“Left it at the field.” He yawned and slouched down until his head rested on a pillow.
In that moment, he looked like a little boy and everything inside her turned to mush.
She sat on the bed beside him. “Luke, you can’t go to sleep. Not if there’s a chance you’ve got another concussion. I’ll call Erin and make sure she brings your phone home. I’m going to call you every couple of hours and you’re going to answer.” She grabbed the blanket folded at the foot of the bed and covered him with it. “Everyone at the baseball field saw you take a hit, so it’s common knowledge you got hurt.”
He put his hand on her arm. “But no one needs to know the details.”
“Right. That’s why I’m going to call you to be sure you’re okay. But if you don’t answer, I will call your mom and tell her the truth and let her deal with you. Got it?” She hated this idea of keeping something from Paula. But she’d kept one Luke Watters secret, so what was one more?
“Did you know your eyes turn this amazing shade of mahogany when you get fired up?”
That was the second time he’d said something about her eyes that liquefied her insides. No one had ever commented on her eyes before. Probably because no one angered her as much as he did. “I’m going to find your mom and tell her you’re home.” She stood. “Please, Luke, if you start to feel worse, go to the hospital, okay?”
“I won’t feel worse.” He held up a hand to stop the protest he saw coming. “But if I do, I’ll go to the ER.”
“Thank you.” She put her hands in scrub pockets. “Good night.”
“’Night. And thanks,” he said, his tone filled with gratitude and genuine appreciation.
Sela stepped into the hall and leaned against the wall. Feelings of worry and safekeeping and possession flooded her.
She didn’t just care about Luke. She was falling for him.
…
Images of Sela swirled in Luke’s head.
He stepped out of the shower and dried himself off. Glancing at his torso in the mirror, he felt her hands on him with such clarity his body ached to feel that gentleness again. Even at his weakest, she cared for him, and no one in his adult life had ever treated him with the kind of tender generosity she did.
Granted, he’d been injury-free until now.
The run-in last night hurt worse than Luke had let on. He couldn’t admit to Sela that in his already weakened state, the collision stung like a mother. He didn’t want to admit it to himself.
If he thought about the women he’d gravitated to in the past, he couldn’t imagine any of them taking the kind of care she had. In his world, relationships were artificial, only skin deep.
Which was how he’d liked it.
This morning, though, the man staring back at him looked different. Felt different. And damn if that didn’t screw up whatever the hell he thought he was doing in Cascade. Being away from the job to recuperate and be with family was one thing. To have the kind of unwelcome thoughts about a woman that made a man weak was an entirely different thing he wished would go away.
Sela had driven him crazy last night with her phone calls every two hours. The one at two a.m. with her gravelly bedroom voice had been the worst. His sweats had sprouted a tent that wouldn’t quit.
The hospital would have been less painful.
He left his new cut bandage-free and pulled a shirt on. Jeans followed. Today he planned to grab his camera, hop on his motorcycle, and head out of town to take some pictures. He needed space from Cascade, needed to get his head back in photography and forget about this physical vulnerability crap.
His cell phone rang, and for a second he paused to think about whether or not to answer it. Lifting the phone off the nightstand, he took note of the caller’s name on the screen.
“Hey, Simon,” Luke said. Simon Baum was his business manager and the only person besides the crew in Tibet who knew about his accident. “How are you?”
“Things would be a lot better if I heard from you once in a while.”
Luke knew he owed Simon an update, but every time he’d picked up the phone to call, something stopped his fingers from pushing the numbers. “It’s been busy here. I had no idea a wedding took up so much time.”
“That tells me shit, Luke. How the hell are you feeling?”
The only answer Simon wanted to hear was that Luke felt great. Which he did—eighty percent of the time. He had ten days to work on the twenty percent. “I feel good.”
“Good enough for Chile? They’re expecting you in two weeks. And they’ve been having one hell of a winter.”
Luke peered out the bedroom window. Dark clouds filled the sky, but not a single leaf moved on any of the trees. Springtime in Cascade often brought rain, but nothing strong enough to prevent him from hitting the road for a few hours.
“I’ll be good enough. No worries.”
“ESPN wants you the week after in Australia for the Australian Open of Surfing. Shall I confirm?”
Luke’s throat clamped shut. The backs of his ears itched. Simon had asked for confirmations a hundred times and Luke had never hesitated to answer
yes
before.
“Luke?”
“I’ll get back to you on that.” Luke’s gut told him to give Australia some thought, to take things slowly. He flexed the fingers of his right hand, the one Sela had briefly held last night. Her touch had made him feel a hell of a lot better and he wasn’t sure if his taking things slowly meant his physical recovery or seeing where things might lead with her. Chile had been booked before his accident, but new assignments could be at his leisure. He had plenty of money and didn’t need to accept every job that came his way anymore.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Simon asked. “You are, right?”
“I’ve been working nonstop for the past five years, Simon. I’m enjoying time off and might want to enjoy some more.”
“Who is she?”
“Excuse me?”
“The girl who’s got you staying in one place. She must be something pretty special for you to only
consider
Australia.”
Luke ran a hand through his hair. “There’s no girl.”
“Bullshit. But don’t let me convince you. You need to figure that out for yourself. When will I hear from you?”
“Within the week.” He grabbed his camera bag, opened the bedroom door, and headed to the garage. He needed fresh air before he choked.
“Fine. Take a look at your e-mail once in a while, too. I’m getting tired of waiting for your replies.”
“I will. Talk to you soon.” He hung up and was on his bike and racing down the coast in five minutes. He had no set destination. He only needed to get out of town and find something interesting to photograph.
Dreary weather combined with the middle of the week meant a quiet ride. Once he’d cleared Cascade, the tension thrumming through his veins subsided. Fewer houses and businesses dotted the coastline. Longer views of the sea kept him company. After a half hour he was damp from the moisture in the air, but he didn’t care.
Up ahead he noticed two cars pulled over to the side of the road, one with its hazard lights on and hood open. He slowed as a precaution, but the closer he got, recognition dawned. The car in trouble was Sela’s.
The second car had obviously stopped to help, and a man was looking under her hood. He shouldn’t stop. He should pretend he didn’t recognize her and keep going. Luke needed to clear his head and seeing Sela was counterproductive to that.
But when she stepped out of the car with her arms wrapped around herself, he couldn’t have passed by even if a herd of buffalo was chasing him.
She turned his way as he pulled up behind them.
In black leggings and a thick, loose gray sweater that fell just past her hips, she looked beautiful. Her tawny hair was down, and he wanted to run his fingers through it. Her lips were slightly parted and he wanted to kiss them.
“Luke?”
He pulled off his helmet and put it on his seat before stepping toward her. “And here I thought I was in for a Sela-free day.”
She scowled and wheeled around. “Ben, sweetie, I know it’s just the gas tank again, but thank you for taking a look to be sure. Could you give me a ride to the nearest gas station, please?”
Ben, sweetie
hit his head on the hood when he lifted up. “Oh, sure. It would be my pleasure.”
The only pleasure Ben had coming was a ride back to wherever he’d come from.
Alone
. The guy’s eyes bugged out of his head when he saw Luke put an arm around Sela.
“What are you doing?” She shrugged out of his hold.
“I can take it from here, Ben,” he said.
“You’re Luke Watters.” Ben’s voice shook. Poor kid. He looked twenty-one, maybe twenty-two, and was about to miss his chance with Sela.
“Nice to meet you.” Luke put out his hand. To Ben’s credit, he had a strong grip.
“You, too.” Ben’s gaze swung to Sela. “Sela?”
She moved beside Ben. Okay, so he should have opened with something nicer than Sela-free day.
“I’ll just grab my bag out of the car and go with you, Ben. I’d hate to trouble you today, Luke. Thanks for stopping, though.”
Ben closed the hood. “Cool. Let’s go.”
“Not so fast. Sela can’t go with you.” Luke leaned against the car.
“She can’t?”
“No. This has happened before. Several times in fact. And the only way she’s going to learn is if she walks to the gas station.”
Sela laughed. “You think you’re so cute.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Didn’t we go over that last night?”
Ben coughed and looked like he just remembered he had a very important appointment. “You were with him last night?”
“Yes, but—”
“And you’ve run out of gas before?”
“Yes, but—”
Sweetie
suddenly didn’t look so sweet. “I’m going to go and let you two figure things out. Good luck.” Ben jumped in his car and took off without a glance back.
Luke pushed away from the driver’s side door. “Come on.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.” She put her hands on her hips. “What are you doing out here anyway?” A small ray of sunshine peeked through the clouds and cast a warm glow around her.
“I could ask you the same thing. Why haven’t you gotten your gas gauge fixed? You’re lucky I came along when I did. Ben is not the sort you want to get in a car with.”
She cracked up. Every time she laughed he felt stronger. “Ben is the mayor’s grandson and about the most decent boy in Cascade. He was doing a good deed. That’s all.” She moved around the hood to the passenger-side door, opened it, and pulled out her shoulder bag. “I’ll see you around.”
He stopped her with a hand on her arm before she got too far. “I implied I wouldn’t take you to the gas station. I never said anything about not taking you
with me
.”
She shivered beneath his touch. “Where are you going?”
“Not sure. Thought I’d get out of town to take some pictures and forget about anything wedding related for a while.”
“I’m wedding related.” She turned and looked up at him under long eyelashes and bright, twin pools of gold that screamed a challenge.
“For you, I’ll make an exception.”
“How nice of you,” she tossed back. “But I feel like taking a walk after all.” Her gaze darted to his bike.
“Suit yourself.” He stepped away, picked up his helmet.
A loud clap of thunder sounded from over the mountains, followed by another. Sela pressed up against his back half a beat later.
“On second thought, another motorcycle ride might be fun,” she said. “If you think it’s safe in this weather.”
“You always play it safe?” He gave her his helmet. “Wait. Let me rephrase that. Do you want to play it safe?” God, he hoped she said no.
She shook her head. “But you need a helmet, too, Luke.”
“I agree. So our first stop is the bike shop just down the road.”
“Okay.”
This time when she got on the bike, she wrapped her arms around his middle without hesitation. She put her chin on his shoulder. “Ready when you are.”
Oh, he was ready, all right.
They took a few minutes at Pete’s Cycle Works, Sela charming the tattoos off the guy behind the counter. The road was theirs after that, the empty highway an open invitation to adventure. They drove for quite some time before Luke decided to veer away from the coastline and head toward the mountains.
Sela wrapped around his back kept a permanent smile on his face. She was soft but strong, and he wished he could see her face. He had a feeling she wore a smile, too.
After a few miles they came upon some great rock formations. When Luke spotted a couple of guys on the turnout in the road gearing up for a climb, he knew he’d found the perfect photo op. He pulled over.
“I’m going to grab a few shots here,” he said to her. He glanced up. Clouds filled the better part of the sky, shafts of sunlight thinning.
“I’ll watch. Or, uh, walk around a little.” Sela put her helmet on the ground. She pivoted and meandered away.
“I don’t mind you watching me.” Hell, she was pretty when she looked over her shoulder at him. “I might even let you take a few pictures if you want.”
“Really?” She walked toward him. “You want me to handle your equipment?”
He stirred behind his zipper. Sela Sullivan was flirting and like everything else where she was concerned, surprising the hell out of him. “I want you.” He was done, but she kept looking at him expectantly so he figured he’d screwed up that announcement and added, “To have fun today.”
She took the camera out of his hands, stepped back, and aimed it in his direction. “I’ve never been a very good photographer, but I’ve always wanted to try something this…” She peeked from behind the lens. “Size. Seems like the bigger, the better. Or at least that’s been my experience. Smile!”
“You’ve had a lot of experience?”
“Oh, yeah.”
Luke smirked and took the lens cap off the camera. “Might have better luck without this.”
“I wondered why I couldn’t see you.” She pressed the correct button, at least, and took Luke’s picture. A close-up that he estimated included half his face and half of the rock behind him.