed, trying to compensate for her suddenly dry mouth, and tried to ignore the fact that Manuel was greeting Consuela with an enthusiastic kiss. The last thing she wanted to think about right now was kissing. “Do you go canoeing often?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I haven’t set foot in one in years. With the lodge and the ranch, I’ve been too busy to take any time off.”
“It’s a shame to live in a place this beautiful and not take time to enjoy it.”
Luke shrugged. “I can hardly take time to sleep until I find a manager for the lodge.”
“Any prospects?”
“I interviewed an applicant this morning, but Consuela didn’t care for him.”
Consuela gave a derisive snort. “He was a real low light.”
Josie’s brow creased. “A what?”
“She means a low-life,” Luke translated, grinning.
“He was bossy and conceited and rude,” Consuela said with a sniff.
“Besides that, his references didn’t check out.” Luke shoved his hands in his pocket and shifted his stance, as if he was anxious to get moving. “It’s getting late, and we need to set up camp before dark. Manuel, why don’t you go see if you can find some more firewood.”
The man nodded. “Sure thing, boss.”
“And I’ll go get the rest of the food out of the Jeep,” Consuela said.
“I’ll get that for you, Consuela,” Luke volunteered.
Consuela waved her hand and shook her head. “There’s just one little bag left—I can manage fine. You stay here with Josie.” She gave Luke a meaningful look. “You’ve hardly seen her at all the past few days. I’m sure you’d like a chance to thank her for all her help at the lodge.”
Josie watched Consuela traipse up the embankment, her face burning at the woman’s obvious ploy to leave them alone.
Luke cleared his throat and looked at her. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “She’s right. I’ve been meaning to tell you how much I appreciate all of your assistance.”
“I’ve enjoyed helping out.”
“There’s another thing I’ve been meaning to say.” His Adam’s apple jerked again. “I, uh, want to apologize for the other night.”
Josie’s palms grew damp. He could only mean one thing—but why was he apologizing? She was the one who’d initiated that kiss. “That’s not necessary.” She stared down at the ground, pretending to raptly study a leaf. “It was just one of those things.”
He gave a curt nod and absently kicked a stone with his toe. “Well, I’ve felt bad about it.”
He felt bad about kissing her? What a flattering remark! Her spine stiffened and her voice took on a chill. “No need. If anyone should be apologizing, it’s me.”
“No, I take full responsibility. I didn’t mean to take advantage of you.”
“Take advantage of me?” she asked incredulously. Exactly what did he mean by that? Why, it almost sounded as if he thought she was some feeble-brained incompetent who couldn’t look out for herself. Even more galling, the remark implied he wielded some kind of power over her.
She fixed him with her frostiest stare. “Whatever makes you think you could do that?”
Luke shrugged. “Well, you’re here on a honeymoon alone and all, and I know how vulnerable a person can be when they’re on the rebound.”
“Hold it right there.” Josie held up a hand. “Are you implying I don’t know my own mind?”
“I’m not implying anything. I’m just saying that under the circumstances, you might be more receptive to a man’s advances than usual, that’s all.”
Josie planted her hands on her hips and glared at him. “Why would you think a thing like that?”
Luke shrugged. “Well, when you decided to come to the Lazy O, you thought you were going to be a newlywed. It’s only natural that you’d be expecting to have a certain set of…experiences while you were here. And since you had those expectations, you’re probably more vulnerable to someone who could, well, potentially meet those expectations.”
Josie gazed at him hotly. “Thank you for that extremely flattering analysis, Dr. Freud! I wasn’t aware that psychiatry was one of your specialties, but—”
A loud wall rent the air, causing Josie to break off in mid-sentence. “What’s that?”
“Ooooohhh! Oww-eee!” The distinctly human moan came from the embankment above.
“Consuela!” Manuel gasped. The wiry man raced from the woods, dropping logs as he ran, and scrambled up the embankment like a man half his age.
Luke charged after him, his heart in his throat. Consuela was the closest thing he had to family, and he loved the feisty woman like a second mother. He was vaguely aware that Josie followed closely behind.
He and Manuel arrived simultaneously to find Consuela on the ground beside the Jeep, clutching her ankle.
“Is it a snakebite?” Luke demanded.
Manuel spoke to Consuela in rapid Spanish, then glanced up at Luke. “No. She says she twisted her ankle.”
“Oohh,” Consuela moaned again.
Josie peered over his shoulder. “Do we have any ice?”
Good idea: The thought registered in Luke’s mind through a haze of worry. “In the Jeep,” he replied.
Josie rapidly climbed in, located the ice chest and wrapped some ice in a paper towel.
“Here,” she said, climbing back down and handing the makeshift ice pack to the housekeeper.
“Gracias.” Consuela placed it above her foot, moaning again.
“It’s the same ankle she fractured last spring,” Manuel said worriedly.
“Can you stand?” Luke asked.
“I don’t know. It hurts too bad to try.”
“She probably shouldn’t put any weight on it until it’s checked by a doctor,” Josie said quickly. “Especially if it was recently injured.”
Luke glanced at her. “You’re right Manuel, you need to take her into town and get it X-rayed.” Luke dug in his pocket and extracted a set of keys. “Take the Jeep.”
“But what about the camp out?” Consuela moaned.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of everything.”
“We don’t have to stay,” Josie protested. “Maybe they could drop us off at the lodge.”
“The Jeep’s a two-seater,” Luke said curtly. “There’s no room. We’ll be fine here.”
Was it his imagination, or did a ghost of a smile cross Consuela’s lips? An unthinkable consideration crossed Luke’s mind, making him frown.
Nah. He felt disloyal to even think it. Consuela was an incorrigible matchmaker, but surely she wouldn’t go so far as to fake an injury just to get him alone with Josie.
Would she?
Luke’s gaze swept to Manuel, and the expression on the older man’s face made
him put his misgivings aside. Manuel’s face was ashen, his forehead creased with worry. One thing was for sure—if Consuela was faking it, she hadn’t let her husband in on the stunt.
With an effort, Manuel and Luke lifted Consuela into the Jeep. Manuel hurried around to the driver’s seat.
“If her injury’s not too serious, Manuel, perhaps—” Luke stopped in mid-sentence. What was he going to do— ask Manuel to abandon his injured wife and come back later just so he wouldn’t end up alone with Josie? He couldn’t bring himself to do that. And he couldn’t ask Manuel to call in another ranch hand, either. At this hour, they were all home with their families.
For heaven’s sake, Josie and he were both mature adults, he thought with irritation. Surely they could make it through a single evening without a chaperon. “Never mind. You just take care of Consuela. You can send someone to get us first thing in the morning.”
Manuel nodded. Luke grabbed the ice chest and a remaining bag of groceries from behind the seat, then watched as the ranch hand climbed in and drove away.
Josie stood beside him as the taillights disappeared. He heard her give a ragged sigh. “Poor Consuela,” she murmured. “I feel so badly for her.”
“Me, too. I hope she didn’t break that ankle again.”
“Manuel looked so worried,” Josie said pensively. “He almost seemed in worse shape than Consuela.”
“He probably is. He adores her.”
“She feels the same way about him. They’re lucky to have each other.”
It was a simple statement, but standing there with her on the edge of twilight, it seemed loaded with disturbingly personal implications. It made Luke all too aware of the voids in his own life and caused a heavy, aching emptiness to gnaw inside him.
The sun was fast sinking behind the trees, its fading light painting the clouds misty shades of pink and orange and purple. Luke gestured toward the trail.
“Come on, it’s getting dark. If we want to avoid any more injuries, we’d better set up camp while there’s still light.”
Josie nodded and followed him down the trail. They walked together in silence, but the harsh words they’d exchanged before the accident resounded in his mind. If he was going to make it through this evening, he needed to smooth things over. “Josie…” he began.
“Luke…” she said at the exact same moment.
They both froze and looked at each other. “Go ahead,” she prompted.
“Ladies first.”
“I’d rather hear what you were going to say.”
Luke ran a hand through his hair and blew out a harsh breath of air. “If I somehow offended you earlier, I’m sorry. I was just trying to apologize for the other night.” He swallowed and looked directly at her. “I know this situation is darned awkward. I just want you to know you don’t have to worry about…about—” He swallowed again. “—about anything. I mean, nothing is going to happen.”
A flash of irritation snapped in her eyes. “You’re darned right, it’s not.”
Jeez, she didn’t have to make it sound as if it was such a distasteful concept, did she? Last time he looked, he hadn’t sprouted horns or a second head.
And she had kissed him. Twice.
“Well, fine.” Luke set about picking up the logs Manuel had scattered, his feelings strangely injured by the vehemence of her response. “I just wanted to set your mind at ease, that’s all.”
“It’s perfectly at ease,” she retorted.
Luke straightened and looked at her. The last rays of sunset were casting some kind of soft pink light on her, making her skin look as sun kissed and delicious as a ripe peach. Her hair was backlit into a fiery halo, and light streamed through the loose weave of her cotton sweater, revealing the curves hiding underneath. He felt an absurd urge to grab her in his arms, bend her backward and kiss her until they were both breathless and dizzy and too aroused to think.
Instead he swallowed hard, averted his eyes and nodded. “Well, good. I’m glad that’s settled.”
But it wasn’t settled. Not at all, Josie thought as she looked at him later in the glow of the campfire. The conversation had drifted to other topics as they’d built the fire, set up the tent and cooked their dinner, but attraction swirled around and between them like autumn leaves in the evening wind. Despite her bold words, the possibilities of the evening smoldered like the embers in the campfire.
The temperature was dropping. Josie huddled close to the dying fire, her arms wrapped around her knees. “I wonder how Consuela is doing,” she mused aloud.
“She’s probably full of medication and in no pain at all. Most likely Manuel is in worse shape than she is.”
Josie looked up and smiled, but when she turned her gaze back to the fire, her face grew solemn. “I’ve always admired couples with the kind of love they seem to have. My best friend’s parents had that kind of close relationship, and I always wanted a marriage like that someday.”
“Your own parents’ marriage isn’t like that?”
Josie shook her head. “They get along fine, but they have entirely separate lives. Don’t get me wrong—they’re happy enough, so I guess it suits them. But they’re not close-knit like Manuel and Consuela.” Josie gazed at Luke. He was seated beside her, cross-legged, facing the fire. “What about your folks?”
Luke stretched out his legs and leaned back on his elbows. “They were inseparable.”
“It must have been rough on your dad when your mom died,” she said softly. “Was it sudden?”
Luke nodded. “A car crash.”
“How awful! Was she alone?”
“No.” Luke’s profile flickered into shadows as a gust of wind temporarily dimmed the fire. A second later the flames leapt high, starkly illuminating the grim set of his mouth and the lines of pain around his eyes. “I was with her.”
“Oh, Luke.” His name came out as a whisper. Josie’s hand flew to her mouth, her heart turning over. “What happened?”
A nerve worked in his jaw as he stared into the fire. “It was a Saturday afternoon, and we were driving home after a Little League game in town. Dad had stayed at the ranch because a mare had injured a leg and a vet was coming to look at it. I was eager to get home and tell Dad all about the game—I’d fielded a two-base hit and my team had won, and Mom had taken me for ice cream afterward to celebrate. All of a sudden a dog wandered onto the highway. Mom swerved to miss it, and the next thing I knew, the car was rolling down a hill. I woke up in the hospital with a concussion, two broken ribs and a broken arm.” He fell silent. An owl hooted in the distance. “But none of that hurt anywhere near as much as getting the news I’d lost my mom.”
Josie sat motionless, sympathy flowing through her. She wished with all her heart she could somehow transfuse it into Luke, somehow ease the pain she heard in his voice. Not knowing what else to do, she silently stretched out her hand.
He covered it with his own. Her fingers felt warm and small and somehow right in his palm. He glanced over at her and was shocked to discover that her eyes were full of tears.
No one had cried for him in a long, long time. Not in years. Heck, as far as he knew, probably not since all this had happened.
He gazed at Josie, moved beyond words that she was crying for him now, and a cold, hard place inside of him began to crack and thaw. He didn’t know why she cared so much, but the fact that she did somehow soothed the old, aching scars on his heart.
Warm, tender, unnamed emotions bubbled up inside of him, flooding his chest, choking his throat, making his heart thud painfully against his ribs.
She turned her face away so that her hair hid her features, and wiped her eyes with the back of her free hand. She clearly didn’t want him to see her tears, but he couldn’t pull his eyes away.
“That must have been so hard for you,” she said at length.
He gazed at her, not knowing how to deal with the strange emotions pulsing through him, not knowing what to do at all. She’d awakened something inside of him,
something that hadn’t stirred in years, and now it was yawning and stretching and fluttering to life. For lack of a better plan, he decided to simply keep talking.
He nodded. “It was hard on Dad, too. After the funeral he wouldn’t leave his study for a full week. Manuel finally went in and somehow talked him into coming out.” Luke looked off in the distance. “In a lot of ways, though, it seems like Dad never did come out. I’d see him at meal-time, and that was about it. I used to think he blamed me for Mom’s death. I used to think that if he did, he was probably right If I hadn’t wanted to play baseball, we wouldn’t have been driving back from town. If I hadn’t fielded that hit, we wouldn’t have stopped for ice cream…”
“Oh, Luke. You don’t still think that, do you?”
Luke shook his head. “No. And I don’t believe Dad ever consciously did, either. But things were always distant between us after Mom died. I tried and tried to draw him out, to get involved in his life or get him involved with mine, but there was always a wall between us. I felt like I was a disappointment to him. I felt like nothing I could ever do or say or be could make up for what happened. He just didn’t seem interested in spending time with me, in getting to know what I thought or felt. When he insisted on building the lodge over my objections, that was the final straw. I realized I was probably never going to measure up in his eyes, and I might as well stop trying.”
“It must have been so lonely for you,” Josie said, her voice so low it was almost a whisper. “You not only lost your mother, but your father, as well.”
How did she know? Intuitively, she’d zeroed in on his deepest wound.
Suddenly he knew why he opened up to her so easily, why he talked to her with such abandon. She listened with her heart. She not only tried to understand, but to feel what he was feeling. It was a rare and special gift, the way she listened. Especially to someone who’d felt shut out and disconnected for as much of his life as he had.
Luke tightened his grip on her hand, savoring the feel of her fingers twined with his.
“It was lonely, all right. And I promised myself I’d never do that to someone I loved—that if a friend or relative ever needed me, I’d be there for them.” Luke’s sigh was long and deep. “But when Dad needed me most, I wasn’t there for him, either.” Gazing into the flames, he shook his head in self-disgust. “Like father, like son, huh?”