“No, I made this mess, I’ll fix it.”
“Okay,” Shay said with a nod, turned, and left.
Pedro sat there for another thirty minutes staring at nothing, then rose, took care of the coffee pot, got it ready for the next day, and closed up the office. Hewent to his truck, and drove home slowly, trying to come up with what to say to Myrna. He didn’t know if he should tell her what he was feeling, or what he had felt when he found her in her bed after they’d shared his for hours. Should he tell her that making love with her was the best thing that had ever happened to him, or not mention it at all.
As he walked into the bunktel, he frowned when he tripped over something just inside the door, and after studying it for thirty seconds, he realized it was Myrna’s possessions. He stood there with his fisted hands on his hips and glared at them, then at her when she came out from her side of the building with another armload of items.
“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded, and didn’t back down when she paused, lifted her head, looked down her nose at him and said one word
“Moving.”
“Why? Where are you going? Will you be safe?”
She paused and gave him a scowl, and the side-eye. “What’s it to you? Don’t answer that, as I told you earlier, you’re not my boss, and I don’t answer to you or anyone when it comes to my personal life.”
“I forbid it!” Pedro practically screamed and she only shook her head as she added to her pile, then turned and started to walk away. He reached out and grabbed her elbow, halting her in her tracks.
She looked at his hand on her, then back at him, then back at his hand. When he didn’t remove it, shetried to jerk her arm from his grasp, but he wasn’t letting go. “What the hell, Pedro, what is your problem.”
“You!” he yelled, and his face was only inches from hers.
“Me? What the hell did I do?”
“You left!” he screamed, then he hauled her to his chest and slammed his mouth down on hers. She fought him for all of ten seconds before the kiss he thought as punishment turned hot. When they broke apart, he placed his forehead on hers, and whispered softly, “You left my bed in the middle of the night. I thought we shared something special, I woke, and you were gone. I found you snuggled in your bed, and I guess I was a combination of mad and jealous that you could sleep so peacefully after what we shared.
Myrna looked at him like he had fifteen heads, shook hers, gripped his hand, and pulled him after her.
“I’m not going to have sex with you until we iron this out.”
She sighed, shook her head, and kept dragging him toward her side of the home. Once in her bedroom, she pointed to the bed. “Sit.” When he refused, she went behind him and pushed. He finally sat down and faced her.
Without touching him, she leaned against thedresser, crossed her arms over her stomach, and shook her head. “I don’t know where to begin.”
“Wherever you’re comfortable.”
She studied him, then nodded. “Okay,” she said as she held up a hand and had her fingers only millimeters apart. “I was this close to slapping Sally on the ass to send her to freedom, and crawl into the ditch beside the road, and call it.”
“Call what?”
“Life, it was over. Just as I gathered to reins to stop Sally to talk to her, you stopped beside me. When you didn’t question my bruises, or me, just let me use your phone, and waited with me until Jim arrived, I was able to gather myself.”
“Okay, but I don’t see the relevance of this.”
She sighed, shook her head, and went to sit in the chair in the corner, the one she’d used as a reading chair for the last couple of weeks. Since the tension between the two of them had grown to the point that she couldn’t be around her longer than sharing a meal together.
“I have arthritis. It was diagnosed by my doctor six years ago. It’s steadily progressing, and as long as I keep moving, I’m fine. I have good days and bad. I take over the counter medication at this time. When you stopped, I had written Sally bareback for three days, I don’t know the exact time, but probably about an hour before you found me, she became lame. I started walking.”
“Jesus, the tears I saw in your eyes when I stopped was from pain from the arthritis, not the bruises on your face.”
“Correct.” She pointed to the bed, and reached out and touched the blankets. “When Laurie told me to place an order and she would pick it up, I ordered a mattress topper, like the one the doctor told me to get. I also had her pick up a pillow that is specifically for use between the knees while sleeping. When we did what we did in your room, I was fine, but then, during the times we’d sleep, the pressure points of your mattress on my hips were painful, and kept waking me. I didn’t want to disturb your sleep for my problem, so I came back here.” She pointed to the area he sat.
He bounced on the side of the bed, laid his hands next to his hips, and looked at her with a frown. “Do you mind?” He didn’t wait for her reply when he stood, sat further back on the bed, then lay down. He rolled to his side, and put his arm beneath his head, staying like for several minutes before he rolled over to face her.
“This is nice.”
“See, Like I said, I didn’t want to wake you, but with everything we had done earlier that night, my hips were screaming in pain. I was going to explain it when you got up.”
He sat up, and sighed heavily as he rubbed the back of his neck and stared at her sheepishly. “And Iwas butt hurt because I saw you snuggled deeply in your bed and not in mine.” He shook his head, and looked at her again. “I’m so sorry.”
