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Eadie suspected he’d enjoyed their little exchanges today, and in retrospect it was more than a little flattering that he’d made her a part of everything after he’d got hurt. She ignored the idea that he currently had no adoring beauty to call on, and because it had been nearing closing time at the doctor’s office, most of his beauties wouldn’t have had time to come to the ranch to demonstrate their sympathy anyway.
And Hoyt had asked her to come over tonight. There was no getting around the fact that she’d grown even more excited about the out-of-the-blue opportunity the past three hours. Despite her effort to keep her head, Eadie just couldn’t seem to keep from losing it yet again over Hoyt. Hope probably did spring eternal because she was surely the most hopeful—and hopeless—ninny on the planet.
Even picturing a disappointing scenario didn’t seem to put much of a damper on the lighthearted way she felt. She had no business expecting anything but more crabbiness from Hoyt tonight, and she was certain to face a complete and utter letdown over how ho-hum it would all turn out to be.
But for now, she felt happy. She checked the clock about a half dozen times before she figured it was late enough to start for Donovan Ranch. She went out and got in her little green pickup and once she’d made it up the ranch road to the highway, she had a hard time keeping the little truck enough under the speed limit to avoid getting a ticket on the ten-minute trip down the pavement.
When she finally pulled up to the front of the massive, single-story adobe-style Donovan Ranch house, she noted that Miss Ed’s ancient little car was indeed gone. Though it was just before sunset, a few lights were on here and there in the house.
She went to the front door and pushed on the doorbell, then waited for Hoyt to answer it. When he didn’t, she pushed the button again, then waited even longer for a response. Finally she realized he might have taken the painkiller and fallen asleep somewhere in the house. He couldn’t have gone to bed and left the lights on, so she debated whether or not to just go on in.
Though she’d worked for Hoyt for years now, Eadie never simply walked into the house unannounced, though she’d had permission to do so. She regularly arrived just after noon, so she always went around to the kitchen and tapped on the big glass patio doors to get Miss Ed’s attention before she came in.
Could Hoyt be in trouble? She certainly didn’t want to startle him if he just hadn’t heard the doorbell, but she was squeamish about just walking in. Leery but concerned, Eadie tried the knob and the door opened easily, so she walked in and called out a light “Hello.”
When she got no response, she closed the door, then crossed the stone floor of the foyer to the long, carpeted hall that spanned the length of the big house.
“Hello, Hoyt. I’m here now,” she called out, then hesitantly started down the hall toward Hoyt’s office, peeking in doors on her way past only to find that the big den was empty. She went in and turned off the lights, then came back out and started through the house.
The kitchen and dining room were immaculate, but empty, as was the living room. She glanced out to the big patio in back, but there was no sign of Hoyt. Then she saw his black Stetson hanging on a wall peg in the dim kitchen, and was certain he had to be in the house. Eadie started toward the bedroom wing.
The only light in this part of the house was coming from Hoyt’s bedroom, so she stopped just short of the doorway to rap her knuckles on the door frame without looking in. If he’d just stepped out of the shower in the altogether, she didn’t want to compromise his privacy. There was no response, but she heard what sounded like a soft snore.
Eadie cautiously peeked in and saw Hoyt sprawled on his back on the big bed. He had on a fresh shirt that he hadn’t tucked in and a different pair of jeans than he’d had on that day, but he was fully dressed. His boots were on again, so perhaps he’d laid down earlier because he was drowsy then had fallen asleep. Surely Miss Ed didn’t know about this, because she might have given him heck for putting his boots up on the beautiful bedspread.
Eadie couldn’t let him sleep the night in his clothes, so she started across the carpet to the big bed to touch his shoulder.
Her soft, “Hoyt, can you wake up?” was a whisper. She gave his shoulder a gentle nudge. “Hoyt? It’s Eadie. You need to wake up and get ready for bed.”
That seemed to rouse him and he began to stir. But the unguarded movement must have hurt because he drawled out a swearword. Eadie decided she had to be a little more firm and spoke in a more normal tone.
“Hoyt? You need to wake up. Be careful of your stitches, but wake up.” She gave his shoulder another nudge. “Hoyt?”
His low moan was more a resistant growl than an indication of pain, so she reached for his fingers and, careful not to brush his injured side, which was facing her, she chafed his hand between her palms.
And…oh, Lordy! The feel of his big, callused hand between hers was a guilty pleasure she didn’t dare indulge too long.
“Come on, Hoyt,” she coaxed, almost as much to get him to wake up so she could let go of his hand as to spare him an uncomfortable night. “You can’t sleep in your clothes. Wake up so you can take them off and get under the covers.”
The low growl that answered her was a shock.
“You take ’em off.”
Eadie stared down at Hoyt’s sleep slack face, stunned. She’d stopped chafing his hand between hers and that next second she realized her mouth was hanging open. Had she heard right?
CHAPTER THREE
HOYT had mumbled something to her, but the words had sounded distinctly like You take ’em off.
Replaying it in her head didn’t change a syllable, and—hooboy!—that was the last order she’d ever dreamed Hoyt Donovan would give her. She must have heard it wrong.
“H-Hoyt? You need to wake up and get your clothes off for bed.”
This time, the growl was more distinct. “I said, you take ’em off if you want ’em off so bad.”
Eadie felt a tickle of amusement over that even as her face went warm. “I will not take your clothes off, boss. Just get up and get it over with. It shouldn’t take more than a minute, then you can go back to sleep. Come on.”
She pulled on his hand a little to prompt him to rise, but his dark eyes sprang open and zeroed in on her.
“You should have got here before I fell asleep. Now it’s gonna hurt like hell to get up again.”
Eadie smiled sympathetically. “I’m sorry. Here,” she said as she leaned close to slide her other hand beneath his wide shoulders, “I’ll help you sit up.”
Eadie knew it was a mistake the moment she felt the heat from his body penetrate her clothes. The hard muscle definition of his shoulders instantly imprinted themselves on her arm and palm and fingers. To pay back a little extra misery for her good intentions, the spicy cologne she associated solely with Hoyt filled her nostrils and was mildly intoxicating at this distance.
Hoyt’s fingers tightened on her hand. “You’ll help me sit up, huh? You and what forklift?”
His minty breath gusted warmly into her face and Eadie struggled not to show her reaction. “Are you calling me puny again? I’m also wiry.”
That got a smile out of him, but Eadie had underestimated the appeal of it happening just inches from her face while she was bent over him.
“You’re wearing perfume.”
The raspy pronouncement embarrassed her and made her regret her earlier efforts. The last thing she could afford money-wise and pride-wise was for Hoyt to think she was after him. And she rarely wore perfume.
“That’s shampoo. I washed my hair.”
“That why you’re late?”
“Let’s get you on your feet,” she said, then did her best to lift him.
Hoyt released a gusty breath, but cooperated. Once he was upright, Eadie tried to pull her hand from his, but Hoyt didn’t release her.
“Hold still. I need the balance,” he growled as he slid his legs off the bed and put his booted feet on the floor.
Eadie felt excitement storm through her as her hand stayed in his and she stared down at him, but then she rallied and tried to be all-business.
“Did you start the antibiotic?”
“Done. And the other about an hour ago. You up to getting my boots off?”
Eadie could see the weariness about him, so she couldn’t refuse. “I suppose.” One corner of his mouth bent down with displeasure.
“If you’re gonna go balky on me, I can use the bootjack.”
“I can do it.” Eadie pulled her fingers from his and stepped back to reach down and get a grip on his left boot.
“You make me feel like a pest, Eadie,” he groused as he lifted his foot to help her.
“I don’t mean to,” she said and pulled the boot off. “You’ve got to admit though, that our business deal never involved things like this before.” She set the boot down then went for the other one.
“I thought you said you wouldn’t take pay,” he went on in the same grumpy, aggrieved tone. “Does that mean there’s only business between us with no friendship or neighborliness at all?”
Eadie pulled off the second boot. “Of course there’s more than business between us,” she said as she picked up the other boot and set them both out of the way. “I apologize for making you think otherwise. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t care about you, Hoyt.”
“That’s a relief,” he said, though he sounded anything but relieved. “But it’s hard to take it personally when you care about everybody.”
There was a strong hint of self-pity and maybe frustration in the way he’d said that, and Eadie made a desperate try to ignore it. After all, Hoyt wasn’t quite himself, and who knew how the painkiller was affecting him?
“How do you really feel about me, Eadie?” he asked quietly, and everything inside her went on full alert. “I haven’t exactly been easy to get along with lately.”
The admission got her by the heart. It was an acknowledgment that he’d been difficult. And the way he’d said it was also an admission of regret. But she didn’t dare answer the question that preceded it. Not with the truth.
Eadie might have been able to find some way to overlook his question and focus only on the second part of what he’d said about not being easy to get along with. She was ready to say something that might lighten things up and get a grudging smile out of him.
The words to do just that were on the tip of her tongue, but then his gaze lifted to hers, and the solemn look she read there not only got her by the heart but squeezed hard. The subject neither of them had spoken about or hinted at for five years was suddenly between them, and Eadie felt compelled to break a little of that years-long silence. The time seemed right, and perhaps Hoyt did need to hear this from her.
“Even if you’re never easy to get along with again, Hoyt,” she began softly, “there was a time in my life when you did something for me I’ll never forget. No, I don’t like the way you’ve been lately, but I know who you really are deep down. That’s the man I’m here for tonight. I might do just about anything for that man.”
Eadie felt her heart leap into a panic over the starkly candid confession. She was certain to regret it, but the somberness about Hoyt tonight had brought out the fool in her. Then again, her feelings for Hoyt had steeped in secret for so many years that it wasn’t much of a surprise she’d let a little of them come out just now. Tonight was something completely new between them, and it was affecting her in dangerous ways.
If revealing even that tiny bit of her feelings to Hoyt made him order her out of his life and never show her face again, it might be a mercy. Five years was a long time, a pathetically long time.
The seconds ticked past as they stared at each other. Eadie couldn’t maintain the contact, so she glanced away. “If you’ll stand up, I’ll turn down the covers for you. Then I’ll get out of here so you can get ready for bed.” She made herself look at him again. “You do have everything you need for the night, right?”
“I’ll make do.”
His dark gaze was pressing deeper and deeper into hers, so she glanced away to reach for the top of the bedspread. As she’d hoped, that prompted him to stand, so she briskly pulled down the spread and top sheet before she turned to him.
Even in his sock feet, Hoyt towered over her, and he’d never seemed bigger or more blatantly masculine than in those hushed seconds next to his big bed. And sexy. The man oozed it.
“Well, I…need to get home. I’ll see you Tuesday, as usual, unless you need me for something before then.” She glanced up into his face then away. “Take it easy, and mind the doctor. I’ll call Miss Ed tomorrow to see how you’re coming along.”
“You won’t stop by tomorrow to check on me yourself?”
Eadie was as threatened by the question as she was pleased. “What about…after supper?”
“Why so late? Is tomorrow a big workday for you?”
“Yes.” It truly was, and now she was a little relieved it would be. She needed some perspective, and hard outdoor work was good for that.
“You’ve still got folks workin’ for you?”
Eadie shrugged, uneasy with the question. “I’ve been trading off chores. I’ve got work at Junie’s in the morning to pay back help, then work of my own when I’m done there.”
“You hurtin’ for money?”
Trust Hoyt to just bluntly ask, though it was a shock that he had. Eadie was starting to hurt for money more than she was comfortable with, though no one but her needed to know.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I just have to cut extra costs. I’m still making up for inheritance taxes. Nothing earth-shattering.”
No, not earth-shattering, but more like a cliffhanger. Eadie hated to lie, but she was ashamed she hadn’t been doing better the past few months. Small ranchers had a hard time, and she was grateful she only had herself to support. Nevertheless, it wasn’t something she wanted Hoyt to know about.
“If you need something…well, you know I’m good for it.”
Apparently Hoyt’s antennae were up, because he didn’t let it drop. She needed to draw a polite line to ward him off, because she considered the subject of her money troubles highly inappropriate.
“That’s kind of you, thanks. And generous. But I can stand on my own.”
“I mean it, Eadie.”
A small smile burst up from the combined dismay and tenderness that was all but breaking her heart. “I know.”
She dared to touch his arm. “Thanks.” Eadie barely resisted the urge to let the touch linger. “Do I need to lock up on my way out?”
“I never lock up. The dogs take care of varmints. It’s more entertaining than locking the doors.”
Eadie gave a laugh. Hoyt’s dogs were the laziest hounds in that part of Texas. They loved kids and women, but they lived for strangers. Their god-awful baying was more than enough to alert the ranch, whatever time of the day or night.
They barely paid attention to her comings and goings, so if she saw much of them at all, it was when she took a moment to pet them on the back patio on her way in to work, or when Hoyt had them in the den. And that was rare because Miss Ed didn’t like dogs in the house.
“All right then,” she said. “Good night.”
“I’ll walk you out.”
Eadie shook her head. “You will not walk me out. I’ve been walking out of this house alone for years now, so I think I can remember the way. Get your clothes off and go to bed.”
Hoyt gave her a narrow look. “You’re bossier than I ever thought.”
Eadie’s brows went up. “You need bossing more than I ever thought. Good night now.”
Eadie didn’t give him another chance to delay her. Standing by Hoyt’s big bed in the soft lamplight had put enough pictures in her brain that she’d have to blot out, along with the ones of him shirtless in the doctor’s office.
She made her escape, but just outside the front door she nearly tripped over Mike and Mose, who were sprawled like roadkill just outside the front door. Eadie took a moment to bend down to give them a pat.
“So you two do set up a sentry after dark.”
Mose rolled over for a belly rub and Mike did the same.
“Some watchdogs you are,” she scoffed with a laugh as she briefly accommodated their shameless appeal. When she had, she straightened. “Back on duty, boys.”
Both dogs whined as she went to her pickup and got in, but they subsided quickly enough and went back to their usual watchdog postures. Which was to lie flat on their sides like lumpy, long-eared rugs.
Eadie did take a minute at lunch that next day to call Donovan Ranch to check on Hoyt. Miss Ed filled her in, because Hoyt had company. Eadie tried not to jump to the conclusion that his visitor was a woman, but since Miss Ed didn’t say who the company was, she’d gotten the impression that one of Hoyt’s women had dropped by. Could it be the beautiful Celeste?
News traveled fast in and around Coulter City, and the doc had seemed amused that Eadie had been with Hoyt so he might have mentioned it to his wife. Someone was sure to have noticed that Eadie was driving Hoyt around in his new pickup. Since Hoyt never let a woman drive, that would have been noticed faster than anything else.
Hoyt had also gone into the pharmacy by himself, bold as you please, wearing his ripped and bloody shirt with the white bandage peeking through the gap in the cloth, so no doubt everyone knew about that by now, too.
