Page 20 of Her Guarded Hero

Zed laughed. “I can hardly watch her eat it. It’s grape Kool-Aid. There were three days in there where she wanted asparagus too.”

All thought of Norma fled as Dalton pictured the plate in front of Marcia and Zed sitting across from her. He burst out laughing. It felt great.

As both of their laughter faded, a comfortable silence took over. Finally, Zed spoke up. “I’m going to call you tomorrow, you better pick up your phone,” he growled.

“I might not be able to. I have an appointment with some horseshit.”

“Explain.”

“It’s a long story, and I’m tired. I’ll tell you tomorrow. I’m going to bed.”

“Fine, I’ll call Dex for you,” Zed said. “You go get your beauty sleep. But tomorrow I want to hear why you’re making nice with the horsies.”

He blew out a long breath. Who knew Zaragoza was so funny?

He looked over at the broken window. Nope, he wasn’t going to go there. That shit was in the past. Dex or Kane would make sure she wouldn’t call, and Norma would be history and he’d fix the window. Onwards and upwards. He’d play with horses and concentrate on Aurora.

4

Oh, for God’s sake, what was she thinking? When had she ever worried this much about what to wear? It was always jeans and a sweater, or jeans and a T-shirt, depending on the time of year. End of story. Aurora plowed through her drawer, reaching under all her sweaters and not finding anything that felt soft.

Dammit!

Where was the feel-good sweater? And not the damn pink one. Granddad would give her a ration of shit for it if she wore a pink sweater the first morning Dalton arrived. But blast it all, she knew there was a heather gray sweater that was really soft that would be great. She slammed her drawer shut and yanked open the next one.

Score!

She pulled on the sweater and did a cursory look in the mirror and groaned. Why had she even bothered to try? With the bruise on her head she was looking like the Phantom of the Opera without the mask. She sat down on the bed and put on her thick steel-toed boot socks that she preferred wearing with her cowboy boots, then pulled on her boots.

Leaping up she took a step toward the door and the room took a spin around her.

“Woozy-Daisy.”

She gulped in three fast mouthfuls of air and felt a little better. She needed to get outside and get some real-live fresh air. That was all she needed. That and some coffee. Aurora left her room and followed the smell of apple-smoked bacon.

“Bout time you got up. You feeling okay?” Gunnar handed her a mug. She lifted it and almost choked when she tasted chocolate. Not that she didn’t like it, but was he for real?

“Granddad, where’s my coffee?”

“Not good for head injuries. I called Doc Barnes, he said so.”

Aurora put the mug of hot chocolate down on the kitchen counter, grabbed herself a clean mug from the cupboard and poured herself a cup of coffee. “Dr. Barnes is the vet,” she said patiently.

“He still had to go to medical school.”

“He went to veterinary school, Granddad. Veterinary school. I highly doubt that the bulls were sneaking cups of coffee after they got injured in the bullring,” she said wryly. She closed her eyes and took a long sip of the heavenly brew.

“You still didn’t answer my question, how are you feeling?”

“I’m feeling so-so. I’m going to take it slow today.” She nudged him with her hip and pulled the eggs and milk out of the fridge.

“Good, then I won’t hear anymore guff about you actually up on a horse today, right?” he asked as he eyed her carefully. “Maybe just make some more calls about Aladdin and Siren and see if you can pinpoint their origins.”

She scowled at grandfather. “I’m not going to spend my day shackled to a desk. Anyway, Crystal’s been doing a lot of the legwork.”

Aurora was happy when there was a knock on the door. Saved by the knock, she grinned to herself. Gunnar went to let Dalton in while she whisked together the eggs, milk, vanilla and cinnamon.

“Sit down with Dalton, I’ll finish up,” Gunnar said. He put her mug down on the table, and plopped down one in front Dalton as well, filling both before going back to the counter to finish the French toast. Aurora sank down in the chair, pleased when she noted Dalton’s blue eyes perusing the fit of her sweater, but then he frowned.