Part 9 (1/2)
”So did you.” Jase grinned at him mischievously.
”Way too much. The doc is one of those dangerous women your elders are always going to be warning you about.”
Maia shoved at Cole with her foot. ”I love the way you manage to turn the tables on me. I'm injured here. You're supposed to be soothing me, not stirring things up.”
Cole raised his eyebrow at her, his eyes going dark. ”I don't think I'll touch that.” He went back up on his knees to examine the back of her head. ”The ice seems to have done its job and stopped the bleeding and the swelling.”
”Well good thing, since you weren't paying attention,” Maia scolded.
”I had better things to do.” Ignoring her wince, he pushed the matted hair from the cut. ”I don't think it needs st.i.tches.”
Maia jerked her head away. ”Since I'm the only one capable of st.i.tching anything, I should say not.”
”I can st.i.tch a wound if I have to. I sewed up my arm once,” Cole said.
Jase and Maia exchanged a long frown. Maia wrinkled her nose. ”Don't tell us anything else. I'm going to have nightmares.”
”I ran into a guard down in Colombia. He had a big knife. He wasn't supposed to be there, and I got careless.”
Maia reached out and pushed up the sleeve of Cole's s.h.i.+rt to reveal a jagged scar about three inches long. ”You aren't making it up.”
”I don't make things up.” Cole got to his feet with a sigh of regret. It was time for all of them to return to the real world. ”Jase, did you and Al go riding the other day? The day Wally was injured?”
Jase shook his head. ”No, the hands took care of the cattle, and Al stayed with me working around the ranch house. We saw the fence over by the corrals leaning and we repaired that. I nearly fell actually, but Al caught me before I went down the hill. The post was rotten or something and gave way. I discovered Wally a couple of hours later when I came back to the ranch house to put away the tools. I called Al, and he came right away.”
Cole sighed. Someone had taken the horse out earlier. Either Jase was lying to him or something he didn't understand was going on. ”I didn't like the look of the walkway this morning, Jase. It's too much of a coincidence to have the horse injured and the walkway iced and the fence post give way when you leaned against it. I don't like any of it.”
”What are saying?” Jase asked.
Maia could see the fear creeping back into the boy's eyes and it saddened her. For a few minutes, he had been a normal teenager, teasing an older brother.
”I'm just saying we're stuck here until this series of storms pa.s.ses, and I want you to be careful,” Cole said. ”We should stick together when we go outside.”
”Cole, who else is on the ranch? You told me no one was here other than the three of us,” Maia said. ”Is it possible you're being...” She broke off when his gaze swept over her face. The dark hunger was gone.
His eyes were back to ice-cold, piercing blue.
”Paranoid? Maybe. But it's how I stay alive. I don't know what's happening, and until I do I just want to err on the side of caution.” He stood beside Jase, clapping a hand briefly on his shoulder. ”That doesn't mean we can't have fun, or do the Christmas thing, it just means we stick closer together if we go outside.
We can share the work and keep an eye on the doc when she's looking at the horse for us.”
”I came down here to tell the doc that my mother's things are in the attic,” Jase said. ”There's a chest up there that might have a few Christmas ornaments in it.”
Cole glanced at Maia's face, trying to get something from her. He wasn't certain what it was.
Rea.s.surance maybe. Courage. The thought of decorating the house turned his stomach.
”I'd love to see some of your mother's things, Jase,” Maia said with her usual warmth. Her gaze was on Cole, watching his face closely, reading too much.
He presented a stone carving to the world, a man invincible, one who had no fear, yet she seemed to see through the barrier between him and the rest of the world. The one woman he wanted to impress. The only woman who got under his skin and threatened to turn his carefully ordered world upside down was the one who saw him vulnerable.
Maia sighed. ”Jase, you ever notice Cole can look scary?”
”I told him he did,” Jase said, with a triumphant grin toward Cole. ”Just last week I told him that.”
”He does it when he's losing a battle.”
Cole raised an eyebrow. ”I don't lose battles. Don't be telling the boy a thing like that.” A part of Cole stood off to the side, observing the banter, the way Maia seemed to be able to bring them all together when there was always such a distance between him and everyone else. A distance between Jase and everyone else. He wished he knew how she did it.
No one had ever teased him before. Even his coworkers refrained from venturing into personal territory with him, but Maia had no problem giving him a bad time. He reached out, tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear before he could stop himself. He wanted to touch her, to feel her skin. He ached for her.
Cole pulled himself up short. He was beginning to want more than her body. He found himself looking for her smile, listening for her laughter, watching the expressions chase across her face.
Jase's rude snort of derision dragged him from his thoughts. ”You've got it bad, Cole. You're a goner.”
Cole couldn't take exception when he heard the laughter in the boy's voice. It was genuine and even affectionate. Maia had managed to put it there somehow. He turned away from both of them, a lump in his throat ”I'm denying everything,” he managed to get out. His voice was husky, and he knew if he looked at her, Maia would have a small knowing smile on her face.
”What are we going to do with the doc?” Jase asked.
”She can just sit there holding the ice pack, and we'll go up to the attic and get this box you want. I finished feeding the horses before I came in. Al's got the cattle under shelter with plenty of feed, so we're good for a few hours. We may as well start figuring out what we're supposed to do about Christmas.”
Maia's laughter came again. ”You sound like a man about to be hung. Christmas isfun , Steele, not a funeral. Jase, the man has such an Eeyore att.i.tude.”
Cole swung around. ”Eeyore? You just called meEeyore .”
Jase burst out laughing, joining Maia. The sound drifted through the ranch house, dispelling the cold, barren feeling and replacing it with a warmth that had never been there before.
chapter 8.
Cole dusted off the box before he brought it down to Maia. Jase had obviously managed to remove things he'd treasured and conceal them before his father could throw them out. It said a lot about the boy's courage. He'd only been ten when his mother had been killed. He must have been terrified to defy his father and gather her things. The housekeeper would have reported it had she seen him, and there were the cameras to avoid, yet the boy had managed to keep a few precious items. As Cole placed the box carefully in front of Maia, he realized his genuine affection for the boy was growing. And that was frightening.
He couldn't warn Maia how much the contents of the box meant to Jase because the teenager was right beside him, anxiously watching his every move. He could only hope she would notice as she seemed so aware of every little nuance involving the boy.
”This is wonderful, Jase,” Maia said, warmth and enthusiasm spilling over into the room. ”Like discovering a treasure box. How ever did you know it was up there?”
Cole let his breath out. ”He managed to put up there when he was ten, right after he lost his mother.”
Maia looked up at the gruff note in Cole's voice. ”I'll be very careful going through it, Jase, don't worry.”
She slipped off the couch and sat tailor fas.h.i.+on on the floor beside the box. ”Do you remember what you put in here?”
Jase sank down beside her. ”Yeah. I never went up to the attic, although I thought about it a lot, but I was afraid the old man would catch me and throw it all out.” He glanced at Cole fearfully as if he might be revealing too much.
”That was smart,” Cole said. ”If he caught you, there would have been h.e.l.l to pay. While you're looking over what we have, why don't I fix us something to eat. How's the head feeling, Doc?” He needed her to look at him. He had to know Jase was safe with her, but he had to get out of the room before that box was opened.
His blue gaze met and clung to hers. Maia sat very still, letting the heat in his eyes wash through her. She saw into a part of him he tried so hard to hide. Ravaged. Damaged. A man struggling to overcome his own past in order to save a boy. She didn't want to see it because it only drew her deeper into the lives of the Steeles and she didn't want that. She'd disclosed too much to him already. Kissed him when she should have resisted. She ached for the boy he'd been and the man he'd become. ”A bit of a headache, nothing serious,” she answered.