“Don’t worry about me,” he said. “And feel free to close your eyes and get some rest. We’ll be there soon enough.” But hopefully not too soon for his family and hers to have done what he’d asked.
Her hand slipped away from his and she moved the passenger seat back until it reclined. Then she turned so that she faced him and closed her eyes.
As he drove, he kept glancing over at her, watching her sleep. The panic he’d felt when he’d seen how much pain she’d been in rushed over him again. But he wasn’t afraid for her this time.
He was afraid for himself.
He had decided long ago that he wasn’t going to fall for anyone. Ever. He had to focus on the ranch, on keeping it going and making sure that it took care of everyone who relied on it for support. Like his brothers and his niece. Frankie. And now Trish and her babies.
And the camps…
He swallowed the groan that threatened to escape his throat. He didn’t want to do them, but he knew that Trish would stress herself out even more if she tried starting them on her own. Frank had been his best friend. Out of respect and loyalty to him, Brett had to make sure that nothing happened to the man’s daughter or grandchildren.
And Brett had to trust that nothing would happen to himself. That he wouldn’t fall for her. Frank and his dad had proven to him that love wasn’t worth the loss that inevitably followed. And there was no way that she was going to fall for him; she was recently divorced and as determined to stay single as he was.
* * *
Trish hadn’t expectedto fall asleep, not after the scare she’d had. But she must have drifted off because the next thing she knew, the passenger door was opening and Brett was reaching to lift her out like he had at the hospital. Instinctively she wrapped her arms around his neck. But the seat belt held her tight to the seat.
She laughed and then awoke fully to realize how close his face was to hers. How dark his eyes were, how strong his jaw…how strong he was.
He’d carried her a couple of times that day. From the barn to his truck and then from his truck into the hospital. Nurse Sue had delivered her back to his truck via a wheelchair, per hospital policy. “You don’t have to carry me again,” she said, but she didn’t release his neck. “You probably hurt your back doing that earlier.”
He shook his head. “No.” His voice was gruff. And he stared at her so oddly, like his focus was on her mouth.
And then she looked at his. She arched up from her reclining position and brushed her lips across his mouth. “Thank you…”
He tensed. But his lips moved back across hers once. Then again.
The sensation shot through her, making her tingle everywhere. Then one of the babies kicked, and with the way he was leaning across her, he must have felt it because he jerked back, hitting his head on the roof of the truck.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Sorry… I just…wanted to…” Kiss him. And it had been so long since she’d had the urge to kiss anyone, and never as strong a one as that, too strong to resist. “To thank you…” She cleared her throat. “Uh, thanks…”
His lips, which had felt so good against hers, curved into a slight grin. “You’re very welcome, Trish.” He touched the back of his head.
And she remembered he’d hit it. “Are you okay?”
His grin slipped away. “Yeah, probably needed some sense knocked into me. This…this…is a bad idea…if we want to keep living together and working together.”
“Oh, I know,” she said, her face heating up with embarrassment. “I shouldn’t have… I just…” She touched her head, too, like she’d hit it. And she must have had a concussion or some other momentary lapse of sense since she’d acted on impulse like that.
“You’re half asleep,” he said. “You can excuse it as a dream, that it never really happened.”
She wasn’t sure she would be able to do that, but she nodded in agreement. Would he be able to do the same? Would he be able to forget about the kiss?
Of course he would. There was no way in the world a confirmed bachelor like Brett Lemmon would be interested in a recently divorced, expectant single mother. And she shouldn’t be interested in him either.
As he said, they lived together. They worked together. They couldn’t risk making that relationship any more awkward than it had already been. No wonder he’d been avoiding her the past couple of days; he would probably continue to do that now.
But he didn’t rush away from her. He even helped her unbuckle her seat belt since she just fumbled with it, her hands shaking. He caught her hands and held on to them even after he helped her down from the truck. He slowly swiped his thumbs across the backs of her hands.
Goose bumps of awareness rose on her skin, as her pulse quickened. She was supposed to forget the kiss, not want to do it again. And she really wanted to kiss him again.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
No. She was nearly as scared and upset as she’d been when she’d thought she was going into labor too soon. The last thing she’d expected when she’d decided to move to the Four Corners was to find herself attracted to anyone, let alone one of the Lemmon brothers her lawyer had warned her about.
She drew in a deep breath, which meant breathing in the essence of him, of leather and horses and hay, and for a moment she felt lightheaded again. But then one of the babies kicked, reminding her of what mattered.Theymattered. Her children.
