“You need to rest more than you need to be standing over a stove. Besides, it’s not much.”
Allie had to laugh as she began removing the contents of the hamper. Her former neighbor’s idea of “not much” consisted of fried chicken, potato salad, coleslaw and a homemade key-lime pie, which she knew was Allie’s favorite.
“Well, I see you’re not going to starve,” Ricky said, studying the food with obvious envy. “Maybe I could…”
“Stay,” Jane invited. “There’s plenty of food and I have a few questions I’d like to ask you.”
He regarded her warily. “About?”
“Your intentions toward our girl, for starters.”
He cast a frantic look at Allie, then backed up. “I can get those questions at my mother’s.”
Jane gave him an unrepentant look. “And she’ll probably let you brush her off, won’t she?”
“Hopefully,” he agreed, then dropped a kiss on her cheek.
“Well, I’m made of tougher stuff, young man. You can get off the hook today, but I’ll be watching you.”
Allie laughed at his horrified expression. “She will be, too.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Ricky said. “I’ll be back in plenty of time to drive you home, Jane. Don’t even think about calling a taxi or taking the bus.”
She chuckled. “Are you kidding? When I’ll have the whole drive home to ask you all those tricky questions I’ve been storing up?”
“On second thought, maybe I should leave cab fare,” Ricky countered.
“Too late now,” Allie told him as she walked with him to the door. “Have fun with your family.”
“You have fun with Jane. I’ll be back soon.”
After he’d gone, she turned to find Jane studying her. “You’re falling for him, aren’t you?” her friend asked worriedly.
“Only a little,” Allie admitted.
“Be careful,” Jane warned. “That one has the devil in his eyes.”
“But the heart of an angel,” Allie reminded her. “And the arms of a hero.”
“Oh, baby,” Jane said. “Don’t go mixing up heroics with love.”
“I didn’t say anything about love,” Allie insisted.
“You didn’t have to say it. It’s written all over your face.”
If that was true, Allie could only pray that Ricky wasn’t nearly as adept at reading people as Jane was.
Chapter Eight
By midweek, Allie was going stir-crazy. She desperately wanted to get back to work, but both Rick and her doctor were vehemently opposed to the idea.
“I promise I’ll stay off my feet,” she said while both men regarded her with skepticism at the conclusion of her follow-up appointment on Wednesday. She scowled at them and repeated, “I will.”
“Not good enough,” the doctor said, then glanced at Ricky. “See that she stays at home at least through the weekend. After that I suppose it won’t hurt for her to go back part-time.” His gaze shifted to her. “A half day, is that clear?”
The restriction grated even worse than his attitude. “I teach sign language, for goodness sakes, not aerobics. I can hardly wear myself out doing that.”
“You teach kids, correct?” Ricky asked.
“Yes.”
He glanced at the doctor. “Have you ever known kids to sit still?”
“Not mine,” the doctor said.
“Not the ones I know, either,” Ricky said.
“Well, my students are very well behaved,” she argued. Judging from the look the two men exchanged, she was wasting her breath. “Never mind.”
She walked out of the office without another word. By the time she reached Ricky’s car, she was steaming.
“You do know that this is none of your business, don’t you?” she said as she got in the car and slammed the door.
He didn’t seem to be overly impressed by the reminder.
“Want to go to lunch?” he asked as he settled behind the wheel. Clearly he had no intention of getting into the fight she was itching to have.
“No, I do not want to go to lunch. I want to go to work. My students need me. It’s disruptive for them to adjust to someone new.”
“Sorry. You heard the doctor. Not till next week.”
“You sold me out. You know I’m well enough to go back.”
“Hey, it wasn’t my call,” he said, feigning innocence. “That’s why they have follow-up visits, so the doctor can decide what the patient is capable of doing.”
“I could have talked him into it, if you’d kept your big mouth shut.”
“Doubtful,” he said. “Now, about lunch…?”
“Forget lunch,” she all but shouted. “You won’t be able to stop me if I decide to go back tomorrow.”
“How will you get there? Your car is still in the shop. So are a zillion others, waiting to see if they can be repaired. I figure you’re pretty much at my mercy for the time being.”
“I can rent a car or take a taxi, if necessary. And you can’t watch me every minute. Sooner or later you’ll have to go to work.”
He beamed at her. “Actually, unless there’s a natural disaster somewhere, I have the rest of the week off.”
That didn’t please her nearly as much as it might have a couple of days ago. He seemed to be intent on seeing to it that she didn’t do anything the least bit taxing. Ever since he’d taken Jane home on Sunday, he’d devoted himself to hovering. He was worse than her parents had been when she’d lost her hearing.
Maybe if there had been anything the least bit lustful in his attention, she would have been pleased, but he’d been treating her like a sister, and a pretty mindless sister at that.
She stared at him and noted the unrelenting set to his jaw. Okay, then, if that was the way he wanted to play it, she had an idea of a sneaky way to get even.
“As long as we’re out, there is something I need to do,” she began innocently.
“Name it,” he said at once, clearly relieved to have the topic of work tabled for the moment.
“Shopping. I want to pick up a few things.”
“Clothes? Makeup? What?”
“All of it,” she said, watching with amusement as the enthusiasm drained out of his face. He was such a man. By the time she finished with him, he would regret his part in keeping her away from her job. In fact, he might take her straight to the clinic and leave her there.
“What about all that stuff Maria brought?”
“She was very generous, but there are still things I need.”
“Fine,” he said, his expression grim. “We’ll go to the mall, but just for an hour, Allie. That’s all I’ll agree to. You shouldn’t be on your feet any longer than that.”
“An hour will be just fine,” she said, beaming at him.
Once he’d parked and they’d walked inside the mall, she aimed directly for a lingerie shop. Let him sweat, she thought triumphantly when she caught his pained expression. He was clearly torn between whether to accompany her inside or find a bench a safe distance away.
“Coming?” she inquired pleasantly, making absolutely sure he understood it was a dare.
“Sure.” He trailed along reluctantly.
He stood amid the racks of lacy bras and bikini panties looking as terrified as if she’d just left him to fend for himself in a nursery of screaming babies.
Allie grinned at the twenty-something sales clerk, who couldn’t seem to stop herself from casting surreptitious glances at Allie’s very male companion. She turned her back on him finally and said in what was probably an undertone, “How’d you ever get him in here? Most men won’t come near this place.”
“Bodyguard,” Allie confided. “He can’t leave my side.”
The young woman’s eyes widened. “Oh, wow. I don’t know what he’s protecting you from, but I’d risk it to have him around day and night.”
Allie raised her voice. “Trust me, honey, it’s not nearly as much fun as you’d think.”
Her words had
the desired effect. Ricky’s head snapped around in her direction just as she held up two pairs of bikini panties and inquired of him, “Which do you think?”
A dull red flush climbed his cheeks, but then his gaze locked with hers and it was as if he could read her mind. She could tell the precise instant when he figured out what she was up to.
“Why not try them on and model them for me?” he suggested. He reached out to a selection of lacy bras on a nearby display, sifted through them and plucked out a handful. “These, too.”
Check and checkmate, Allie thought with a sigh. She wasn’t nearly daring enough to take him up on the taunt.
“I’ll take them all,” she told the clerk, handing over the two pairs of panties, along with several other pairs that were less provocative. Then she sorted through the selection of bras Ricky had grabbed and chose three of those. She tried not to notice that he’d somehow gotten the size exactly right.
She moved to the counter to pay for the purchases, but a prickling sensation on the back of her neck told her that Ricky had followed. She glanced up into twinkling brown eyes.
“These, too,” he told the clerk as he handed her a matching bra and panties in black lace. “But I’m paying for them.”
Allie swallowed hard at the challenging glint in his eyes, but just as she was about to protest, he said mildly, “Save your breath, querida.”
As she watched in dismay, he glanced around at the displays, wandered over to an extremely skimpy negligee in turquoise and brought that back to add to the pile. He winked at Allie. “I can’t wait to see the color on you.”
The clerk seemed oblivious to Allie’s increasingly irritated reaction. She was too busy ringing up the additional sale.
“Thank you,” she chirped as they left. “Come back again.”
“Not in this lifetime,” Allie muttered.
Ricky grinned. “Something wrong?”
“Not a thing,” she snapped.
“You got what you went in there for, didn’t you?”
And more, she thought darkly.
“Anything else you wanted to get while we’re here?” he inquired cheerfully.
“No, I think I’m finished.”
“Good, because I’m starving. All that shopping worked up an appetite.”
His gaze locked with hers in a way that made her feel as if steam must be rising from her skin.
“How about you? Hungry?” he asked, though it was plain that food was the last thing he craved. “Or would you rather go home and go to bed?”
Allie very nearly choked. “Excuse me?” she said, when she could catch her breath.
“I was just asking if you were too tired to stop for lunch,” he said, not even attempting to fight the grin that was slowly spreading across his face.
“Lunch sounds good,” she said.
And the first thing she was going to do was order a huge glass of iced tea for her suddenly parched throat. Of course, if she were smart, she probably ought to get a pitcher of ice water and dump it right over her head. Maybe that would chill her steamy thoughts and clearly overheated hormones. It would also serve as a harsh reminder not to play provocative games with a man who understood the rules far better than she did.
Ricky should have been feeling very smug, but instead he was all hot and bothered, and it was his own blasted fault. He might have been the victor in that little game in the lingerie store, but Allie was definitely having the last laugh.
She was seated across from him in the restaurant looking thoroughly cool and collected, while all he could think about was getting her home and into—and then out of—those sexy little numbers he’d purchased. Definitely bad planning on his part, since he had made her a promise that things were going to remain strictly platonic between them. He was going to honor that promise or die trying, which he was fairly sure was a distinct possibility.
He tapped her hand to get her attention, then gestured toward the menu. “What are you having?”
“I feel like something spicy,” she said slowly, her gaze lingering on his mouth. “What about you?”
Ricky had a hard time getting his brain to kick into gear.
“There should be plenty of jalapeños in the quesadilla,” he said finally, pretending that he hadn’t even noticed the deliberately suggestive note in her voice. “Want to share that as an appetizer?”
“Sure.”
“What else?”
“I’d say a cheeseburger, but I don’t think I could eat a whole one,” she said.
“We’ll split that, too.”
“Will that be enough for you?”
“Absolutely,” he said. “Especially if we have dessert.”
“You’re on your own there,” she said. “With all this inactivity, I don’t dare.”
He could think of one way to burn off a few calories, but he resisted the urge to mention it, even in jest. He wasn’t even supposed to be thinking about such things. Of course, that was a little like telling a jury to ignore inflammatory testimony after they’d already heard it. After telling himself to keep his thoughts on the straight and narrow where Allie was concerned, erotic images taunted him nonstop. He forced his attention back to the matter of their lunch.
“We’ll see how you feel after the burger,” he said, then beckoned for the waitress and placed the order.
After the waitress had gone, he realized Allie was studying him. “What?” he asked.
“Can I ask you something?”
He nodded, though the expression on her face made him a little wary.
“You don’t subscribe to the idea that if you save someone’s life, you’re responsible for it, do you?”
“Of course not,” he said without hesitation.
“Then why are you being so protective where I’m concerned?”
He tried to shrug it off. “Habit, I suppose. I always tried to look after my sisters. That’s just the way I was brought up. My father ingrained it into my head that it was a man’s job to protect the women in his life—mother, wife, sisters, whatever.”
Her gaze remained doubtful. “And that’s all it is?”
Ricky was no more convinced of the honesty of his answer than she was, but he didn’t want to admit that it could be anything else. He certainly wasn’t about to tell her he’d never before felt this need to watch over a woman, to protect her—even from himself. What he felt around Allie was a far cry from anything he’d ever felt for the women in his family. Maybe because protectiveness and jealousy and lust were somehow getting all mixed up together.
“Of course,” he said, lying brazenly. “What else could it be?”
She shrugged. “I have no idea, but it’s a relief that that’s all it is, because then I don’t feel quite so bad telling you that I find it extremely annoying.”
He’d gotten that earlier, back in the doctor’s office and later in the car. “So I gathered.”
“Then you don’t care that I find your attitude irritating?”
“Not if it gets the job done,” he said. “Talk to me again in a week, when you’re back on your feet. Maybe you’ll be able to convince me to back off.”
“I am back on my feet now.”
“To some degree,” he acknowledged. “But if I weren’t around, you’d be pushing yourself to do too much. You’d be back at work and hunting for a place to live and wearing yourself to a frazzle worrying about Jane and all your other neighbors.”
“How can you say that? You barely know me.”
“I know enough. And what I didn’t figure out on my own, Jane explained.”
Indignation set off sparks in her eyes. “The two of you are in cahoots?” she asked.
“You bet. And before you ask, I’ve also spoken to your boss. I got the skinny from Gina, too. You’re an overachiever, Allie Matthews. That’s a very admirable trait under most circumstances, but under these—” He shrugged. “Let’s just say I’ve decided to save you from yourself.”
“You had no right to run around behi
nd my back, prying into my life.”
“Sure I did.”
She scowled at him. “How can you say that?”
“Somebody had to.” He patted her hand consolingly. “It could have been worse.”
“I don’t see how.”
“I could have brought in the big guns.”
She regarded him in confusion. “Big guns? What does that mean?”
“I could have put my mother on the job. You’d still be flat on your back in bed and watching soap operas in Spanish.”
A chuckle erupted before she could stop herself. Ricky grinned.
“Have I made my point?” he asked.
“Oh, yes,” she said.
“You are in my debt,” he added, heaping it on.
“Apparently so.”
He leaned forward. “So, what do I get for my trouble?”
Allie was clearly struggling with herself. She moistened her lips, started to lean forward as if to meet him halfway, then sat back with a heavy sigh.
“I’ll have to think about it,” she said.
He winked at her. “Let me know if you can’t come up with anything, because I have a few ideas myself.”
“Yes,” she murmured. “I imagine you do.”
“Great ideas,” he emphasized, keeping his gaze firmly fixed on her mouth, even as he told himself he was being a louse…again. The flirting was as ingrained in him as breathing. He couldn’t seem to stop himself.
Allie didn’t so much as bat an eye. Rather she met his gaze boldly and directly. “Care to elaborate?”
“Oh, I think it will be a whole lot more fun if we both just rely on our imaginations.”
“Something tells me yours has been in overdrive,” she said wryly.
“Since the moment we met,” he conceded. “Since the moment we met.”
By the time they got home and Allie had gone to her room for a nap, Ricky was in such a state of arousal he changed clothes and went outside to mow the lawn, hoping to exhaust himself before he had to see Allie again over dinner.
He was hot and sweaty and covered with grass clippings when he heard the slam of a car door. He moaned as he considered the possibilities. Whoever it was, he didn’t want to see them.
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