10. Ten
Ten
Juliet
H enry looked so surprised by my apology that I started laughing, though maybe exhaustion, pain, and dehydration were taking their toll. It fizzed up inside me until I had to let go of the dog to clap a hand over my mouth.
All the while, he stared like he’d never seen me before.
I tried to bottle up the ridiculous giggles shooting out of me like champagne bubbles, but when his lips quirked, I let them run their course. To make the situation even more awkward, this all went down with his face mere inches from my own.
“Look, Henry, I don’t . . . dislike you,” I said when I finally caught my breath.
There was something soft in the green and gold depths of his eyes, though I couldn’t quite define it. Compassion? Pity? Forgiveness? Even when he snorted at my statement, that softness remained.
“That was very diplomatically worded, but I realize I haven’t given you much reason to like me just yet, so don’t worry about it.”
Henry pulled out his phone and slid his thumbs quickly across the screen before pocketing it again.
I’d have to find out what cell service he used.
His hands were large and capable, his strong forearms dusted with dark hair. There was nothing about him to indicate a life spent crunching numbers behind a desk—the woods seemed more like his natural environment.
It was strange I'd noticed so little about him before now, but aside from my initial impression of his romance novel attractiveness that first morning in his office, my focus had quickly shifted to his attitude.
“What brought you out to Cooper’s Point?” he asked.
The question dragged my attention back to his face, which was drawn in concentration as he wiped a spot of blood from my jaw. His touch was gentle, almost tender. The man was a study in contrasts. Whether it was the artist in me or just my semi-dormant libido, the stirrings of interest grew into a distant rumble.
“I went up there to draw. I’ve been planning to get sketches of all the locations Nan used for the paintings at the inn.” I frowned, the movement sending a streak of pain across my eyebrow. “My sketchbook is still up there, and my backpack. I have to go back to get them.”
Henry gave a startled laugh. “Not right now, you don’t. I’ll take care of it, after we get you sorted out. Did you lose consciousness at all after the fall? Any nausea?” he asked, studying me closely as he covered each of my eyes with his hand to check my pupils.
“No, I was just dizzy from rolling when I got to the bottom.” I looked at him quizzically. “Were you a Boy Scout or something?”
He grinned, that same devastating expression he’d flashed all too briefly at the inn. I wanted to blame my tumble down the hill for how my belly dipped, but I knew the fall wasn’t responsible.
It was all Henry.
“Or something,” he replied. “I was a bit of a daredevil as a kid, so I’ve had my share of concussion checks.”
An image of him as a child, climbing trees and swinging from monkey bars, popped unbidden into my head and I realized I wanted to learn more about him. When I opened my mouth to ask him to tell me, though, the words caught in my throat. I didn’t know what made me feel so awkward around him—if I had to guess, at that precise moment, it was probably his proximity.
I wondered idly what kind of cologne he wore that smelled so damn good, like salty sea air and ocean waves, but asking him now was definitely not going to reduce the tension between us.
Ultimately, I decided to keep my mouth shut.
Henry rummaged through his pouch for another gauze pad and squeezed some ointment onto it, then smeared it across my temple.
“There,” he said, finally satisfied. “That should hold you until we get into town. Where else are you hurt?”
He set his palms lightly on my shoulders and began squeezing in gentle pulses down my arms. I blinked at him, trying to ignore the shiver his hands activated along my spine.
“Um,” I said, then silently cursed myself for sounding like a moron. “My left wrist hurts but I don’t think it’s broken, and I banged my knee pretty hard on the way down. Everything else is just scratches and bruises, I think.”
If he noticed the tremor, he graciously pretended not to. After gently checking my injured wrist, one of his hands moved to my knee and the other to my ankle, bending and straightening the leg like I was a doll. The heat of his palm against my bare skin drew a gasp from my lips, which he must have mistaken for pain.
“Sorry, sorry. That’s one hell of a bruise, but I don’t think anything’s busted,” he said, flashing a quick, encouraging smile. “Do you think you can keep walking? We’re about a mile from my truck.”
“A mile? I’ve been walking forever. I thought the trail to the Point was only a mile, start to finish.”
“Oh, it is.” He leaned back on his heels as he studied me, then offered another disarming grin. “However, you followed the creek—which was smart, by the way, or you could’ve ended up anywhere in these woods—and the water meanders back and forth. You veered a good distance away from the trail. Fortunately for you, I know a shortcut.”
Thank god. I puffed out my cheeks on a long exhalation.
“Fantastic,” I muttered, attempting to rise gracefully to my feet as he did the same. My maneuver was a failure, though, so I had to catch my balance by grabbing his biceps even as I squeaked out, “Sorry.”
Was it possible to humiliate myself any more today than I already had?
His response was another slow curve of his lips, and when I snatched my hand back, he slid his arm around my waist to support the weight off of my injured knee.
From town jerk to knight in shining armor. The shift gave me whiplash.
I was still unsettled by the transformation, even if I had to admit that I enjoyed his smiles far more than his scowls.
As we walked, I focused so hard on not collapsing into him that I couldn’t manage small talk. Henry didn’t seem to mind the silence, though. He simply took as much of my weight as possible, given that I was determined to keep myself from relying too heavily on him, and kept quiet.
Blue started out padding along beside us, as though she needed to make sure I was okay, but eventually, Henry told her to go ahead and the dog took off. Every few minutes, she would retrace her steps to cock her head at us, then trot away again.
“She likes you,” Henry told me after the fourth or fifth time.
“Or she thinks I’m a clumsy idiot who can’t keep up,” I joked, a bit weakly. “Which, unfortunately, seems to be true.”
He shook his head, patiently helping me to hobble over a fallen branch. “She must’ve known you were up ahead. She took off like a bat out of hell. It’s lucky she didn’t obey my commands to come back or I never would've found you.”
The thought sent another shiver down my spine and, though I might have imagined it, it felt like his arm tightened around me ever so slightly. My sense of time was distorted, like the fall had jumbled my brain a bit, but maybe it was just that the sun was barely visible beyond the thick canopy of green leaves above us.
Every step sent sharp pain radiating outward from my kneecap. I didn’t want Henry to think I was any more helpless than he already must, but before long, the pain started making me dizzy. I swayed suddenly and Henry swore under his breath. When I tried to apologize, my mouth couldn’t quite form the words.
It didn’t matter anyway, because his next move shocked me into silence.
He swept an arm under my knees and lifted me easily against his chest before I could even consider a protest. The world spun like a kaleidoscope before my eyes, so I squeezed them shut, breathing in the fresh scent of him.
“I’m too heavy. You don’t have to . . ." I trailed off, realizing he probably did, in fact, have to. Otherwise, we’d be out there until nightfall.
“Relax,” he said, his voice low and gentle again. “I’ve got you. I grew up in these woods, but even I don’t want to be out here after the sun goes down. We’re almost there, anyway.”
My eyes were closed tight against the waves of dizziness crashing over me, so I could only hope he was right.
Good lord, he was even stronger than he looked, though I'd noticed his impressive biceps when I grabbed onto him before. Carrying me didn’t seem to slow him down one bit—in fact, when I cracked an eye open to see if the forest had stopped spinning, it was obvious he was moving faster while holding me than he had while helping me limp onward.
Before long, we were at the edge of the trees with Blue running in excited circles around us. This was not the paved parking lot where I'd left my car, but a narrow gravel pull-off along the road. Henry's white truck was the only vehicle in sight.
“You can put me down,” I croaked.
Henry merely snorted in response. I wanted to argue, but I was drained, both physically and emotionally. He set me carefully to my feet only once we reached the passenger side of his truck, but he kept his arm around my waist to hold me upright while he opened the door. Blue jumped in and wagged her tail at us.
“Move over,” he told her, and she promptly got behind the wheel.
I laughed but looked at the pristine interior of the truck’s cab, then down at the dirt and blood adorning my outfit.
“I’m going to get your seat all dirty,” I warned him.
Henry nodded, his hazel eyes creasing at the corners as he smiled. They were a deep, mossy jade today, thanks to the green t-shirt that showed off every muscle in his arms, and that earlier softness still lingered.
“Yes, that does seem likely. Can you get in by yourself or do you need me to lift you?”
Very carefully, I hoisted myself onto the seat, trying to ignore the sudden heat of his hand on my hip as he helped me up.
“Thank you, Henry,” I said quietly, feeling like there was a whole lot more I needed to convey. The rest of it caught in my chest and my mouth snapped shut.
“You’re welcome, Juliet.”
The sound of my name from his lips hung in the air for a heartbeat before he closed the door and strode to the driver’s side. Blue wagged her tail and happily scooted into the narrow space between us when he got in. Henry ruffled the fur between her ears before shifting the truck into gear.
“First stop, medical attention.”
“I really don’t need medical attention,” I argued. “I’m fine.”
I frowned at his skeptical look, then flinched at the movement, and I could practically hear his eyes rolling back in his head.
“Look, I appreciate your hardy constitution, but I found you wandering in the woods, bleeding from the head. My ex is a doctor. She’ll meet us at the clinic in town and check you over before I take you home.”
With a sigh of resignation, I buckled my seatbelt and let him chauffeur me into Spruce Hill. My curiosity was piqued by the mention of an ex, as though it might shed light on his personal life. Blue swayed between our shoulders with each bump in the road and I closed my eyes to keep the blur of the passing trees from bringing on a fresh spell of dizziness.
The radio was set to some kind of alternative rock, and I made a mental note of it—one of the few things I knew about Henry. The list was painfully short.
Always prepared. Good with numbers. Kind to animals. Really freaking strong. Then, after a moment, I added, Smells like absolute heaven .
Aside from the whole clash of tempers upon our first meeting—and our second, and third—he was actually a pretty decent guy. He was tall, nearly a foot taller than me, and a bit on the lanky side. But damn . . . the way he had swept me into his arms.
If only I hadn’t been coated in crumpled leaves and bloodstains, it would've been a truly impressive image.
Before the truck even slowed, Blue’s whole rear end started wagging along with her tail, leading me to assume we were approaching the clinic. As if being found limping through the woods like that wasn’t enough humiliation for the day, now I would have to meet some stranger looking like—what had he said? An actor from a horror movie?
I reached up to surreptitiously smooth my hair back, plucking a leaf and a small twig from my disastrous curls in the process.
Henry pulled up in front of the clinic, a modern little building right on the main road through town. Blue jumped out the driver’s side door after him, but before I could even unbuckle my seatbelt, Henry opened the door and reached in to help me.
“My arms are fully functional,” I snapped at him, though my fingers were moving too sluggishly to press the release button before he got to it.
“So is your mouth,” he shot back, using the same sarcastic tone I recalled from our first meeting.
Flecks of gold mingled with the green cast in his eyes as he paused, our faces only a few inches apart. We glared at each other for the space of a few breaths, then a grudging smile tugged at his lips.
“If I don’t get you inside, Libby is going to march out here and demand to know what’s taking so long. You don’t want to get on her bad side, trust me.”
I conceded, allowing him to slip his arm around my lower back so I could slide down to solid ground. A dull throb had formed beneath the cut on my temple and, though I would never admit it to him, I was grateful for his support as we made our way slowly toward the giant glass door of the building.
Blue let out an excited woof and circled us several times, then sat in front of the door with an expectant look on her face. Even in a small town like this, I couldn’t imagine the dog would be allowed inside a medical office, but Blue seemed to know the drill better than I would.
Just before we reached the door, it slid open to reveal an exquisitely beautiful woman with dark, upswept curls. Her eyes were a deep, warm brown that glinted with good humor.
“Well then, what have you brought me this time, Henry?” she asked.
Surveying the two of us, she slipped her hand into the pocket of her lab coat and tossed some kind of treat to Blue, who snatched it expertly from the air. The doctor’s scrutiny was as intense as Henry's, scouring me from head to toe. With immense effort, I managed not to squirm.
“Found this lost waif wandering in the woods. She took a spill down the ravine at Cooper’s Point,” he told her. “She must have been bleeding pretty good from the cut on her forehead, but it had stopped by the time I found her. No nausea or loss of consciousness, though she got dizzy during the hike back to the truck. Banged up the right knee, sore left wrist. Damn lot of scratches but I ran out of gauze before I could clean anything except her forehead.”
I didn’t miss the swift look of shock that crossed Libby’s face when he mentioned the ravine. It wasn’t quite the horror of Henry’s reaction, but as a doctor, Libby probably had more practice schooling her expression.
Ahh, what a way to make a reputation for myself.
I fought a grimace. The woman who tumbled down the ravine—just lovely. So much better than being known as the unexpected heiress.
“It’s a good thing you found her, then,” Libby said after a beat of silence, her lips curving into a smile. She held out a hand. “I’m Henry's ex-wife, Dr. Elizabeth Bardot, but please, call me Libby.”
“Juliet Morrison. Nice to meet you.”
I took her hand with a weak smile. Libby’s grip was warm and strong. One of her dark brows quirked upward.
“I imagine it might have been nicer to meet under better circumstances, but welcome to Spruce Hill, nevertheless.”
Henry told Blue to stay put—and, to my surprise, the dog promptly obeyed—while he helped me inside. The clinic was bright and cheery, decorated in vibrant colors, but clearly closed for the night. We made a slow procession to an exam room.
Before I could protest, Henry placed his hands on either side of my waist to lift me onto the exam table. I glared at him, but his only response was a wink and that adorable half smile.
“I’ll take Blue home while you two, ah . . ." He trailed off, waving his hand vaguely in the air toward my injuries. “I’ll be back soon.”
Libby kissed his cheek, causing him to roll his eyes goodnaturedly. I lifted my hand in a brief wave and Henry inclined his head in my direction before swiftly exiting the room.
“All right then,” Libby said, smiling brightly. “Let’s have a look, shall we?”