Cowboy For Keeps. Debra Clopton
Читать онлайн книгу.
said nothing, deciding a little challenge of her own was in order.
“I guess I am, too,” he drawled in a voice she bet jurors found almost hypnotizing in a courtroom.
She had to give him credit, though: his tone was civil for the first time since she’d met him. They could build on that.
“I promise you won’t be sorry. I’ll get results.”
“I’ll make sure you do.”
His words were meant as a warning, but they made her smile widen. “I think we are going to have some fun, Mr. Turner.”
The scowl of earlier returned. “I’m not interested in fun. I want out of this chair and on my own two feet and I want it yesterday.”
She chuckled—not a good thing but unstoppable. He was actually very cute in his state of irked. “Then you shall be. Will and want work together to make things happen. I can just look at you and know you’re going to push your limits every time I ask you to do an exercise. So for now, put your scowl away and relax. I promise you, it’s going to be all right.” She sounded like she was talking to one of her kids. Not dissimilar—teens were just as anxious to be up and about as Wyatt. His impatience was nothing new to her and that was a good thing.
“I know with the pain you’re in you might be worrying whether you’ll ever return to your normal lifestyle. Stop worrying, you’ll be back if you do as I ask.”
“You always this sure of yourself?”
“In this case, your case, yes, I am.” Their gazes held and she wanted so badly to tell him again not to worry. But she saw the skepticism alive and well in that look.
She wouldn’t say more for now. He’d think she was patronizing him if she kept on. She’d been watching him for pain and didn’t think it was too bad at the moment, but it was there. With a strained back, cracked hip, along with the tendon and ligature trauma his hip had gone through, the spasms would come and go with a vengeance. Not to mention the constant pain from the damage to his shoulder. She could help with all of that.
Later. “So I guess I’ll put my things up and get settled. Seth and Cole told me the temporary trailer was set up and ready for me. Is it out back somewhere?”
“By the barn. I’ll show you,” he said, his words clipped.
“That would be great.” She turned and headed back to her car, not even considering telling him that she could find it on her own. The last thing he needed was to be treated like he was helpless. There was a ramp that had been built off the side of the old porch and the ground was level all about the house. That top-of-the-line motorized wheelchair would have no trouble maneuvering the landscape. The man exuded energy, even in a wheelchair. It was a miracle that he was alive, though. During the small-engine airplane crash he’d pulled and stressed nearly every muscle, tendon and ligature on the left side of his body. Even the fact that he had no broken bones other than a hairline crack in his hip was yet another miracle. She suspected surviving sitting still on a porch might kill him, though. She completely understood how he was feeling.
Running with the rising sun was more her style. She wondered if he’d run in the mornings prior to the crash. She had a feeling he was a runner, too. One who liked to run outside. Then again, he might be a treadmill runner—too white-collar to run outside…not that that was a bad thing. She just preferred to do her running outside.
“Did you bring much?”
“I have a car full of things. Not all luggage, though.” She laughed. “Most of it I’ll be setting up in the therapy room. But all I want now are my suitcases.” They’d made it to the SUV and he waited, watching her as she opened the glass window and then lowered the tailgate of the SUV. For some reason his watchful eyes made her self-conscious. She tucked her hair behind her ears before she reached for the first suitcase and hefted it to the ground.
Without speaking, he reached with his good arm and took some of the weight from her by grabbing the bottom of the case. “Thanks,” she said, knowing that every little thing he did that was positive would help him move forward.
“You’re welcome,” he said as she grabbed the slightly smaller one. He helped with that one, too. She’d loaded it all up herself and was quite capable of removing all the luggage herself but still she appreciated the fact that Wyatt Turner was—behind his poor manners earlier—a gentleman. This was instinctive on his part. She wondered if his mother had drilled the manners into him as he grew up.
“You’re looking at me like I’ve surprised you,” he said as she shut the tailgate.
Grinning, she stepped out of the way as she lifted it. The movement brought her closer to him than she’d been. “I guess I’m a bit shocked you’re a gentleman,” she answered truthfully. He’d asked.
His lip actually twitched! “My mom would have skinned me and my brothers alive if we weren’t.”
Bingo. “I thought so.”
“You’re thinking, otherwise I wouldn’t be?”
“It crossed my mind when you booted me off your property,” she said drily. “And that was after I’d driven three hours to get here—with no lunch!” She looked at him ruefully as she extended the pull arm of the large suitcase and set the overnight bag on top of the big one, fastening them together for transport.
His eyes crinkled around the edges. “I’d apologize—”
“But…” she drawled slowly. “You wouldn’t mean it.” She knew it was true.
“I did what I thought best at the time.”
“That’s exactly what I thought you did. And that’s why I’m just teasing you.” She winked at him, picked up the smallest suitcase with the hand on the same side as her prosthetic. The action balanced out the weight as she grabbed the handle of the other case and started rolling it behind her across the lawn.
The thing about Wyatt was exactly that—he did what he thought he needed to do. After Seth and Cole had left the diner to return her message to Wyatt, the ladies had told her that he’d pulled out all the stops when it came to finding wives for his two brothers. He’d seen women he thought fit them and made certain they came in contact with each other. It was really sweet! The man was a romantic—who would have thunk it?
It did her broken heart good to know there were men like him in the world looking out for those they loved. It was a very admirable quality in a man. But even if she hadn’t known all of that, she’d already figured out that he was an honorable man just by the way his brothers talked about him.
“You could roll that second one,” he said, driving up beside her. “Or better yet I could carry it.”
She glanced at him. “You don’t need to carry it. You’re absolutely right—I could roll it if I wanted to.”
“But you won’t.”
“I wouldn’t get any kind of workout from rolling it, and besides—” She’d almost said it helped her keep her balance. Instead she said, “I’d be a bit of a hypocrite if I harp on my patients about keeping their strength and agility up and I wasn’t practicing it myself.”
“True,” he mused.
They walked around the old homestead in silence. The large travel trailer came into view and the size startled her.
It was sitting out under a giant oak tree, not far from the low-slung barn. It was huge compared to some she stayed in while on-site. But then again, looking at Wyatt, she wouldn’t put it past the man to have had a double-wide mobile home sitting back here for her. There was just something about him—even if she hadn’t read his profile and didn’t know that the man was worth a bundle—she’d still have the feeling that only the best was good enough for those around him.
“I hope this will do,” he said. “Cole and Seth assured me that your boss said a small one was all you needed.”