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“But he refuses to go to physical therapy. His father and I have talked to him. His brothers have tried to talk to him. He won’t listen to any of us, and we’re all at our wit’s end.”
Kelly smiled. “He is a little hardheaded. Let me work on an idea that I have, and I’ll get back to you later today. How about an ice-cream cone for the road? Butter pecan would be good.”
Between the ice cream and leaving her coat in Cole’s room, Kelly nearly froze before she got to her car. An early December norther had blown through the day before, and the morning temperatures were in the forties. But she’d sooner be switched with a peach limb than go back for her jacket. She’d pick it up later.
COLE STOOD at the window and watched Kelly Martin drive away. Now there was a woman. And a doctor of all things. Tall, long-legged and gorgeous. Any man would give a month’s pay to have that curly tumble of red hair spread across his pillow. With those snapping green eyes and kiss-me lips, she revved his motors more than any female he’d run across in years—for all the good it did him now. Hell, he couldn’t even dress himself without breaking out in a sweat.
He snagged his clothes from the floor and hobbled the few steps to his bed. Sure enough, by the time he’d pulled on the pants and shirt he was breathing hard and dripping wet. He wasn’t any use to himself or anybody else like he was. If he hadn’t been so doped up on painkillers, he would never have agreed to come to Naconiche.
Of course, his apartment in Houston was on the third floor, but he could have made out with pizza delivery and a few groceries from one of those online places. Here, he was worried about his mother. She ran up and down those stairs a dozen times a day checking on him, and she was no spring chicken anymore. Cole thought again about taking his brother Frank up on his offer to stay with the twins and him, but he didn’t want to impose, especially now that Frank was engaged. J.J.’s place was out—stairs again—and he was engaged, too. In fact, J.J. and Mary Beth were getting married in a few days. They had plenty going on without having to worry about their gimpy brother.
Nope, that wasn’t an option.
Hell, he knew he needed to go to PT. The sooner he got able to tend to himself, the sooner he could be out of everybody’s hair. Cole wasn’t used to being dependent on anybody, and he didn’t like being helpless. Not a damned bit.
He was just going to have to try to get down those stairs by himself.
KELLY DROPPED BY the Twilight Tearoom at the end of the lunch hour and had a quick bite as she sometimes did when she had time. In the odd spare moments she’d had since she’d seen Cole Outlaw that morning, thoughts of him had preyed on her mind. In some ways he looked very much like his brothers, J.J. and Frank, both patients of hers. Tall, dark, handsome. But life had carved a different character into his features, his bearing—and she found him stunningly seductive. Odd, since she’d never had such feelings about a patient before—not that he was actually her patient.
Of course she’d noticed that his brothers were good-looking guys, but being around them had never assaulted her senses and jolted her libido. The family patriarch, old Judge John Outlaw, thought naming his sons for notorious characters was politically smart—they’d have a leg up on opponents or in business. The tradition had continued through his grandsons. Of all the current crop of Outlaws named for famous desperados, Cole Younger Outlaw came closest to living up to his name. He might have been a cop, but he was as menacing as any gunslinger who ever lived. And, she admitted, turned her on like crazy. Interesting. Very interesting. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to pursue these unusual feelings or not.
When Kelly finished her chicken quesadillas, the tables were almost empty, and she went back into the kitchen to talk with Mary Beth Parker. Mary Beth owned the tearoom and the adjacent Twilight Inn, a small motel she had restored. She and J. J. Outlaw, the current county sheriff, were getting married on Saturday.
“Got a second?” Kelly asked as she stuck her head in.
“Sure,” Mary Beth said, wiping her hands and coming to the door. “What’s up?”
“Do you have a vacancy at the inn?” she asked quietly.
Mary Beth grinned. “Need a place for a rendezvous?”
Kelly rolled her eyes at her friend and patient. “I wish. No, I’m trying to find a place for Cole to stay while he recuperates.”
“I thought he was staying with Miss Nonie and Wes.”
“He is, but he needs to be on the ground floor…and he needs a place where he feels some independence but where his family could drop in with casseroles occasionally. The inn would be ideal. And I thought that since he’s family…well, that the cost wouldn’t be too prohibitive.”
“That wouldn’t be a problem, but we’re full. Besides our regular guests, tomorrow I’m expecting out-of-town friends for the wedding.”
Kelly sighed. “So much for that.”
“Wait a minute. I may have another solution.”
When Mary Beth told her the idea, Kelly grinned. “Perfect. Can you talk to him this afternoon? And maybe it would be best to present the notion to him in a…delicate way.”
“The male ego thing, you mean?”
“Exactly.”
“Gotcha.”
COLE HADN’T MADE IT past the third step when he had to sit down on the stairs and catch his breath. Three steps was one better than he’d done that morning. Shaking and sweating from his effort, he muttered a string of oaths that would have shocked his mother if she’d heard them. He felt as useless as hip pockets on a hog.
After resting several minutes, he was about ready to try again when he saw J.J. and Mary Beth coming upstairs.
“Hey, big brother,” J.J. said. “Whatcha doing sitting out here?”
“Waiting for a bus,” Cole said.
“Need any help?”
“Nope.”
“Mary Beth wants to ask you something.”
“Ask away.”
“It’s a big favor,” Mary Beth said, “and if you don’t feel up to it, just say so. I have a problem. You know that I own the Twilight Inn and Tearoom.”
She looked as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs, and Cole tried not to grin at his future sister-in-law, a pretty blonde who J.J. had been crazy about since they were kids. “Yes. Heard that you inherited it and fixed it up.”
“Right. It was a mess. The problem now is that Katy and I—you know my daughter, Katy?”
He smiled. “The little blond imp who wanted to see my bullet holes.”
“Yes, sorry about that, Cole. Anyhow, Katy and I are moving from the manager’s apartment to the new house. We’re trying to get settled before the wedding, but the person who was supposed to move in and take over as night manager has backed out, and I’m in a predicament. I was wondering if—oh, no, forget it. It’s too much of an imposition.”
“What is?” Cole asked.
“She was hoping that you might be able to fill in for a few weeks,” J.J. said.
“Just till after the Christmas holidays,” Mary Beth said. “I’m sure I can find another college student then who’ll take over the job for room and board. But you’re probably not up to it yet, Cole. It was a crazy idea. I’m sorry I mentioned it.”
“Whoa, darlin’,” Cole said. “What does a night manager have to do?”
“Not a lot, actually,” Mary Beth said. “Answer the phone in the evening and check in an occasional traveler who rings the bell for a room at night. You don’t even have to stay up. Basically just be there for security and to handle emergencies. The only emergency we’ve had was when the toilet overflowed in Unit Three. I had to call the plumber at midnight. The domino bunch takes care of the day shift.”
“The domino bunch?”
“Four old geezers who work around the motel for lunch and a place to play dominoes,” J.J. said. “I imagine you know all of them.”
Cole was naturally suspicious, but he didn’t care if it was a put-up job or not. Mary Beth’s offer sounded like an answer to his prayers. “I’ll be your temporary night manager.”
“Are you sure you feel like it?” Mary Beth asked.
“I’m sure.”
Mary Beth knelt on the stairs and threw her arms around Cole. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you,” she said, planting kisses on his face.
“Hey, there,” J.J. grumbled, “that’s enough of that.”
Cole laughed for the second time that day. “When do I start?”
Chapter Two
Shortly after lunch Kelly tapped on Cole’s bedroom door. The biggest and burliest of the hospital’s physical therapists stood behind her with a wheelchair.
When the door opened, Cole scowled at her. “What are you doing here?”
He still hadn’t shaved, and he had on well-worn gray sweats that looked even worse than the ones he’d worn the day before. On his feet were a pair of fleece-lined moccasins that looked like something his mother might have bought him—or that Wes had received for Christmas sometime.
“We’ve come to move you to your new digs,” Kelly said, smiling brightly. “Are you packed?”
He glanced to a black duffel bag on the bed. “Not much to pack, but I’ve been ready since daylight. My brothers are supposed to come by when Frank gets out of court.”
He frowned at the therapist. “Who are you?”
“Dan Robert Thurston, sir.” The therapist offered his hand, and Cole shook it. “Thought I’d give you a ride down.” He motioned to the wheelchair. “Hop in and buckle up.”
“Down the stairs? In that?”
“Dan Robert’s a pro. It’s a piece of cake for him,” Kelly said. “Not only is he a physical therapist, he’s a weight lifter.”
Cole didn’t look convinced, but he shrugged and sat in the lightweight chair. Dan Robert strapped him in while Kelly collected the duffel and the walker from Cole’s room. In a couple of minutes, they were downstairs.
“You make this seem easy,” Cole said.
“It is easy,” Dan Robert said, “with a little experience. It’s more a matter of leverage than muscle. Shoot, they even got machines now that you can attach to wheelchairs and climb stairs by yourself.”
“Why haven’t I heard about them?” Cole asked.
Kelly grinned. “It’s the sort of information you get if you’re in physical therapy.” She ignored his rude snort.
Miss Nonie bustled over as they passed through the shop. “Are you sure you’ll be all right alone, son?”
“I’ll be fine, Mom.”
“Your dad and I will be over tonight with your supper. Is there anything else you need?”
“Not a thing,” Cole said. “And don’t worry about my supper. I’ll order a pizza or something.”
“But—”
“Don’t worry about it, Miss Nonie,” Kelly said. “Mary Beth plans to leave a plate from lunch in the fridge. He won’t starve.” She waved as they went outside and loaded into her car, Cole in the passenger seat and Dan Robert in the back.
When she pulled away and turned left, Cole said, “Aren’t we going the wrong way to the Twilight Inn?”
“Nope. I have to drop Dan Robert by the hospital, and we thought while we were there that you could go in with him and have your physical therapy session.”
Cole cocked an eyebrow at her. “Who is we?”
“Think of it as the imperial ‘we,”’ she said with a flutter of her hand. After a few moments of silence, she said, “What? No argument?”
He shrugged. “Would it do any good?”
“Not a bit.”
Dan Robert made a slight choking sound from the back seat.
When they stopped at the hospital entrance, Kelly said to Cole, “I’ll pick you up here in an hour.”
“Don’t you have patients to see?”
“It’s my afternoon off. I’ll…be…back.”
Cole started to say something, then clamped his mouth shut. She could see his molars getting a workout.
COLE HAD BEEN RIGHT, Kelly thought. He hadn’t had much to pack. In the duffel she found the sweats from the day before, four pairs of pajamas, a robe, some ratty underwear and three pairs of white and two pairs of gray socks. Besides his shaving kit, two paperback novels—and her forgotten jacket of all things—that was it. Why did he have her jacket in his bag?
She shrugged and checked the sizes of his few belongings. Obviously the man needed some clothes. At least some more sweats to knock around in. Easy on and easy off, they would be simple to manage.
By the time she drove to the hospital door an hour later, she’d been able to do a fair amount of shopping. Dan Robert was just wheeling Cole out the door as she pulled up. Cole looked exhausted.
“Tired?” she asked when he was settled in the front seat.
He merely nodded.
By the time they reached the Twilight Inn, he was sound asleep. He looked so peaceful that she hated to wake him, so she sat in front of the manager’s apartment and let him sleep.
B.D., one of the four old fellows who worked at the motel and played dominoes in the office, came outside to check. Kelly held her fingers to her lips and shook her head, and he ducked back inside.
While Cole slept, she studied him. In the way that sleep softens features, his had modified to more a boyish cast, but he still looked far from innocent. He was a handsome man, but he reminded her more of a battle-scarred gladiator than a romantic Lancelot. The creases bisecting his forehead, though relaxed, were permanently etched there, and his jaw was clenched—probably a permanent state, as well.
An old scar carved a crescent on his left cheekbone, and another furrowed through his beard at his chin. His nose looked as if it had been rearranged a couple of times, and a lone pockmark faintly pitted his cheek an inch below the thick, dark sweep of lashes. The scar was probably the result of childhood chicken pox or adolescent acne, and it made him somehow seem more…vulnerable. Well, maybe not vulnerable.
The whole package that was Cole Outlaw made her toes curl and her fingers itch to run themselves through the waves of his thick hair and over the planes of his face and—
She squirmed in the seat and turned her attention to a mockingbird sitting on a power line. What was with her? Good Lord, she felt as giddy as a high school girl.
After about twenty minutes, Kelly gently shook Cole awake.
He sat up with a start, instantly alert and scowling.
“We’re home,” she announced in her perkiest voice.
“Home?”
“The Twilight Inn.”
