Caution (Harper Security Ops Book 14), page 4
I nodded to confirm that I did.
She sighed. “Well, apparently, I did some damage.”
My eyes widened. “You told me you were okay.”
Daisy nodded. “I was. I mean, it was a bit uncomfortable, but I didn’t realize it was this bad.”
Recalling the look I’d seen on her face as she’d been making her way toward me, seeing the way she was standing now, one thing became clear to me. “You can’t ride.”
Disappointment washed over her. Shaking her head, she replied, “I tried so hard to get my foot back into my snowboard boot, but once I took it off last night, everything changed. My foot ballooned up, and I had to spend the entire night hopping around my room on one foot.”
“Did you ice it?”
“Yeah. And I thought it’d be okay by this morning, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t get my foot back into my boot.”
Daisy seemed to be more concerned with not being able to snowboard than she was about the actual state of her foot. “Don’t worry about snowboarding. Did you have your foot checked out?”
“No. I figure it’s just a sprain. Once the swelling goes down, I should be fine.”
I thought for a moment. “Let me take you to get it looked at. Hopefully, it’s just a sprain, but if it’s worse than that, if you broke something, you don’t want to wait to get it in a cast.”
“Oh, Forrest, I can’t ask you to do that. This is your vacation.”
Tipping my head to the side, my eyes searched her beautiful face. “I hate to break it to you, Daisy, but until I know that you’re okay, I’m not going to be able to have a good time on this trip. Please. I’m begging you to let me take you to get your foot looked at. There’s a clinic not even ten minutes away, once we get to the base of the mountain.”
She considered my offer. “Are you sure? I feel horrible about this.”
“I’m positive. Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay.”
Looking around, I did my best to come up with a plan. “Are you okay to stand here for a minute on your own?”
“Yeah. Sure.”
“I’ll be back in one minute.”
At that, I released the hold I had on her arm, took my board, and moved to the ski rack. I rested my board there, pulled out the lock I had for it, and once it was secured to the rack, I moved back to Daisy.
Without giving it a second thought, I bent at the waist, put an arm behind her back and the other beneath her knees. Then I lifted her in my arms.
“What are you doing?” she gasped.
Once I was upright with her nestled perfectly in my arms, I explained, “I saw you take those few steps earlier. You can hardly walk, so I’m going to carry you to my truck.”
“How far away is that?”
I shook my head. “Not far.”
“Am I too heavy?”
One of my brows lifted, silently questioning her. When she continued to stare at me expectantly, I countered, “Does it look like I’m struggling?”
She pressed her lips together, a hint of her dimple coming out, and her face flushed. “No,” she whispered.
Feeling the urgent need to get her to the clinic, I decided I was done with the conversation for the time being. My priority was to get us to my truck.
So, I started moving through the snow with Daisy in my arms.
The first few minutes of the walk were done in silence, but after that, Daisy couldn’t seem to hold herself back. “I feel horrible.”
“Sick?”
“No. I feel bad about this, about ruining the day you and I had planned,” she clarified.
Unwilling to risk losing my footing and falling, I kept my focus in front of me. “I hate that you were injured, Daisy, but I’ve got to be honest. I’m holding a beautiful, funny, and energetic woman in my arms who smells incredible, so this really isn’t as big of a deal as you’re making it out to be. In fact, I’m inclined to say that this is working out better for me than what we originally had planned for today.”
“Oh. Wow,” she murmured.
I glanced at her for just a moment, noticed her cheeks were red again—which was not the result of being in the cold—and felt my lips twitch.
There had been some hesitancy on my part to dive in and share too much too quickly. Recognizing that I liked Daisy enough to want to be able to spend more time with her, the last thing I wanted to do was say something that would send her running in the opposite direction.
Though it remained to be seen if I had done just that, I had to admit I thought she looked utterly adorable right now. Overall, Daisy had been very outgoing and talkative, so to see the shy side of her only made her more endearing to me.
When we finally made it to my truck, I carefully lowered Daisy to her healthy foot and kept one arm wrapped around her while I grabbed my keys out of my pocket. Only after I’d opened it, helped her inside, and rounded the hood to get in on my side did she speak.
“Thank you for doing this for me, Forrest. It means a lot to me.”
Waving my hand in front of me in an attempt to dismiss it, I insisted, “It’s nothing. Honestly. Do you need me to get anything from your room? Your purse, maybe? I doubt you grabbed your insurance card as you hobbled over to meet me this morning.”
She dropped her head back against the headrest. “Crap. I didn’t even think about that.”
“It’s okay. We’ll drive over there and get it before we head down to the clinic.”
Just over ten minutes later—after Daisy gave me the key to her room and told me where her purse was, because she was worried about me having to carry her again—we were making our way to the clinic.
“I can’t tell you how relieved I am that you were still there at the lodge this morning,” Daisy declared, breaking the silence. “I was sure I’d show up and find that you had already assumed the worst about me.”
“I won’t lie and say the thought of you standing me up didn’t cross my mind, but I don’t think I was going to assume the worst about you,” I returned.
She let out a soft laugh. “You can’t tell me you would have been thinking anything good about me if I’d done that.”
“Actually, I stood there trying to figure out what I could have said or done yesterday that would have had you changing your mind,” I revealed. “One part of my brain was telling me I’d screwed up while the other was trying to remind me that you admitted you’re always late.”
I felt Daisy’s head snap in my direction, so I pulled my focus away from the road for just a few seconds to look over at her. She was horrified.
“What?” I asked. “What does that look mean?”
“I can admit that I have a problem with being punctual, but arriving thirty minutes after we were supposed to meet isn’t late, Forrest. It’s just plain rude.”
I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. “Fair enough. I wasn’t suggesting that was your intention, or that I believed you thought it’d be okay to do something impolite. It’s just that it was better for me to believe you were running behind instead of blowing me off completely.”
My words were met with silence. Only after what felt like two or three minutes—though the clock on the dash indicated it hadn’t been even a full minute—Daisy said, “Thank you for giving me the benefit of the doubt.”
“You’re welcome. But do you know what this situation has taught me?”
“What?”
“We should have exchanged numbers before going our separate ways yesterday. Then you could have called me to tell me about your foot instead of having to risk injuring yourself further.”
Daisy didn’t immediately respond, and it drove me wild, wondering what she was thinking. Only after far too much time for my liking had passed did she speak and make me feel like I’d won the lottery. “If you still want it, I’d be happy to give it to you.”
I fought against the full-blown grin threatening to make an appearance. “I’d be honored to have it.”
Much to her dismay, I carried Daisy inside once we arrived at the clinic. She kept insisting her foot wasn’t that bad and she could walk with a little bit of assistance. I refused to take any chances until the doctor gave her a clean bill of health.
Surprisingly, it seemed that no sooner had we sat down in the waiting room, Daisy was called back. I went with her, carrying her there, but once we got to the room, a wheelchair was brought in, so she could be taken to get an X-ray. “I’ll wait here for you.”
She nodded and was off.
While she was gone, I took a moment to lean into the gratitude and relief I felt. As I’d already said to her, I hated that she’d injured herself and was experiencing any pain, but I was beyond relieved to know she had been looking forward to spending time with me today at least as much as I’d been looking forward to spending it with her.
And though I didn’t like seeing her so distressed about her injury and how it had impacted our plans, I had to admit I wasn’t so upset about the disruption. I’d come on this trip to get some time away from work to relax and recharge. I didn’t have to snowboard every day, and I’d be just as content to have the time to get to know her a bit better. As I sat there waiting for her, I wondered if she’d be up for it.
It wasn’t too long before Daisy was wheeled back into the room. Once the technician left and closed the door behind him, I asked, “Did everything go okay?”
“So far, so good. I don’t know what we’re going to hear from the doctor, but I’m cautiously optimistic.”
“That’s good. Better to look on the bright side.”
“Yeah, I guess. It’s hard not to be bummed either way, though. I was really looking forward to spending the day together and getting back on my board this morning,” she noted.
I smiled at her, liking the way it felt to hear her say she’d been looking forward to spending time with me. “Though I can’t do anything to change the snowboarding situation right now, at least we’re still spending the day together.”
“Until we get back,” she mumbled.
“What do you mean?”
Daisy looked at me like I had three heads, as though my question made no sense to her. “Well, you’re going to go ride after we leave here, aren’t you?”
I shook my head. “Not unless by some miracle the doctor says you’re clear to do the same.”
She cocked an eyebrow but said nothing in response.
My lips twitched. “I know you didn’t forget what I said to you when I was carrying you to my truck earlier. I’m just as happy to sit in a room in a clinic with you while we wait for the results of your X-ray as I would be snowboarding. And when we leave here, I’ll be just as happy to spend time with you doing something that won’t require the use of your foot.”
The minute the words were out of my mouth, I watched as a shiver ran over her body. I hadn’t intended for her to take what I’d said the way it seemed she did, but I wasn’t upset about it, either. “I don’t want you to regret missing out on your vacation.”
Not liking how she’d gotten so quiet, I reached out and curled my fingers over the top of her forearm. After giving her a gentle squeeze, I stroked my thumb along the skin on her arm and promised, “There’s not a single thing about spending time with you that I’m going to regret, Daisy.”
She licked her lips, my eyes dropping to them. It was an exercise in self-control not to lift my hand to them, so I could drag my thumb along her bottom lip. It was even harder not to lean forward and kiss her.
Fortunately, before I did something stupid to screw whatever this was up, there was a knock at the door. I sat back and released my hold on her arm as she called out, “Yes. Come in.”
The door opened a moment later, and the doctor walked in.
This had to be the fastest clinic in history. I had expected Daisy and I would be left alone in this room for hours before anyone returned.
“What’s the verdict, Doc?” Daisy asked.
“It looks like you lucked out with no broken bones and just a very gnarly sprain instead,” he answered.
“See? I knew it.”
I rolled my eyes as the doctor slid his eyes to me. “I thought it was important for her to get it checked out,” I shared, feeling the need to defend myself.
“Smart man. I’d do the same thing for my girlfriend.” Not thinking twice about what he’d just said, he turned his attention to Daisy. My mind was still stuck on the notion of Daisy being my girlfriend when the doctor went on to explain, “The best thing you can do now is rest, ice, compress, and elevate. We just want to give your foot some time to heal and allow the swelling to go down, so if you follow those rules, you should be good.”
“How long until I can start walking on it again?” she asked.
“Generally, within two to three days, the swelling subsides enough to make walking bearable again. Within a week, you might not even realize there was anything wrong at all. If that’s not the case and you’re not noticing any improvement, you’ll want to come back in to get yourself checked out again. It’s possible you could have something more serious going on.”
“Okay. I can do that.”
“Perfect. Now, I’ll get them to come back in with some crutches for you, unless you already have a pair at your disposal,” he told her.
Daisy shook her head and pointed at me. “No. This guy has been carrying me around since he learned what happened to me.”
“Right. Well, then we’ll get you set up with a pair and give him a break.”
The doctor was out the door a minute later with the promise to have us out of the clinic within the next ten minutes.
I used the brief moment of privacy we had to make sure Daisy knew the truth. “If you want the crutches, go for it. But you should know that carrying you around has been the most fun I’ve had since I got here.”
Daisy let out a laugh and shook her head. “You’re crazy, Forrest.”
I shrugged. “Maybe, but it’s the truth.”
Before she could respond, the nurse walked into the room with a pair of crutches. And just as the doctor said would be the case, Daisy and I were out of the clinic eight minutes later.
FOUR
Daisy
“Will you do me a favor?”
My eyes shifted to Forrest’s face as I spoke, and the second I got the words out, I realized just how ludicrous my question was. I didn’t have to ask him if he’d do me a favor, because I already knew the answer. I could have simply asked him what I needed him to do for me from the start.
“Sure. Anything.”
Just as I expected.
God, this man felt like a reward I didn’t deserve.
“Will you tell me something about yourself?”
“Like what?”
“Anything. What do you do for a living? Or will you tell me about your family? I’m not picky. I just want something.”
The truth was that I desperately needed something to distract me. Of course, I wasn’t quite sure how effective it would be to have Forrest telling me more about himself. I didn’t think I’d hear anything bad. The likelihood was that he’d tell me things that would only make my predicament even worse than it was already.
As it turned out, Forrest had driven us back to the resort following my visit to the clinic. He’d followed me up to my room, carrying my purse for me and making sure I got here safely with the use of my crutches. I had expected he’d stay for a minute or two to make sure I was all good, and would then leave to head out to snowboard.
He didn’t.
In fact, he made it clear he had no plans to leave any time soon.
It was nice. Sweet, even.
But after everything he’d done for me since the moment I met him when I got stuck on that trail, he was making it more and more impossible for me to not want to make a move on him.
He cared for me in a way that not only surprised me but warmed my heart, too. He didn’t need to disrupt his trip to do all that he was doing for me, and yet, he did it with a smile on his face.
Plus, there was all the stuff he said to me, too.
I wasn’t immune to things like that, and I was quickly becoming attracted to the man beyond just the physical appearance.
But jumping Forrest’s bones wasn’t something a smart woman would do not quite forty-eight hours after meeting him. A smart woman would take the time to get to know him, to see if he was someone worthy of her time.
I’d been adventurous for far too long.
And though I hadn’t exactly been bold when it came to hopping into bed with men—I’d only ever been with two guys, one who happened to be my boyfriend in high school—I’d certainly become a woman who took charge of going after what she wanted.
Even if I’d just met him, I felt no reservations about having Forrest here with me, alone in my room. He was caring for me the way I imagined a man in love with his girlfriend would. He’d helped me get settled on the couch in my room, and he didn’t hesitate to bring me a stack of pillows to place beneath my foot, so it would be elevated to help reduce the swelling. Once he had me there, Forrest grabbed some ice from the freezer and carefully placed it on my swollen ankle.
Watching that, experiencing it, I was quickly wavering in my resolve to tread cautiously.
Holding myself back in a situation like this, particularly with a man who was treating me the way Forrest was, felt odd. It felt wrong.
Unfortunately, I’d learned some harsh lessons, and I refused to fall victim to something so terrible again.
So, I needed to find a way to get my mind away from the naughty thoughts about Forrest. Maybe learning more about him wasn’t going to ultimately help in the long term—especially if I liked what he had to say—but if he was talking, I had to believe I’d be courteous enough to listen instead of attacking him.
“I’m a bodyguard,” he shared after he sat down on the opposite end of the couch near my elevated foot.
“I’m sorry. What?”
“I work for a company called Harper Security Ops in Steel Ridge,” he started. “The company employs members of the military—most who are no longer active duty or are reservists. We offer a variety of services, including things like private investigation or self-defense training. I work in our bodyguard and private security unit.”
She sighed. “Well, apparently, I did some damage.”
My eyes widened. “You told me you were okay.”
Daisy nodded. “I was. I mean, it was a bit uncomfortable, but I didn’t realize it was this bad.”
Recalling the look I’d seen on her face as she’d been making her way toward me, seeing the way she was standing now, one thing became clear to me. “You can’t ride.”
Disappointment washed over her. Shaking her head, she replied, “I tried so hard to get my foot back into my snowboard boot, but once I took it off last night, everything changed. My foot ballooned up, and I had to spend the entire night hopping around my room on one foot.”
“Did you ice it?”
“Yeah. And I thought it’d be okay by this morning, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t get my foot back into my boot.”
Daisy seemed to be more concerned with not being able to snowboard than she was about the actual state of her foot. “Don’t worry about snowboarding. Did you have your foot checked out?”
“No. I figure it’s just a sprain. Once the swelling goes down, I should be fine.”
I thought for a moment. “Let me take you to get it looked at. Hopefully, it’s just a sprain, but if it’s worse than that, if you broke something, you don’t want to wait to get it in a cast.”
“Oh, Forrest, I can’t ask you to do that. This is your vacation.”
Tipping my head to the side, my eyes searched her beautiful face. “I hate to break it to you, Daisy, but until I know that you’re okay, I’m not going to be able to have a good time on this trip. Please. I’m begging you to let me take you to get your foot looked at. There’s a clinic not even ten minutes away, once we get to the base of the mountain.”
She considered my offer. “Are you sure? I feel horrible about this.”
“I’m positive. Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay.”
Looking around, I did my best to come up with a plan. “Are you okay to stand here for a minute on your own?”
“Yeah. Sure.”
“I’ll be back in one minute.”
At that, I released the hold I had on her arm, took my board, and moved to the ski rack. I rested my board there, pulled out the lock I had for it, and once it was secured to the rack, I moved back to Daisy.
Without giving it a second thought, I bent at the waist, put an arm behind her back and the other beneath her knees. Then I lifted her in my arms.
“What are you doing?” she gasped.
Once I was upright with her nestled perfectly in my arms, I explained, “I saw you take those few steps earlier. You can hardly walk, so I’m going to carry you to my truck.”
“How far away is that?”
I shook my head. “Not far.”
“Am I too heavy?”
One of my brows lifted, silently questioning her. When she continued to stare at me expectantly, I countered, “Does it look like I’m struggling?”
She pressed her lips together, a hint of her dimple coming out, and her face flushed. “No,” she whispered.
Feeling the urgent need to get her to the clinic, I decided I was done with the conversation for the time being. My priority was to get us to my truck.
So, I started moving through the snow with Daisy in my arms.
The first few minutes of the walk were done in silence, but after that, Daisy couldn’t seem to hold herself back. “I feel horrible.”
“Sick?”
“No. I feel bad about this, about ruining the day you and I had planned,” she clarified.
Unwilling to risk losing my footing and falling, I kept my focus in front of me. “I hate that you were injured, Daisy, but I’ve got to be honest. I’m holding a beautiful, funny, and energetic woman in my arms who smells incredible, so this really isn’t as big of a deal as you’re making it out to be. In fact, I’m inclined to say that this is working out better for me than what we originally had planned for today.”
“Oh. Wow,” she murmured.
I glanced at her for just a moment, noticed her cheeks were red again—which was not the result of being in the cold—and felt my lips twitch.
There had been some hesitancy on my part to dive in and share too much too quickly. Recognizing that I liked Daisy enough to want to be able to spend more time with her, the last thing I wanted to do was say something that would send her running in the opposite direction.
Though it remained to be seen if I had done just that, I had to admit I thought she looked utterly adorable right now. Overall, Daisy had been very outgoing and talkative, so to see the shy side of her only made her more endearing to me.
When we finally made it to my truck, I carefully lowered Daisy to her healthy foot and kept one arm wrapped around her while I grabbed my keys out of my pocket. Only after I’d opened it, helped her inside, and rounded the hood to get in on my side did she speak.
“Thank you for doing this for me, Forrest. It means a lot to me.”
Waving my hand in front of me in an attempt to dismiss it, I insisted, “It’s nothing. Honestly. Do you need me to get anything from your room? Your purse, maybe? I doubt you grabbed your insurance card as you hobbled over to meet me this morning.”
She dropped her head back against the headrest. “Crap. I didn’t even think about that.”
“It’s okay. We’ll drive over there and get it before we head down to the clinic.”
Just over ten minutes later—after Daisy gave me the key to her room and told me where her purse was, because she was worried about me having to carry her again—we were making our way to the clinic.
“I can’t tell you how relieved I am that you were still there at the lodge this morning,” Daisy declared, breaking the silence. “I was sure I’d show up and find that you had already assumed the worst about me.”
“I won’t lie and say the thought of you standing me up didn’t cross my mind, but I don’t think I was going to assume the worst about you,” I returned.
She let out a soft laugh. “You can’t tell me you would have been thinking anything good about me if I’d done that.”
“Actually, I stood there trying to figure out what I could have said or done yesterday that would have had you changing your mind,” I revealed. “One part of my brain was telling me I’d screwed up while the other was trying to remind me that you admitted you’re always late.”
I felt Daisy’s head snap in my direction, so I pulled my focus away from the road for just a few seconds to look over at her. She was horrified.
“What?” I asked. “What does that look mean?”
“I can admit that I have a problem with being punctual, but arriving thirty minutes after we were supposed to meet isn’t late, Forrest. It’s just plain rude.”
I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. “Fair enough. I wasn’t suggesting that was your intention, or that I believed you thought it’d be okay to do something impolite. It’s just that it was better for me to believe you were running behind instead of blowing me off completely.”
My words were met with silence. Only after what felt like two or three minutes—though the clock on the dash indicated it hadn’t been even a full minute—Daisy said, “Thank you for giving me the benefit of the doubt.”
“You’re welcome. But do you know what this situation has taught me?”
“What?”
“We should have exchanged numbers before going our separate ways yesterday. Then you could have called me to tell me about your foot instead of having to risk injuring yourself further.”
Daisy didn’t immediately respond, and it drove me wild, wondering what she was thinking. Only after far too much time for my liking had passed did she speak and make me feel like I’d won the lottery. “If you still want it, I’d be happy to give it to you.”
I fought against the full-blown grin threatening to make an appearance. “I’d be honored to have it.”
Much to her dismay, I carried Daisy inside once we arrived at the clinic. She kept insisting her foot wasn’t that bad and she could walk with a little bit of assistance. I refused to take any chances until the doctor gave her a clean bill of health.
Surprisingly, it seemed that no sooner had we sat down in the waiting room, Daisy was called back. I went with her, carrying her there, but once we got to the room, a wheelchair was brought in, so she could be taken to get an X-ray. “I’ll wait here for you.”
She nodded and was off.
While she was gone, I took a moment to lean into the gratitude and relief I felt. As I’d already said to her, I hated that she’d injured herself and was experiencing any pain, but I was beyond relieved to know she had been looking forward to spending time with me today at least as much as I’d been looking forward to spending it with her.
And though I didn’t like seeing her so distressed about her injury and how it had impacted our plans, I had to admit I wasn’t so upset about the disruption. I’d come on this trip to get some time away from work to relax and recharge. I didn’t have to snowboard every day, and I’d be just as content to have the time to get to know her a bit better. As I sat there waiting for her, I wondered if she’d be up for it.
It wasn’t too long before Daisy was wheeled back into the room. Once the technician left and closed the door behind him, I asked, “Did everything go okay?”
“So far, so good. I don’t know what we’re going to hear from the doctor, but I’m cautiously optimistic.”
“That’s good. Better to look on the bright side.”
“Yeah, I guess. It’s hard not to be bummed either way, though. I was really looking forward to spending the day together and getting back on my board this morning,” she noted.
I smiled at her, liking the way it felt to hear her say she’d been looking forward to spending time with me. “Though I can’t do anything to change the snowboarding situation right now, at least we’re still spending the day together.”
“Until we get back,” she mumbled.
“What do you mean?”
Daisy looked at me like I had three heads, as though my question made no sense to her. “Well, you’re going to go ride after we leave here, aren’t you?”
I shook my head. “Not unless by some miracle the doctor says you’re clear to do the same.”
She cocked an eyebrow but said nothing in response.
My lips twitched. “I know you didn’t forget what I said to you when I was carrying you to my truck earlier. I’m just as happy to sit in a room in a clinic with you while we wait for the results of your X-ray as I would be snowboarding. And when we leave here, I’ll be just as happy to spend time with you doing something that won’t require the use of your foot.”
The minute the words were out of my mouth, I watched as a shiver ran over her body. I hadn’t intended for her to take what I’d said the way it seemed she did, but I wasn’t upset about it, either. “I don’t want you to regret missing out on your vacation.”
Not liking how she’d gotten so quiet, I reached out and curled my fingers over the top of her forearm. After giving her a gentle squeeze, I stroked my thumb along the skin on her arm and promised, “There’s not a single thing about spending time with you that I’m going to regret, Daisy.”
She licked her lips, my eyes dropping to them. It was an exercise in self-control not to lift my hand to them, so I could drag my thumb along her bottom lip. It was even harder not to lean forward and kiss her.
Fortunately, before I did something stupid to screw whatever this was up, there was a knock at the door. I sat back and released my hold on her arm as she called out, “Yes. Come in.”
The door opened a moment later, and the doctor walked in.
This had to be the fastest clinic in history. I had expected Daisy and I would be left alone in this room for hours before anyone returned.
“What’s the verdict, Doc?” Daisy asked.
“It looks like you lucked out with no broken bones and just a very gnarly sprain instead,” he answered.
“See? I knew it.”
I rolled my eyes as the doctor slid his eyes to me. “I thought it was important for her to get it checked out,” I shared, feeling the need to defend myself.
“Smart man. I’d do the same thing for my girlfriend.” Not thinking twice about what he’d just said, he turned his attention to Daisy. My mind was still stuck on the notion of Daisy being my girlfriend when the doctor went on to explain, “The best thing you can do now is rest, ice, compress, and elevate. We just want to give your foot some time to heal and allow the swelling to go down, so if you follow those rules, you should be good.”
“How long until I can start walking on it again?” she asked.
“Generally, within two to three days, the swelling subsides enough to make walking bearable again. Within a week, you might not even realize there was anything wrong at all. If that’s not the case and you’re not noticing any improvement, you’ll want to come back in to get yourself checked out again. It’s possible you could have something more serious going on.”
“Okay. I can do that.”
“Perfect. Now, I’ll get them to come back in with some crutches for you, unless you already have a pair at your disposal,” he told her.
Daisy shook her head and pointed at me. “No. This guy has been carrying me around since he learned what happened to me.”
“Right. Well, then we’ll get you set up with a pair and give him a break.”
The doctor was out the door a minute later with the promise to have us out of the clinic within the next ten minutes.
I used the brief moment of privacy we had to make sure Daisy knew the truth. “If you want the crutches, go for it. But you should know that carrying you around has been the most fun I’ve had since I got here.”
Daisy let out a laugh and shook her head. “You’re crazy, Forrest.”
I shrugged. “Maybe, but it’s the truth.”
Before she could respond, the nurse walked into the room with a pair of crutches. And just as the doctor said would be the case, Daisy and I were out of the clinic eight minutes later.
FOUR
Daisy
“Will you do me a favor?”
My eyes shifted to Forrest’s face as I spoke, and the second I got the words out, I realized just how ludicrous my question was. I didn’t have to ask him if he’d do me a favor, because I already knew the answer. I could have simply asked him what I needed him to do for me from the start.
“Sure. Anything.”
Just as I expected.
God, this man felt like a reward I didn’t deserve.
“Will you tell me something about yourself?”
“Like what?”
“Anything. What do you do for a living? Or will you tell me about your family? I’m not picky. I just want something.”
The truth was that I desperately needed something to distract me. Of course, I wasn’t quite sure how effective it would be to have Forrest telling me more about himself. I didn’t think I’d hear anything bad. The likelihood was that he’d tell me things that would only make my predicament even worse than it was already.
As it turned out, Forrest had driven us back to the resort following my visit to the clinic. He’d followed me up to my room, carrying my purse for me and making sure I got here safely with the use of my crutches. I had expected he’d stay for a minute or two to make sure I was all good, and would then leave to head out to snowboard.
He didn’t.
In fact, he made it clear he had no plans to leave any time soon.
It was nice. Sweet, even.
But after everything he’d done for me since the moment I met him when I got stuck on that trail, he was making it more and more impossible for me to not want to make a move on him.
He cared for me in a way that not only surprised me but warmed my heart, too. He didn’t need to disrupt his trip to do all that he was doing for me, and yet, he did it with a smile on his face.
Plus, there was all the stuff he said to me, too.
I wasn’t immune to things like that, and I was quickly becoming attracted to the man beyond just the physical appearance.
But jumping Forrest’s bones wasn’t something a smart woman would do not quite forty-eight hours after meeting him. A smart woman would take the time to get to know him, to see if he was someone worthy of her time.
I’d been adventurous for far too long.
And though I hadn’t exactly been bold when it came to hopping into bed with men—I’d only ever been with two guys, one who happened to be my boyfriend in high school—I’d certainly become a woman who took charge of going after what she wanted.
Even if I’d just met him, I felt no reservations about having Forrest here with me, alone in my room. He was caring for me the way I imagined a man in love with his girlfriend would. He’d helped me get settled on the couch in my room, and he didn’t hesitate to bring me a stack of pillows to place beneath my foot, so it would be elevated to help reduce the swelling. Once he had me there, Forrest grabbed some ice from the freezer and carefully placed it on my swollen ankle.
Watching that, experiencing it, I was quickly wavering in my resolve to tread cautiously.
Holding myself back in a situation like this, particularly with a man who was treating me the way Forrest was, felt odd. It felt wrong.
Unfortunately, I’d learned some harsh lessons, and I refused to fall victim to something so terrible again.
So, I needed to find a way to get my mind away from the naughty thoughts about Forrest. Maybe learning more about him wasn’t going to ultimately help in the long term—especially if I liked what he had to say—but if he was talking, I had to believe I’d be courteous enough to listen instead of attacking him.
“I’m a bodyguard,” he shared after he sat down on the opposite end of the couch near my elevated foot.
“I’m sorry. What?”
“I work for a company called Harper Security Ops in Steel Ridge,” he started. “The company employs members of the military—most who are no longer active duty or are reservists. We offer a variety of services, including things like private investigation or self-defense training. I work in our bodyguard and private security unit.”
