Dusty put her hand on his arm, feeling his biceps flex under her fingers. “You don’t have to get out. It’s late, and I’m sure you’re tired.”

  He laughed. “I’m not going to just throw you out the door and drive away. Plus, you owe me.”

  Her eyes widened. He grinned and got out.

  He opened her door, and she took his proffered hand.

  “You’ve got to be sore,” he said.

  Every bone in her body ached, and it was hard to walk without a very pronounced limp. “I’m glad you didn’t let me go without my braces. If I feel this awful after wearing them, it would have been worse with them off, I think.”

  “I’m sure of it.” He took her hand, his fingers sliding into hers.

  A cool night breeze blew across the yard, bringing with it the scent of honeysuckle and cut grass. She shivered.

  He slid his arm around her. “Cold?”

  “No.”

  “Scared?”

  She smiled in the dark. “I would never admit it.”

  He stood with her in front of the front door. The moon shone down, putting his eyes in shadow but showing the upturn of his lips. “Thank you for being my girlfriend today.”

  “I had a great time. Anytime you need a girlfriend, I’m in.” Her heart beat faster. That was a major hint. She felt exposed.

  Both of his hands came up and cupped her cheeks, warm against her cool flesh. He swallowed. “I just realized today how much I need a girlfriend.” He paused, shaking his head. “No. That didn’t come out right.” He breathed out and tried again. “I just realized today how much I wanted you to be my girlfriend. Would you consider it?”

  “I told you I’m in.”

  “I might not have a job.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “I might have to hide our relationship for a bit.”

  “I don’t care.” She moved her cheek against his hand. “Wait. How long is a bit?”

  “If I don’t get fired, until you’re no longer in therapy.”

  “I could just get another therapist.” It seemed like an easy solution. Except... “Would that go against you?”

  “It’s recorded. Anytime someone switches from one to another. It’s not supposed to be a black mark, but it is.” He rubbed her cheek with his thumb. “No one’s ever dropped me before. Besides...” He bent down, touching his forehead to hers. “I really don’t want anyone else doing your therapy.” His face showed his struggle.

  “You are the best.”

  He let out a sigh that was more like a groan. “I don’t think you’re going to find anyone else who cares more about your recovery than me.” He studied his hand on her cheek. “I’m struggling with this because I want you to have the best possible care. I know how devastating it can be when your therapist screws up.”

  “You’ve done it?” she asked in surprise.

  “I’ve seen it.”

  “Oh.” She didn’t want him to drop his hand from her face. She leaned into it. “It could be a year, though.”

  He nodded. She hated the struggle that she saw going on behind his eyes. “Let me make this easy for you. If you don’t do my therapy, I quit.”

  His lip pulled back. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “I’m serious. I only want you. I know you feel like you have to quit because of our relationship, or whatever it is, but I’m not a victim, and you’re not taking advantage of me. I’m a rational adult, and I want you as my therapist. You or nobody. That’s my final word.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Let’s give it two months. After that, you should be down to once a week, if that, and well on the way to full recovery.”

  She was pretty sure he had just agreed to be her boyfriend, in secret, for the next two months. But maybe it was just that he’d be her therapist for two months? She wasn’t sure, and she was tired. They could straighten it out in the morning. “So, I can kiss you now?” she said, stepping closer.

  He met her halfway, his hands moving from her cheeks to around her waist. “You mean I get to kiss you.”

  “We get to fight about it, remember?”

  “I kind of like the anticipation. Maybe that’s actually a good idea.”

  “It could end up being a draw.” She slipped her hands up his back, feeling the ridges of muscles.

  “It could. And I could go home without a kiss.”

  “I could go to bed without one, too,” she said with a little pout.

  “That’s sad. For both of us. Can’t we compromise?”

  “It’s kind of unromantic to count to three.” Their lips were almost touching, and she was enjoying their banter. She didn’t really want to stop.

  “We could wake Tucker up and have him count.”

  “That’s even more unromantic.”

  “Wow. We haven’t even been a couple for two minutes, and she’s already complaining that I’m not romantic enough.”

  “He’s already fighting with me.”

  “How about I just give in and let you kiss me.”

  “No. I’ll give in. You kiss me.”

  “Spend the afternoon with me tomorrow, and you’ve got yourself a deal.”

  “That’s your pickup line? ‘You’ve got yourself a deal.’ Really?”

  “Shut up and kiss me.”

  He lowered his head, and she raised hers, and she never really was sure who kissed who, but it felt like the perfect end to a beautiful day spent with a man she was afraid she was falling for.

  She tightened her grip on his waist, pushing closer, needing something solid as her mind whirled and exploded into colors. Her body buzzed, and when he groaned, pulling her tighter against him, heat burst in her stomach and ripped out through her fingers. Her knees shook, and her toes curled inside her shoes.

  He lifted his head, just a bit, and they stared at each other.

  It was several long moments before he spoke. “If you’d have told me how good you were, I wouldn’t have fought you. Kiss me anytime.”

  She smiled. “I think you get the credit for that one.”

  “We could share it.”

  “We’ll have to. It wasn’t anything that I did. It had to be you.”

  “Not me.” He grunted. “I guess it’s two halves got together and made an explosion.”

  She laughed.

  He kissed her forehead and backed away. “I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon?”

  “Yes.”

  ~~~

  Roland went home with a smile on his face. He slept with one and woke with one. He was still smiling when he stopped on Dusty’s drive the next day.

  It faded when she came hobbling out, chewing on her lip.

  He jumped out of the car, his heart in his throat. Had she changed her mind? “What’s wrong?”

  “I just got a text. Riley had her baby a bit ago, and I know I said I’d spend the afternoon with you, but I really need to go see her...”

  No one was more shocked than himself by the next words that came out of his mouth. “Can I come?”

  Her brows shot up to her hairline. “You want to?”

  He shrugged, like it was no big deal. He hated hospitals, and he’d said as much to Dusty. “Why not?”

  She blinked. “I don’t know. I guess I assumed you wouldn’t think it was very fun to head to the hospital and see a newborn. They’re usually not very pretty.” She tilted her head down. “And you said you hated hospitals.”

  Maternity wards were not the same as the trauma floor. He could do it. The smell would give him the shivers, but he could handle it. “It’s a girl?”

  “A boy.”

  “I’d hope he wasn’t pretty.”

  She snorted. “You don’t mind?”

  He walked closer and put his arms around her, lowering his head. “Whatever you’re doing, I want to do it with you.”

  He bent down, touching his lips to hers, careful to pull back almost immediately. It wouldn’t look very good on his part if he spent the next hour standing in her driveway, kissing her.

  She was smiling when he lifted his head. “I’ll take more.”

  He laughed. “Are we going to see a baby, or are we going to stand here and kiss? Because I can tell you which one I’d rather do.”

  She tilted her head. “I think we’d better go.”

  “Good choice.”

  It didn’t take long to get to the hospital. As he suspected, the smell brought back all the old feelings, but the years had sanded off the edge, and it only made him slightly uncomfortable. Nothing he couldn’t handle. He supposed, if he wanted to, he could go back as a pre-med student. But he loved his chosen career and had no desire to leave it.

  The maternity ward was on the second floor. Dusty made a beeline to the gift shop.

  He allowed her to lead. “You seem to know your way around.”

  “I’ve been here for Cassidy. And Harris. And Kelly. Twice.”

  He studied her face. She didn’t seem upset that all her friends were busy with husbands and babies and she wasn’t. Or she did a good job of hiding it. But not every woman longed for a family. Funny how he’d never noticed that he didn’t have much of one until Dusty.

  “What do you think of this?” she asked, pointing to a pair of glass shoes holding a bunch of blue and yellow flowers. Three blue balloons waved above the shoes.

  He shrugged. “Looks good to me. You seem to be the expert.”

  She picked it up, taking it to the counter to pay. Again her face gave nothing away.

  He carried the flowers, the balloons waving past his face, as she led him to the elevator. They were the only ones on, and he put his arm around her, pulling her close.

  “Want me to wait in the waiting room?”

  She lifted her face, her brows drawn. “I was trying to figure out a way to explain why you’re with me.”

  He couldn’t help himself and leaned down, kissing her lips.

  She smiled and put her arms around his neck. “Maybe they won’t ask.”

  He kissed her again, a little longer than before. “Maybe I’ll become invisible when the elevator door opens.”

  The bell dinged, and they stepped apart. She adjusted the ribbon on the flowers. “We said we would be a secret. I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

  He didn’t want to get in trouble either. Not in any more than he already was. But he didn’t want to leave her.

  “We’re friends, aren’t we?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, then. That’s what we’ll say.”

  “They’re not going to believe that’s all we are.”

  “So?”

  She nodded. “Okay.”

  They stepped off the elevator, and Dusty led the way down the hall. She waved at the nurses and called a greeting.

  “This is their room,” she said to him before she knocked on the open door. “It’s Dusty, and I have Roland with me. Can we come in?”

  “Dusty! Come on in!” Riley’s voice sounded a little hoarse but very happy, and Roland followed Dusty into the room.

  Ben Baxter sat sprawled out in the uncomfortable-looking hospital chair, a small, tightly wrapped bundle lying on his chest. Roland didn’t know this Baxter brother as well as Tough, Turbo, and Torque, but he had the same deep brown eyes, and his large, calloused hands looked just as odd holding the tiny baby as Roland remembered Tough’s and Turbo’s looking.

  Dusty went straight to Riley, bending over the hospital bed and hugging her. “Congratulations!” she said softly, with a huge smile.

  “Thank you.” Riley’s smile couldn’t get any bigger, although there was no missing the lines of fatigue around her eyes. “He was nine pounds!”

  Dusty glanced over at the sleeping baby and his dad. “Oh, my. He’s so big.”

  “Well, he was late, so that’s probably why.” Riley glanced at her husband. “I think Ben will give him up so you can hold him for a minute. He was going to go grab a bite to eat and bring me back a cold water. You can hold him while he’s gone if you want.”

  “I’d love to,” Dusty said.

  Ben shifted.

  Roland set the flowers down on the windowsill.

  “You guys know Roland, don’t you?”

  “Sure. We’ve seen him at the shop, and he’s helped with the kids at Kelly’s center while I was volunteering,” Riley said.

  Dusty nodded.

  Ben unfolded from the uncomfortable-looking chair and carefully handed the baby over. He kissed his wife’s forehead, and they spoke low before he came around and shook Roland’s hand. “Glad to see Dusty has a man. She’s a good girl.”

  “We’re friends.”

  Ben snorted. “Okay.” He grinned and, with a last look at his wife and son, walked out.

  Roland stood against the wall, watching Dusty as she held the baby and smiled down at him, while Riley gave an overview of their long night and the delivery. Dusty knew all the questions to ask, and she seemed knowledgeable about labor, delivery, and newborns.

  Watching her hold the baby did odd things to his heart, but her face was serene, and he could detect no longing or jealousy, just pure happiness for Riley and adoration for their new son.

  Finally the baby started to stir and stretch, and Riley looked at the clock hanging on the wall. “I guess it’s feeding time.”

  “I’ll give him back to you. I’m sure Roland is ready to go.”

  Riley looked at him. “Do you want to hold him? The nurses said to wait until he was good and awake before I tried to feed him.”

  Panic crept up Roland’s throat, burning like acid. “He might cry.”

  “I’ll take him if he does,” Riley said with a smile.

  He would have said no. He was going to say no. But there was something on Dusty’s face as she held the baby and waited for him to speak. A softening in her expression.

  Roland swallowed. “I’d love to hold him for a minute.”

  Dusty’s brows raised, but she stood. He came closer, his palms sweating.

  Like the little wrapped bundle was as delicate as a newly spun cobweb, Roland put his arms out and carefully helped Dusty transfer him from her arms to his.

  The baby was lighter than he expected and warm. He stared down into his little monkey-face and felt his heart twist and shift. Someone so tiny and defenseless, trusting him to protect him, made the weight of responsibility fall like a heavy yoke around his shoulders. It should have felt stifling, but instead, it felt strangely right. A longing rose in him, like a lone wolf’s cry at the moon, low and aching. He breathed against it, not sure how to ease the deep unrest.

  His breath came in uneven bursts as he took one finger and lightly touched the little cheek. “He’s amazing,” he breathed.

  His eyes lifted, and they met Dusty’s. She looked at him like he’d turned into a pile of gold right before her eyes and she wasn’t sure what to think or do. They stared at each other for a long moment over the bundle in his arms, before the baby stirred and began to make little mewing noises.

  “I think he needs his mama,” Roland said.

  Dusty stepped forward, and Roland handed the baby off just as reverently as he’d gotten him. A tiny little human. Amazing.

  They left soon afterward. Roland was still in somewhat of a daze, never having held a baby of any type before. He’d been unprepared for the depth of emotion that had stirred in his soul. As it shifted and settled, his thoughts turned more and more to Dusty and what it might be like to share that with her. Thoughts he was pretty sure would make her run screaming away from him if she had any inkling he was thinking them.

  So he pressed down tight on his heart and tried to find the person he was before he walked into that maternity room.

  At the elevator, she pressed the button. As they waited, her small hand slipped into his. He turned, surprised.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, her brows tilted down.

  “Yeah. Uh, yes. Of course. Why?”

  His stammered answer only caused her face to pinch tighter.

  “Are you having chest pain?”

  “Uh, no. Why?”

  “You have your hand over your heart.”

  Roland looked down. Yep. His hand was resting over his heart like he was watching the flag go by at a parade. He shoved the offending appendage into his pocket. “That better?”

  “Why are you acting so weird?”

  He had to change the subject. “You want to go boating?” Man, he was dumb. Where did that idea come from?

  “Sure. I didn’t know you had a boat,” Dusty said as the elevator doors opened.

  “I don’t, actually.”

  Ben stepped off the elevator, carrying a bag and two waters. He stopped mid-stride, his eyes on their joined hands. When he looked back at Roland, there was a smirk on his face.

  Roland lifted his chin, and Ben’s smirk got bigger. He might have snorted.

  “Your son is adorable,” Dusty said. She tugged on Roland’s hand, and they walked onto the elevator.

  “Thanks,” Ben said.

  They could hear him laughing as the elevator door closed. “What was so funny?” Dusty asked.

  Roland held up their joined hands. “Before he left, I told him we were friends. He found it funny then and even funnier now.”

  Dusty nodded. “I see.” Their hands dropped between them. “Are we going boating?”

  “We can. I have a buddy who has a boat. He borrows my lawnmower all the time, so I’m sure he’ll let me use his boat. We can take it out on the river.” Roland felt like he’d semi-recovered. As long as they didn’t see any more babies, he should be back to normal soon. He did make a mental note to never visit another newborn in the hospital.

  Chapter 14

  Dusty studied the rickety boat skeptically. It was a small rowboat, with just enough room for both of them and a picnic supper.

  They dragged the boat to the water’s edge. “How about you get in first, then I’ll push it off?”

  The water was deep and slow in this part of the river. “Okay?” She didn’t have any better ideas.

  “I don’t want you straining to get in and hurting your leg.”

  “I see. I thought you figured if it capsized, you wanted me to be the one to get wet.”

  “Ha. I actually hadn’t thought of that, but I do see the wisdom.”

 

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